How to improve night vision while driving’ is one of the grave questions for everyone who finds it difficult to drive at night. It can be due to their poor vision at night. Your vision can be poor at night due to various reasons including:
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Shortening of days with the arrival of winters
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Early decrease in sunlight during the winter season
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Worsening of eyesight with age
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Late adjustment of eyes from bright to dim lights
Some of the common signs causing trouble while driving at night
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Problem in seeing markings on the lane
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Problem in vision due to oncoming headlights
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Problem in judging speed and distances
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Problem in seeing signs on the street
Due to all these reasons, one has to drive slowly at night to avoid any unwanted situations like clashes and accidents, etc. So, to make it easier to drive at night you can improve your vision by following some tips provided here under.
Tips to improve night vision while driving
Clean the mirrors and windows of your vehicle
Your vision at night can be affected more due to your dirty windshield. During the day you may not notice its dirtiness but at night it may cause glare. According to experts, grime and dirt build up on your headlights can also affect your driving at night. So you should check your headlight and windshield regularly to keep them clean to improve your night vision. You can also polish the covers and upgrade bulbs of the headlights for this purpose.
Dim the lights on your dashboard
Sometimes you are distracted from the road due to bright lights form the instrument panel and dashboard of your car. You should dim all such lights to have a better focus on the road. You can also use night mode if it is necessary to use GPS navigation at night.
Use the rearview mirror with night settings
In order to reduce the glare and brightness of the headlights behind you, rearview mirrors that have night settings can be used to improve your vision at night.
Avoid looking on headlights of oncoming vehicles
According to experts, your visibility can be temporarily affected at night when you stare at the bright light coming from the headlight of the oncoming vehicle. It is better to focus on lane markings on the right or look ahead straight instead of looking directly on the headlights of the oncoming traffic to maintain the quality of your vision. Moreover, it becomes difficult to adjust the vision from bright to dim light at night as we age.
Decrease the speed of your car
If you are having visibility problem while driving at night then you can increase the distance from the vehicle in front of you by reducing the speed of your car.
Avoid wearing yellow tinted glasses
It is supposed that yellow tinted glasses can improve your night vision along with reducing the glare of oncoming lights. But you cannot rely on them as no scientific evidence is available in this regard till today. Actually, it becomes harder to see through yellow tinted glasses as they reduce the amount of light entering into your eyes. Experts suggest wearing glasses with anti-reflective coating to preventing the bouncing of light around your inside lenses.
Wear red-tinted glasses to improve night vision
Red tinted glasses are commonly used by aviators when they have to fly at night but have no time to adjust their eyes perfectly to the darkness. Red glasses can help in improving the focus of your eyes in a low light environment in a better way. Similarly, a map will look sharper if you use a red flashlight to read it.
Keep moving your eyes
Instead of staring at an object you should keep your eyes moving at night so that they can be familiar to the source of light coming from the point on which you want to focus. You will be able to see better in the dark if you scan the area with your dancing eyes. In order to avoid the effect of night vision cells in your eyes, you should keep blinking them.
Massage your eyes gently
In order to improve your vision while driving at night, you should gently massage your eyes fleshy part of your palm for 5-10 seconds after closing them tightly. After this massage, you will start seeing white instead of black, for a few moments. You will get a better vision in the dark when the white vision will change into the black after opening your eyes.
Schedule an annual examination of your eyes
According to experts, an annual examination of the eyes is also important to maintain their overall health along with improving their vision at night. Your eye-care doctor will check the condition of your eyes and prescribe the required treatments for the problems causing poor vision at night.
Eat some healthy food
Apart from the ways discussed in this write-up to improve your night vision while driving your car, you can also eat some healthy foods to improve your vision at night. These food items may include:
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Vitamin A: Your vision can improve by eating vitamin A rich foods like carrots, dark green leafy vegetables, lettuce, tomatoes, potatoes, liver, dairy products, squash, and broccoli, etc. All these vitamin A rich foods can help in improving the level of light absorbing protein, rhodopsin, in the retina.
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Green and yellow vegetables: They are rich in lutein and zeaxanthin, carotenoid antioxidants, to help in destroying free radicals in your body.
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Shellfish and fish: Most fish including sardines, salmon, herring and codfish as well as shellfish and oysters are an excellent source of a number of nutrients like omega 3-fatty acids, vitamin A, DHA, and zinc which together help in improving your vision at night
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Foods rich in anthocyanin: It has been roved through various studies that anthocyanin-rich foods like bilberries etc. can help in fighting against the blindness at night as they help in improving the level of purple pigment in your eyes.
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Foods rich in lecithin, sulfur, and cysteine: All these ingredients can help in protecting your eyes from the formation of cataract which is one of the main causes of blindness at night.
Thus, there are a number of ways, briefly discussed in this write-up, which can help you in improving the night vision while driving.
