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Adelaide City Optometrist
Adelaide City Optometrist
127 Gilles Street
Adelaide, 5000
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08 8224 0819
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Why Can’t I See Well At Night?

  • by: Adelaide City Optometrist
  • May 20, 2019
anti-reflective lens

Well, you’re not alone; it’s a complaint that we hear all the time. In night conditions, most people see glare and halos around lights due to what is known as higher order aberrations. The most troublesome is called spherical aberration. In low light, spherical aberration intensifies distance blur, known as night myopia.

In daylight environments, the pupil constricts. This blocks a greater amount of peripheral rays and minimises the effects of spherical aberration, resulting in clearer vision. However, as the amount of light decreases, the pupil enlarges. This causes more peripheral rays to enter the eye, making us more nearsighted than in light conditions. A small change in pupil size can cause a significant change in the clarity of vision.

But don’t worry, there are things you can do to help blurred night vision. And we are here to help!

Anti-Reflective Coating

Firstly, we recommend having an anti-reflective coating on your lenses. This is an extremely thin layer placed on the lens that removes reflections normally seen from the surface of your glasses. This layer reduces the glare and halos that we complain about at night. While anti-reflective coatings greatly benefit those who drive at night, we also recommend them for those who work consistently with computers or under bright sunlight.

For you, the wearer, the many benefits include:

  • Both sharper and clearer vision. With an anti-reflective coating, 99.5 percent of all light is able to reach the eye through the lenses, which sharpens vision;
  • A lesser need to squint, therefore reducing the effects of eye strain;
  • Increased comfort; and
  • A more attractive finish, especially as your eyes will be more visible without the light reflections. This makes eye contact much more achievable.

Freeform Progressive Lenses

We can also help by dispensing freeform lenses. Freeform lenses place the progressive surface on the back of the lens, unlike conventional progressive lenses, which provides you with a wider field of vision. Again, these lenses provide exceptional low-light vision, contrast perception and colour vision. While suitable for anyone, the greatest visual improvement is seen by those with a high prescription, or astigmatism. If you have a prescription outside of -3.00 or +3.00, freeform lenses provide significantly less distortion in your vision. Plus, the wider field of vision is achievable through lesser head movement.

ZEISS DriveSafe Lenses

Furthermore, ZEISS have developed DriveSafe Lenses, designed to use all day every day – including for driving. The technology used in the creation of these lenses consists of three elements to make driving safer, and more comfortable. Firstly, they provide better vision in low-light conditions. They also reduce the glare from oncoming cars and street lights. Together, this creates clear visibility of the road, dashboard, rear-view mirror and side mirrors. DriveSafe lenses are available in both single vision and progressive lens types.