Tips on Improving Your Night Vision When Driving

During the winter months it gets dark earlier and many people find it difficult to drive and stay as aware. Other than keeping your eyewear prescriptions up to date with regular eye exams and actually wearing any prescribed eyewear that you are supposed to, as well as keeping your eyes open while driving, there are several little things you can do to try and improve you night vision.

On the car itself you can make sure of a few things to help improve your driving vision First, and possibly most obvious, is to clean off the windshield; wipe it down inside and out t make sure your line of vision is not obstructed by clots of dirt or kamikaze bug splatters. You should also adjust your mirrors to eliminate reflected glares. The center rear view can be flipped to the night setting and the side mirrors can be adjusted so that they do not reflect as much of the trailing vehicles lights into your eyes. Also, be sure to dim the lights on the inside console panels of your vehicle. The darker it is within the car the better you will be able to see things outside of the car.

Some exercises and tips one can practice before driving are things like: wearing sunglasses and a hat during the day. Exposure to the sun diminishes the adaptation rate that the eye will have when adjusting to darkness, therefore if you are preparing yourself for a long nighttime trek, you may want to try keeping the sun out of those eyes as much as possible beforehand. When choosing your sunglasses you should probably opt for ones with antireflective coating on them. It is also common knowledge, well amongst those who know, that yellow tinted “blue-blocker” style lenses will actually worsen your night vision. Some people like to take vitamins for their health and specifically choosing ones such as Vitamin A to improve your eyes my help in advancing the improvement of your night vision. Another tip you can imply when stopping driving for gas, is to close one eye while doing the pumping. This in theory will help you get less exposure to the neon lights or an other surrounding flares of illuminating that may set back your adaptation to the dark. You won’t have to worry about getting back into the car and having both eyes completely reset and needing to adjust.

One final piece of advice to help you while driving at night is to never look directly into the lights of oncoming traffic. I know, the temptation to just stare into them like a bug into a bug light is there, but it will work better for you if you look away. Perhaps focus more on the white lines of the road to avoid the full glaring impact of the headlights.