HOW TO IMPROVE VISION DURING NIGHT DRIVING
Prepare For Night Driving With Less UV Exposure During The Day
• During daylight hours, wear sunglasses to cut down on your exposure to UV rays. This will significantly improve your ability to see better in the dark, later at night.
Keep Your Eyes Moving
• To reduce the effects of eye fatigue while driving in the dark, keep scanning your field of vision instead of focusing only on one area.
Make Sure The Headlights Are Properly Aimed
• Headlights are sometimes pointed lower than necessary, and this can happen even with brand new cars. Getting the aim corrected is a good safety measure, and following instructions in your owner’s manual, you can do this yourself.
Remove grime off the headlights regularly or invest in a headlight polish kit to remove hazing and dim glow that often happens if the surface is not clean. Also remember that old, incandescent bulbs give off less light than new ones.
Use The Dimmer Switch On Your Dash Light
• Forward vision is not optimum if you’re driving with your dash and instrument panel lights set on high. Take a leaf out of the safety book of endurance racers – they often cover their dashboards with black felt to avoid stray reflections. While you don’t have to go and do that, there’s definitely a lesson in this action to dim interior brightness when driving at night.
Don’t Wear Any Kind Of Glasses Unless They Are For Vision Correction
• You see more light without glasses, so unless you have to wear a prescription one, avoid eyewear during night-driving altogether. If you do have to wear glasses, get a pair that has anti-reflective coating to stop the light from bouncing around inside your lens.
Don’t Touch the Windshield
• Car detailers have a trick: they polish the windshield with newspaper to lift off residue. Keep your windshield ultra-clean if you’re driving in the night. And don’t smudge the inside surface of the windshield, side windows or mirrors with your fingertips. Not even to wipe off condensation. Oil from your skin will transfer onto them, and light will glare when it shines through the smears. Keep a microfiber cloth handy for spot cleaning instead.
Get Fog Lights, If You Haven’t Already
• Fog lights, as the name suggests, cut through the veil of mist instead of reflecting it back like regular headlights do. Also, they are aimed low because fog does not hang below 2 feet above the road.