NOAH AOC

New to site..I have extreme change in vision from daylight to night driving. Where I work I am sometimes required to drive at night..I have asked to be excused from this and have stated reason..but I am treated as if I am trying to get out of doing my share of driving. One person told me that my night vision problems would be "cured" by yellow lenses. Don't have a clue how to approach the situation at this point. Any ideas?

Marte,

Most people with albinism have good night time vision - but a few find that everything is black.

Some PWA have had Lasik eye surgery which often causes "halo-ing" problems at night.

On the other hand your eye might just decide to require a different refractive correction in low light. Check out how well you can see something familiar in both daylight and in the evening. Look at it from 2 ft away and 20 ft away.

Is your evening vision bad at both distances - or can you still see the near object just as well as in daylight. Tell the results to your eye Doc.

Brian

Marte,

I am not sure what you mean by "night vision problems". I would say my "vision" at night is pretty good, but I find night driving much more challenging than daytime driving. The main problem is depth perception. Folks with albinism rely heavily on relative size and postion of objects to determine distance/depth. With darkness all around, distances are much harder to estimate. This is why I keep a greater following distance at night- it is hard to tell exactly how far ahead tail lights of other cars are located.

Another complication of night driving- especially in a city like Nashville- is glare. Street lights, headlights on curvy roads, and poorly aligned headlights of oncoming cars all confuse the visual terrain. Many fully sighted drivers have these complaints as well.

I drive at night to/from work and on other familiar paths, but my trips are much more limited than during daytime. Rainy nights are nearly impossible in unfamiliar territory.

So, I think you should stand your ground about night driving if possible. Otherwise, don't be afraid to go a little slower than usual. This gives your eyes a little longer to adjust to lighting conditions and search for critical objects. Slow drivers are certainly not uncommon around Nashville.

Sam

Thank you for the information. Much appreciated.

They didn't even allow me to drive at night, I must be off the roads at sunset, it's so annoying in winter... x.x

Nate I am a PWA and have had my license (for both day and night driving) in both Ohio and New York.  I understand what you're saying about seeing at night.  I find that I do go slower at night because I can't judge as well how far away things are as I can during the day.  I as well do not go out nearly as much during the night as I do the day.  I feel that my vision is drawn too much to focus on the headlights.  I find this near impossable at night in the rain.  As was said this happens with normal sighted people too.  I would just drive slower, if need be put on your hazzard lights to let people know you're driving slower, if you are going that slow.  You'd rather arrive safe. 

i hate winters..

because i cant drive at night..and in winters,sun sets 2 hours early

due to headlights of comming vehicles,i cant see anything what is goin on in front of me..

for example,i cant see cyclist or pedestrian or pole in front of me when headlights of comming vehiches falls in my eyes

 

i drive bike at night by following some car goin in front of me..thats a good technique to drive at night..

just follow any car going in front of u

Something else that I have found that helps with oncoming headlights is to focus my eyes on the right curb (outside of the US it would be the left) or shoulder or whatever, and use peripheral vision.  Depth perception still reeks, but I don't get blinded for nearly as long. 

This also works well when dealing with thunderstorms, though the timing can get tricky.

 

Different people use different colours to see better, from what I have observed.  There seems to be no "cure" colour, though saying there is may free your co-workers from having to think about it seriously.

--Coyote

in the state I got my license in you couldn't drive over 45 and not at night for the first year then if no accidents they did a road test at night on the interstate with a trooper and if you passed you would get all restrictions except the bioptic taken off.  Which I did.  Definately judging how far things are away is harder at night so I keep my distance further back.  Also my driving glasses are tinted at the top close to the bioptic a little to help with some of the glare and I also when headlights are coming near me look more to the right side and it does help with the glare.  You might want to try that.  But I only drive at night if I know where I am going.  I don't even like to drive somewhere in the daytime if I have no idea where I am going.

I am curious to see if anyone has the ability to drive in North Carolina at night, and if so what is there visual aquity corected to.  Also do they use any special equipment.  I have a non restricted daytime driving lcense, and have driven at dsuk and find truck headlights to be very challenging, and feel with my limited driving experience to be a litlle unsafe, but I am always ready to listen to ideas.  I wouldn't be driving at all if I always listened to the majority of opinions.