Driving at night can get harder starting as early as your late 20s. Here’s how to improve nighttime vision.
If you’re feeling unsure about getting behind the wheel once the sun goes down, you’re not alone. According to the market research platform Gitnux, 10% of drivers reported having problems with night vision, while 62% feel less confident driving at night compared to during the day. Those concerns are warranted given that about 40% of accidents occur either at night or during early morning hours, and those crashes are twice as likely to be fatal compared to daytime accidents.
As we get older, nighttime driving can become more challenging, thanks to age-related eye conditions. Here, eye care specialists explain the common causes of vision problems through the years, as well as strategies for driving safely at night.
Why do aging eyes have trouble seeing in the dark?
While it may sound surprising, vision changes that affect nighttime driving can begin as early as one's late 20s to early 30s. “Over the last 20 years, we have seen a massive shift with eye dryness being one of the major problems that starts to happen in young adults,” optometrist Dr. Mile Brujic, a Bausch + Lomb advisor and partner of Premier Vision Group in Ohio, tells Yahoo Life.
One culprit may be the countless hours spent staring at computer screens and digital devices. “The tear film is the very first surface the light hits before it enters the eye,” Brujic explains. “If it's not pristine — if there are dry spots in the tear film — it can actually disrupt the quality of your vision.”
Dry eye — a condition in which the eyes do not produce enough tears and causes the eye to burn or feel scratchy — affects millions of Americans and is more common in adults over the age of 50, according to the National Institutes of Health. “It worsens with age and can cause the vision to be blurred, especially when people are tired,” Dr. Christina Prescott, vice chair of education for the NYU Langone department of ophthalmology, tells Yahoo Life.
Adults in their early to mid-40s will likely begin to lose their ability to focus up close, such as reading a book, a food label or a restaurant menu. This condition is known as presbyopia, explains Brujic. “There are certain individuals who come into the office in a bit of denial about having mild to moderate levels of presbyopia,” he says. “Some might feel like this issue doesn’t need to be corrected, but presbyopia fatigues the eyes throughout the day. Then, because the eyes are working so hard, it can inadvertently affect the distance vision as well.”
Dr. Brian Boxer Wachler, an ophthalmologist and medical reviewer at All About Vision, tells Yahoo Life that another common age-related change that affects night driving is cataracts, a condition in which "the natural, internal lens develops cloudiness.” He says that “this condition can cause lights in the dark — such as car headlights or streetlights — to become very bright, along with having glare and halos, making it hard to see at nighttime.”
Even though cataracts are most common among the elderly, the NIH reports that the process where a clump of proteins break down in the eye and form the cloudy area on the lens begins around age 40. In fact, the American Academy of Ophthalmology states that more than 20 million Americans over the age of 40 are affected by cataracts.
Two additional common age-related eye conditions that can interfere with night driving include age-related macular degeneration (AMD, a disease of the macula part of the retina, the light-sensitive tissue in the back of the eye) and glaucoma (a disease that damages the optic nerve).
“Macular degeneration primarily affects the central vision and has more of an effect on reading, yet it can affect driving vision in the later stages,” explains Prescott. “However, glaucoma is actually the most dangerous in terms of driving since it affects the peripheral vision — and often people are not aware of the loss of peripheral vision until it is too late.”
AMD is the leading cause of vision loss in adults over the age of 50, while glaucoma is the leading cause of blindness in adults over the age of 60, reports the AAO. “Keep in mind that most of these changes occur gradually over many years,” says Prescott. “Most people start to notice changes with reading vision in the 40s, and then changes with driving vision usually occurs in the 60s or early 70s.”
Is difficulty driving at night the same as night blindness?
In a word — no. “This is one of the most confused terms used among the general population,” says Brujic. He says that when we enter a dark environment, the pupils naturally dilate to allow more light to enter the eye. “When the pupils enlarge, it exposes any type of imperfections in our optical system, which can also lead to a reduction in visual quality in the evening. This is a normal shift in the eyes that most of the time can be corrected with the right prescription.”
Night blindness, on the other hand, which is also referred to as nyctalopia, is a condition in which someone has extreme difficulty or loses the ability to see in the dark or in dimly lit areas. “One of the more common eye conditions that can cause night blindness is called retinitis pigmentosa, or RP, and this affects the eye in a way that makes patients literally blind at night.”
According to the NIH, retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic disease in which symptoms often manifest in childhood.
Strategies for improving night vision
All three specialists agree that partnering with a physician is the key to better nighttime driving. “The starting point is the coordination of care between the person who is experiencing the symptoms and their eye health care provider,” says Brujic.
Prescott recommends getting an eye exam “since most of the eye conditions that contribute to trouble with night driving are treatable,” he says. And if your doctor advises wearing prescription glasses or contact lenses, then be sure to wear them, says Boxer Wachler.
Anyone who falls under the dry eye group should also follow the 20/20/20 rule, according to Brujic. “For every 20 minutes of looking at a computer screen, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet away,” he says. “This actually helps calibrate the eyes since we have learned through research that not only do we blink less frequently when we stare at screens, but we blink less completely.” Using artificial tears after a long day of screen time may also help reestablish vision, he adds.
Regarding night driving, Boxer Wachler recommends not looking directly at oncoming headlights. “Instead, glance slightly to the right side,” he says.
The American Optometric Association reports that many drivers complain about the glare from HID (high-intensity discharge) and LED (light-emitting diode) headlights. While research shows that these bright lights do not cause disability glare — a glare that blocks an object from view — it can cause discomfort glare, which doesn’t obstruct the view, but does cause eye discomfort. Also, this glare can exacerbate any preexisting eye conditions.
A few of the AOA’s nighttime driving tips include:
When oncoming headlights are bright, ease off the gas and maintain your position on the road by monitoring the lane marker until the vehicle passes.
Clean your windshield on the inside and outside. A dirty or streaked windshield can cause glare and reduce visibility.
Use fog lamps instead of high beams during foggy nights.
Turn down dashboard lights to reduce glare.
Wear prescription glasses with an anti-reflection coating.
Keep blinking while driving to ward off dry eye symptoms.
Aim dashboard vents away from the face to keep the eyes from getting dried out.
