Content

• Steps
• Part 1 of 4: Improving your ability to see in the dark
• Part 2 of 4: Protecting and Improving Vision
• Part 3 of 4: Changing your diet
• Part 4 of 4: Getting Medical Help

It doesn't really matter if you want to infiltrate the secret ninja base at midnight or just safely return home from work at night, improving your night vision is the result of training, maintaining a healthy lifestyle and protecting your eyes from harm.

Steps

Part 1 of 4: Improving your ability to see in the dark

1. 1 Use your sticks. Photoreceptors, called rods, take 30 to 45 minutes to adjust to the change in lighting around you. The rods only perceive black and white colors and give a low definition image, but they are extremely sensitive at night.
   • Photosensitive pigments are light-sensitive substances that are found in photoreceptors (rods and cones) and transmit a visible image to your brain. Rhodopsin is a visual pigment found in rods and is responsible for night vision.
   • The ability of your eyes to adapt to darkness depends on a few things that you cannot control, such as your age, previous eye injuries or damage, and any existing eye conditions.
   • To see in the dark, you need to know how to increase the sensitivity of your sticks and make your eyes adapt more quickly to sudden changes in lighting.
   • In dim lighting, do not look directly into the light source. This is how you use your rods, not the cones, which are activated when the eyes are turned into a dim light source. This technique is often used by astronomers.
2. 2 Wear dark or red tinted glasses. Sticks are insensitive to red light, so wearing these glasses for 20-30 minutes before entering the darkness will help you quickly distinguish movement inside.
   • By blocking out the entire visible spectrum except for red, these glasses will allow your wands to adapt to darkness before you actually get into it.
   • This method is used by pilots when they do not have time to be in absolute darkness and "adjust" their vision before a night flight.
3. 3 Do not look directly into the light source. Light sources will cause your pupils to contract, thereby impairing your night vision.
   • The pupil is similar to the diaphragm of a camera: it contracts and expands depending on the amount of light entering the eye. The brighter the light, the narrower the pupil becomes. In low light conditions, your pupil will dilate a lot to absorb as much light as possible.
   • Looking directly at the light source increases the time it takes for your eyes to adjust to low light.
   • If you can't completely avoid bright light, close one eye or look away until the light source is out of sight.
4. 4 Improve your night vision while driving. Before getting in your car, take steps to improve your vision for night driving.
   • As mentioned above, try not to look directly into the approaching light source.If another vehicle jumps out of a corner with the high beam headlights on, close one eye to prevent temporary loss of vision in both eyes and quickly return to normal night vision.
   • Look at the white stripe to the right on your side of the road. This will allow you to maintain a safe direction of travel, notice moving objects with peripheral vision, but avoid the blinding high beam of oncoming cars.
   • Reduce the intensity of the dashboard lighting to a low but safe level to help your vision when driving at night. Also use night mode on your rearview mirrors. This will reduce glare from vehicles following you.
   • Wash your headlights, wipers and windshield regularly. At night, spots on your windshield can become bright light sources.
   • Perform timely maintenance on your vehicle, including adjusting your headlights and fog lights. Even a slight shift of one or two degrees of headlights can protect other drivers from vision problems as a result of your headlights.
5. 5 Let your eyes get used to the dark. The best way to learn to see in the dark is to let your eyes slowly adapt to the darkness by staying in absolute darkness for 20-30 minutes.
   • To get used to the dark even faster, wear a sleep mask before entering a darkened area, or close your eyes and close your eyes with your hands so that they can adjust.
   • Try wearing a pirate headband. If you block one eye from the light for 20-30 minutes, then by the time you enter a dark room, that eye will get used to the darkness.
6. 6 Use peripheral vision. Each of your eyes has natural blind spots, which makes it much more difficult to navigate in the dark if you are trying to focus your gaze.
   • As you move through a dark space, try to focus your gaze on the edge of an object or slightly away from the direction of your movement. This will allow your peripheral vision to identify the movement and shape of an object much better than if you were trying to see it directly.
   • Peripheral vision employs more rods, which are key for orientation in the dark, defining the shape of an object, and detecting movement.
7. 7 Go down to see silhouettes and use a contrast effect. Remember that your sticks are color-blind and color-blind, but they are your guide in the dark.
   • The night sky is a source of light. If you're low enough, light from the night sky or from a window provides enough contrast to make it easier for the sticks to work in your eyes.
   • Some martial arts teach to stay as low as possible, using the sky as a source of light to detect objects and opponents - namely, to distinguish their silhouettes against the sky.
   • Although rods are more sensitive to light than cones, they can only distinguish between black and white and produce a low quality image using the contrast of the object and the light source behind it.
8. 8 Massage the eyeballs gently. Close your eyes firmly and press lightly on them with your palms.
   • After about 5-10 seconds, the surrounding darkness will turn white for a few seconds. When black replaces whiteness again, open your eyes and you will see much better in the dark.
   • They say that special forces soldiers use a similar technique - once in the dark, they tightly shut their eyes for 5-10 seconds. Although the effectiveness of this method has not been proven by the scientific community, it can still help someone.
9. 9 Use all your senses to "see." Step carefully in the dark until your eyes become accustomed to the darkness.
   • Keep both feet on the ground, extend your arms forward, and move slowly. Watch closely for changes in sound, which could indicate the presence of a door, hallway, or window nearby.Move your hands in front of you to avoid hitting a tree or doorframe.
10. 10 Learn to navigate by sound. Researchers have made great strides in working with blind people. They have developed the ability to perform clicking sounds with their tongue, called click sonar. It is similar to the sonar used by bats.
    • Using snapping sonar, you can accurately locate objects in front of you and around you. An experiment was conducted in which a woman made clicking sounds with her tongue to “scan” the space in front of her until she could find a saucepan held by another person. With a couple of extra clicks, she was able to identify the type and shape of the lid on the pot.
    • Another specialist in snapping sonar is able to ride a mountain bike over rough terrain and avoid obstacles without any problems.
    • Snapping sonar experts claim that everyone can develop this ability.

Part 2 of 4: Protecting and Improving Vision

1. 1 Wear sunglasses during the daytime. Several hours of exposure to bright sunlight and ultraviolet light can impair your ability to adapt to darkness.
   • Every 2–3 hours spent in the bright sun during the daytime without sunglasses will slow your adaptability to darkness by about 10 minutes.
   • In addition to slow adaptation to darkness, the quality of night vision also decreases. For example, 10 days of exposure to bright sunlight without eye protection can reduce your ability to see in the dark by 50%.
   • Over time, your rods, cones, and light-sensitive pigments will return to normal. The duration of their recovery is different for each person.
   • Use sunglasses with neutral gray lenses that allow 15% of visible light to pass through.
2. 2 Decrease the brightness of your computer screen. If you are working at night, set the brightness of the monitor to the minimum level.
   • If you are in a dark room but staring at a bright screen, your night vision performance will be significantly reduced. By lowering the brightness, you can see better in the dark.
   • Some programs adjust the screen brightness based on the time of day.
3. 3 Rest your eyes regularly. Take frequent breaks while sitting in front of a monitor, reading texts on paper, or intensely focusing on something else for a long time.
   • Rest your eyes often. After every 20 minutes of intense work, especially in front of a computer screen, take a break and stare into the distance for 20 seconds. This will allow your eyes to refocus.
   • Rest your eyes for 15 minutes after every two hours of working in front of a computer screen or other activity that requires intense gaze.
   • Don't let your eyes get tired by taking a 5-10 minute nap in the middle of the day. Close your eyes and massage gently. It is not necessary to fall asleep to rest your eyes.
4. 4 Quit smoking. Most people know that smoking carries many health risks, including the risk of lung cancer and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, but few know that it can also lead to serious eye disease and even blindness. Nicotine can reduce the production of rhodopsin in the eyes, a pigment needed for vision in the dark.
   • If you quit smoking, your night vision can be restored.
5. 5 Train your peripheral vision. Using peripheral vision is critical to improving your ability to see in low-light areas.
   • Peripheral vision is your ability to notice movement at the edge of your visual field using the sticks in your eyes.
   • Developing peripheral vision is an effective way to see better in low light.
   • While training your peripheral vision takes a lot of time and effort for most people, it will help you see much better in the dark.
   • By doing eye exercises to improve your vision (including peripheral vision), you will begin to see better in the dark.
6. 6 Try an exercise that is often used in sports training. Improving peripheral vision is beneficial in many situations, including sports.
   • For this exercise, you will need a regular, straight, monochrome drinking straw. Mark the middle of the straw and draw a black stripe around it.
   • Give the straw to your partner and stand 30–60 cm away from her, taking a toothpick in each hand. Your partner should hold the straw horizontally.
   • Looking at the black line, notice the ends of the straw with your peripheral vision.
   • Concentrate on the black line. Try inserting toothpicks into the holes on either end of the straw while keeping your eyes on the black line.
   • Once you have filled your hand, you can increase the difficulty of the exercise by using two straws connected to each other.
7. 7 Focus on peripheral vision. Another way to develop peripheral vision to improve night vision is to focus on it and use it more often in daylight.
   • Sit somewhere in a quiet place, preferably outside, where you can observe many different things. Focus on one object directly in front of you.
   • Make a mental list of everything that you see around you, both moving objects and stationary ones, without taking your eyes off the selected central object. Look away and look around to see what you might have missed. Make a mental note of how far from the center you could recognize things around you.
   • Repeat this exercise, but in a different place, and try to expand the area within which you are able to recognize the surrounding objects.

Part 3 of 4: Changing your diet

1. 1 Consume more vitamin A. One of the first symptoms of vitamin A deficiency is night blindness (or night blindness).
   • Even in ancient Egypt, it was discovered that to treat night blindness, you need to include in your diet the liver, which, as was later found, contains a large amount of vitamin A.
   • A lack of vitamin A causes the surface of the cornea to become very dry, which in turn leads to clouding in the front of the eye, ulcers on the surface of the cornea, loss of vision, and damage to the retina and problems with the mucous membrane of the eye.
   • Foods such as carrots, broccoli, pumpkin, melon, fish, liver, fortified cereals, dairy products, cabbage, blueberries, and apricots are excellent sources of vitamin A.
   • While increasing your intake of vitamin A-rich foods may be beneficial, research in this area has shown that dietary supplements provide significantly more vitamin A. Moreover, excessive consumption of these foods will not improve your vision.
   • Vitamin A can be purchased as a tablet or capsule, and the dose is indicated in micrograms or medical units. The average recommended dose of vitamin A for an adult is 800–1000 mcg, or 2600–3300 IU per day.
   • The protein rhodopsin, which is in the eyeball, breaks down into retinal and opsin when exposed to light and is synthesized back in the dark. Acute vitamin A deficiency can lead to night blindness, but additional vitamin A will not improve vision.
2. 2 Increase your intake of dark green and leafy vegetables. When it comes to improving night vision and vision per se through nutrition, certain vegetables will be the most beneficial.
   • Collard greens, spinach, and kale are rich in nutrients that protect the eyes by filtering out certain light waves that can damage the retina of the eye.
   • These foods also protect the eyes from certain degenerative processes, such as age-related macular degeneration.
3. 3 Eat more healthy fats. In particular, eat more foods that contain omega-3 fatty acids.
   • Omega-3 fatty acids are found in fish, especially fatty varieties such as salmon and tuna, as well as kale, vegetable oils, nuts (particularly walnuts), flax seeds, flaxseed oil, and leafy vegetables.
   • Omega-3 fatty acids fight macular degeneration and help maintain eye health, good vision, and dryness.
   • In one study, patients who ate fatty fish once a week had a half-fold reduction in their risk of developing neovascular macular degeneration. If you consume enough omega-3 fatty acids for an extended period (more than 12 years), the risk of developing this disease will decrease even more.
4. 4 Eat blueberries. Blueberry is a plant that is used in a variety of preparations.
   • Research has shown that blueberries may have some effect on retinal-related eye problems.
   • The most promising research supports the use of blueberries in cases associated with retinal changes in diabetes and high blood pressure.
   • Blueberries are believed to improve night vision, although research results are conflicting. Some evidence suggests that blueberries have a positive effect on improving night vision, while others do not support these claims.
   • Recent estimates say blueberries are "probably ineffective" for improving night vision.
   • Fresh blueberries are sold in summer, while frozen berries, jam or preserves, or blueberry extract can be purchased in other seasons as a dietary supplement. Follow the directions on the package to figure out how much blueberries you should consume per day.
5. 5 Drink plenty of fluids. The surface of the eye is 98% water. Dry eyes are caused by dehydration, which makes it difficult for you to see in the dark.
   • Drinking enough water is very important for overall health, although the direct link between fluid intake and improved vision is controversial.
   • Some ophthalmologists claim that certain circumstances that negatively affect the level of water balance in the body can lead to impaired vision and overall eye health.
   • For example, high temperatures, low humidity climates, or intense sunlight can cause the basal layer to lose its function due to dehydration, adversely affecting your vision.
   • To maintain the health of your eyes, follow the recommended water intake. Try to drink at least 2 liters daily. Depending on the intensity of work and environmental factors, this figure may differ.

Part 4 of 4: Getting Medical Help

1. 1 See your optometrist. Day and night vision care includes consultation with an ophthalmologist and / or optometrist. Most doctors recommend getting a check-up once a year to make sure your vision hasn't changed significantly.
   • If you cannot see well in natural light, then you will not see well at night. Make an appointment with your doctor and ask about your night vision.
   • Make sure prescription lenses or glasses are appropriate for your current needs. Your vision changes naturally over time, so you may need a new prescription.
2. 2 Keep your eyes hydrated. Talk to your doctor about possible dry eye problems.
   • Healthy, moisturized and relaxed eyes see much better, while tired and dry eyes have a harder time picking up movement in low light.
   • Try to rest your eyes and keep an eye on their moisture. Blink more often, especially when you have to stare at the screen of a computer, laptop, e-book, or TV.
   • If your eyes tend to dry out, get over-the-counter eye drops to help reduce redness and moisturize your eyes.You can also consult with your doctor about prescription eye care products that can help relieve dryness.
3. 3 Talk to your optometrist if you have any specific concerns. During a routine examination, your doctor may not ask about your night vision.
   • Be sure to describe the problems you have with your night vision. Although many vision changes are associated with age, some cases may be related to latent diseases that lead to visual impairment.
   • Examples of diseases and conditions that lead to changes in vision are cataracts, macular degeneration, astigmatism, glaucoma, senile hyperopia, and myopia and hyperopia.
4. 4 Find out if the cause of your visual impairment lies in the presence of a medical condition. See a therapist to evaluate you for possible health problems. Certain medical conditions and medications can lead to vision problems.
   • These conditions include diabetes, migraines, infections, glaucoma, stroke, sudden changes in blood pressure, or sudden injury such as a head injury.
5. 5 Pay attention to the medications you are taking. In addition to diseases, there are many drugs, one of the side effects of which is visual impairment.
   • The most prominent examples of drugs that can change vision include muscle relaxants (cyclobenzaprine), diuretics (hydrochlorothiazide), and drugs used for seizures, headaches, and mood changes (topiramate).
   • Never change your medication schedule yourself. If you experience any visual impairment that your medications may have caused, talk with your doctor about a possible dosage change or drug switch that will help with your condition but will not adversely affect your vision.