Devices

Nasal Strips and Glasses

Overnight, irrelevant. During the day, the nose pads land almost exactly where the strip sits, and there is no elegant solution.

For the overwhelming majority of people this is a non-question: you take your glasses off to sleep, and nasal strips are a sleep product.

It matters for daytime use — congestion during a cold, allergy season, or exercise.

Why they conflict

A nasal strip sits across the soft sidewalls of the nose, roughly a centimetre above where the nostrils flare. Spectacle nose pads sit on the sides of the nose slightly higher, near the transition from bone to cartilage.

Those two zones are close, and on many faces they overlap. Three consequences:

The pads sit on the strip, which is unstable — the strip surface is smoother than skin and the glasses slide.

The pads compress the spring, reducing the dilation you are wearing it for.

The pads work the edge loose, and a strip with a lifted edge is on its way off.

What actually helps

Place the strip lower. You usually have a few millimetres of latitude downward before running out of soft tissue. Moving down puts more clearance under the pads. Do not go so low that the strip crowds the nostril flare.

Adjust the nose pads outward and upward if your frames have adjustable pads. A short visit to an optician does this in a couple of minutes and is worth more than any product change.

Use a smaller strip. Less vertical coverage means less overlap with the pad zone. Sizing.

Choose frames that sit differently. Saddle-bridge frames, which distribute weight across the bridge rather than on pads, conflict more. Frames with high, adjustable pads conflict least.

Wear contacts on the days it matters, if you have them. Blunt but effective.

The better answer for daytime

If you need nasal dilation during the day and wear glasses, an internal nasal dilator removes the conflict entirely. It sits inside the nostrils, so there is nothing on the outside of your nose for the pads to interfere with.

Daytime is also when the tolerability problem with dilators matters least — you are awake, you can adjust it, and you are not wearing it for eight unconscious hours. The comparison.

For many glasses-wearers this is the practical resolution: strips at night, a dilator during the day if needed.

Sunglasses and sport

Same geometry, and sports frames often grip more tightly, which makes it worse. If you use a strip for exercise and wear sports sunglasses, expect the strip to lift.

The dilator answer applies here too, and has the additional advantage of being invisible.

And the usual caveat

None of this matters if a strip is not helping you in the first place. Pull the cheek outward beside a nostril and breathe in — if that changes nothing, no strip and no dilator will help, and the obstruction is elsewhere. What to do then.

Common questions

Can you wear nasal strips with glasses?
Overnight it is irrelevant since glasses come off. During the day the nose pads sit close to where the strip goes, so they can compress the spring and work the edge loose.
How do I stop my glasses interfering with a nasal strip?
Place the strip slightly lower, have an optician adjust the nose pads outward and upward, or use a smaller strip with less vertical coverage.
What is the best option for daytime nasal dilation if I wear glasses?
An internal nasal dilator, which sits inside the nostrils and leaves the outside of your nose clear for the nose pads.
Do sports sunglasses affect nasal strips?
More than regular frames, because they usually grip more tightly. An internal dilator avoids the problem and is also invisible.
Do glasses reduce how well a nasal strip works?
They can. Nose pads resting on the strip compress the spring, which reduces the dilation you are wearing it for.