It’s not uncommon for vision to weaken with age, especially at night. However, if your own diminishing vision makes it difficult to drive at night, you can’t let the problem go untreated. Driving at night is challenging even under the best circumstances; sudden glares of light from cars, street lamps, and traffic signals force the eyes to constantly adjust to new levels of light with only split seconds in between. This places strain on the eyes, and many people find that their daytime vision remains strong while their nighttime vision starts to become compromised. The good news is that the solution to poor night vision might be as simple as glasses, but only a Board Certified ophthalmologist or optometrist can tell for sure.
Vision in the Dark
The eyes actually work by sensing light with two different types of cells called rods and cones. While cones thrive in strong sunlight, rods prefer low light. This means that as the rods weaken with age or due to another health condition, your night vision will suffer. In addition, since the eyes contain fewer rod cells than cone cells, and since the light receptors within rods can’t regenerate as rapidly, seeing at night, especially while driving, can become challenging.
Age Makes It Worse
Aging eyes become weaker in a few different ways, all of which make driving at night difficult. First, the pupils shrink and can’t dilate as wide in the dark, which consistently limits the amount of light that can enter the eye. This can make older drivers feel like they are driving at night with sunglasses on. Furthermore, the cornea and lens become fogged with age, in turn causing light to scatter inside the eye and increase the glare received from bright lights.
Get the Help You Need
Since all of these changes occur gradually, you may not even notice that driving at night has become significantly more challenging than it was 20 years ago. You might even test well in your eye doctor’s office since basic tests don’t account for the poor lighting and complex visual tasks involved in night driving. Take a minute to evaluate how everything looks next time you drive at night. Do you see orbs around headlights or struggle to distinguish between objects ahead of you? Is there a noticeable amount of glare around you?
All of these are signs that you need to head to The Eye Clinic of Florida to have your night vision evaluated. Doctor Ahad Mahootchi, MD has been ranked as Pasco’s Best Eye Surgeon for the last 4 years, so you know you will be in good hands. Dr. Mahootchi will help get to the root of your night vision problems and prescribe the best solution, whether it be correcting astigmatism Trulign or performing LASIK surgery. Give him a call today at 813-779-3338 to make your first appointment and be on your way to safer, easier nighttime driving.