A new European study of night-time driving reveals that motorists adopt some not-so-obvious – and potentially unsafe – strategies for tackling headlight dazzle from their interior or exterior rear view mirrors.

To combat it, a small number of motorists wear sunglasses.

Curiously, twice as many British drivers (9.2%) were likely to use this method compared with drivers from France (5.4%) or Germany (5.1%), according to the survey of more than 3,000 motorists questioned by TÜV Rheinland.

Other common practices include squinting (44%) or blocking the glare with their hand (21%).

A small number (1.8%) would block the glare with whatever they were holding at the time.