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4 Logical Explanations for Vision Problems While Driving at Night

For many people, driving at night is no more difficult than driving during the day.  But for others, nighttime driving presents additional challenges that they don’t experience when the sun is out.  For example, certain vision issues can cause people to see halos around lights or increased glare on the roads.  Additionally, they might experience blurred or clouded vision or eye fatigue when driving after dark.

If you experience difficulty driving at night, it may be due to one of the following reasons.

Nearsightedness

The answer to your vision problems at night may be as simple as nearsightedness, or myopia, which causes objects in the distance to be blurred.  People with myopia often have difficulty driving at night.  If this is the case, prescription eyeglasses or contact lenses could be the solution you need to restore your nighttime vision.

Cataracts

Cataracts occur when the eye’s lens becomes cloudy.  This cloudiness causes things to become blurry, hazy or less colorful.  Driving at night with cataracts is especially difficult, as they can cause light sensitivity, especially with oncoming headlights, as well as overall problems seeing in dark conditions.  Glasses or contact lenses can help improve the symptoms of cataracts.  However, if symptoms progress, surgery to remove them is also an option.

Vitamin or Nutrient Deficiency

Perhaps surprisingly, a lack of certain vitamins or minerals can have an effect on the ability to see clearly while driving at night. Vitamin A helps keep the retina healthy, and can be found in carrots and green leafy vegetables.  People with low levels of Vitamin A, as is often the case for those with Crohn’s disease or celiac disease, often experience night vision issues.  Additionally, a zinc deficiency reduces the positive effects of Vitamin A in the eye, which can contribute to poor night vision.  Increasing these important nutrients might help to alleviate some difficulty while driving at night.

Retinal Diseases

Retinitis pigmentosa is a genetic disorder that affects the retina and how it responds to light.  Although rare, a main side effect of this disorder is loss of night vision.  While your vision may be normal during the day, it may take longer to adjust to the dark, thereby making driving at night much more difficult.  A more common retinal disease that can affect night vision is age-related macular degeneration (AMD).  One of the first signs of AMD is difficulty seeing at night, which happens during the early stages of this disease.  It is important to visit your eye doctor as the first sign of night vision problems, so eye diseases can be detected and treated as early as possible.

Driving at night without proper visual skills can be an obvious safety hazard.  If you feel like it is becoming more difficult to see clearly on the road when the sun goes down, please come see us for a vision evaluation.  We have the appropriate tests to determine the cause of your nighttime vision problems, as well as effective treatment options to help improve your symptoms.  Family Vision Development Center provides a wide range of eye care services for the whole family in a safe, comfortable environment.  Give us a call at 630-862-2020 to schedule your appointment today.

Vision Therapy Can Help Visual Processing Disorders in Kids

Unlike problems that involve actual eyesight or sharpness of vision, visual processing disorders affect how visual information is processed by the brain.  A child may have 20/20 vision, but still struggle with processing things like symbols, pictures or distances.  Visual processing disorders can hinder a child’s ability to learn properly in the classroom and can also present challenges while playing sports or socializing with peers, all of which can have a negative effect on their self-esteem.

Signs of Visual Processing Disorder

There are certain signs or symptoms to watch for that would indicate that a child may have trouble with visual processing.  These could include:

• Difficulty distinguishing between similar letters, shapes or objects.
• Difficulty distinguishing a figure from its background
• Tendency to skip lines when reading, or read the same line over and over
• Trouble writing within the lines, copying from a book or bumping into things when walking
• Trouble remembering what they’ve seen or read
• Difficulty determining how close objects are to each other
• Difficulty identifying an object when only parts of the object are showing
• Frequent reversal of numbers, letters or words
• Organization problems
• Untidy handwriting
• Poor retention of visual classroom material

Vision Therapy is One Treatment Option

Vision therapy is a kind of physical therapy for the visual system which includes the eyes and brain, and can produce successful results for correcting visual processing disorders.  In-office, one-on-one vision therapy treatments can improve visual processing speed, visual memory, visual-motor integration and more in order to improve a child’s visual processing issues and in turn help them to improve in the classroom, on the field, and with their peers.

Family Vision Development Center’s Dr. Martin has focused extensively on vision therapy techniques and applies his expertise and understanding of this form of vision treatment to his clients of all ages.  Contact us at 630-862-2020 or click here to schedule an appointment where Dr. Martin can thoroughly evaluate your vision issues and determine the most effective treatment options.

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