If you don't see well while driving at night, there's a chance you have night blindness. Night blindness, or nyctalopia, is the inability to see well at night or in dim lighting. It's not considered an eye disease, but rather a symptom of an underlying problem.

Causes of Night Blindness

• Vitamin A Deficiency — Vitamin A helps keep your cornea clear and is an important component of rhodopsin, a protein that enables you to see in low light conditions.
• Cataracts — A buildup of protein clouds the eye's lens, impairing vision especially at night.
• Diabetic Retinopathy — Damage to the eyes' blood vessels and nerves can result in difficulty seeing at night.
• Glaucoma — Both glaucoma and the medications used to treat it can cause night blindness.
• Myopia — Nearsightedness causes distant objects to appear blurry, and patients often describe a starburst effect around lights at night.
• Keratoconus — An irregularly shaped cornea causes blurred vision and sensitivity to glare and light, which tend to be worse at night.
• Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) — A progressive genetic eye disease that leads to night blindness and peripheral vision loss.
• Usher Syndrome — A genetic condition causing both hearing loss and vision loss, including night blindness and RP.

Symptoms of Nyctalopia

Contact your eye doctor if you notice you don't see as well in dim light as you used to. Symptoms include reduced contrast sensitivity, difficulty seeing people outdoors at night, trouble adapting from bright to dark environments, and excessive squinting at night.

Treatments for Night Blindness

Your eye doctor will diagnose the cause of your night blindness in order to treat it. For example, vitamin A deficiency can be treated with supplements and vitamin-A rich foods; myopia can be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses.

If you experience poor vision at night or in dim lighting, we can help. Contact Dayton Optometric Center in Kettering, Ohio to schedule your appointment today. Call (937) 228-2020.