This Easy Trick Will Keep Your Glasses From Getting Foggy While Wearing a Mask

We’re all doing our best to follow official recommendations from the CDC to keep ourselves and others safe right now. That includes wearing a mask any time you need to run an essential errand or just take a leisurely stroll around the neighborhood. For those of us who also need to wear glasses in order to get around, however, that can cause a problem with our lenses constantly getting fogged up.

Luckily, there’s an easy solution sitting next to your bathroom sink. Yep, according to an article published by medical professionals in the Annals of The Royal College of Surgeons of England, washing your glasses with soapy water, shaking off the excess suds, and letting them air dry or gently drying them off with a soft tissue will help prevent your breath from fogging up lenses. 

“Washing the spectacles with soapy water leaves behind a thin surfactant film that reduces this surface tension and causes the water molecules to spread out evenly into a transparent layer,” the article explains. That basically means that the soap creates a barrier between any mist that could accumulate from the moisture of your breath. This can work even when you’re not wearing a mask, like when you open up a warm oven or walk out into cold winter air.

The article was initially intended for surgical staff who need to wear glasses with their masks, but can certainly come in handy for the rest of us now, too. Another thing to look out for is making sure your mask is fitting your face properly. If you can, find one that is snug on the top of your nose but allows air to circulate through the bottom area rather than up toward the lenses. 

As a bespeckled person myself, I gave the soapy water trick a shot before running my last errand — and it totally worked! My glasses had previously fogged up within seconds, but didn’t so much as get a little misty this time. 

Now you don’t need to worry about sacrificing your vision to keep yourself and others safe!