Honest opinion on night driving

other than the bright lights from either oncoming vehicles or construction equipment, i had no real problems, and i am way older than you.

brighter lights on your truck will help you see further, but may also blind the people in front of you, so pray that they are adjusted properly.

at one time, some drivers had either a red or purple light pointed at their windshield (mounted on the dash) to help cut down the glare, but i tried that, and it never worked for me.

go see your eye care professional for either better lenses or his/her advice.

 

My problem with night driving is I like to sleep at night. But I also can't see as good as I used to. Going to try lazer next year.

 

we all like to sleep at night, it's our circadian rhythm.

it's been a few months now since i retired, and i still don't really sleep well at night, and get up anywhere from 3:00 AM and on....and just cannot get back to sleep, which is why i take a mid-day nap..

even if i took no naps, and go to bed at say 10 PM...i am up at 3 AM.....

this is what decades of night time driving must have done to me...but if i were to do it all over again, i'd be seeking night time driving, as i prefer that to being on the roads in the day time, with a higher number of moronic 4 wheeler's.

 

I thrive at night. It's coming up on 4 in the afternoon, sleepy time finished, time to go. And it will be morning before I get to sleep again. Running through the night is ingrained in me. People get tired at dinner, I get fueled and motivated to run, never mind the medical issues.

FYI i also have atagnisism. but eye surgeon corrected some of it with the new lens implant when cataract was removed 10 years ago. He only used the laser once to burn off the body's scarring of lens covering. We will see him soon to see how the eyes are doing.

There is one fear I do have at night. Being down in the Oklahoma Red River border zone with Texas where Steers are bigger than cars and have hides the exact color of the pavement, by the time you see it you already smashed into it if you were not careful.

 

The annoyance to me is if the road seems more reflective of the headlights. If there are street lamps on the side and things are more uniformly lit, it's much better. If I'm in a Metro area it's the best for night with rain.

Otherwise, I do enjoy night driving for less traffic and everyone leaving when I'm coming into park. Unfortunately, that doesn't happen often with my current job and customer schedules.

 

The LED headlights are a problem at night. I am using high contrast shooting lenses and that causes a problem sometime. All the LEO's on sight know that I am one. I need to find something that is less of a obvious wearing of the right lenses for night work against the modern lights.

 

Had lens replacement surgery, went from close to legally blind to 20/20 vision both eyes. Best move I ever made

 

Have you been checked for cataracts. They start by destroying your night vision, lights will flat blind you, these new lights are just indescribable.

 

A halo is present around the moon and street lights and any light source at night time first... that means you are about a few months from going legally blind in that eye or both eyes.

For me it was halos then as the protein grew inside the lens forming the Cataract big enough to matter and getting bigger, detail things like playing a computer game is a futile exercise. You could have a monitor 8 feet high and 10 wide and you will not be able to see the stuff. And it gets worse from there.

The final nail in the coffin is haze all you are going to get is day time bright or night time dark. You know if your house is lights on or off by the white and black on the entire visual field to you. But no detail on anything. You end up stopping driving at night. Then stop by day. No more driving.

Also as you drive in a process of early cataract is if you examine the treeline next to the highway you notice that you have a split image of the same treeline on the bad eye. Green on the bottom and a shadow copy duplicate a few meters above the actual trees in brown. And eventually you dont have any detail at all. Eyecharts have no meaning.

For me it took about 9 months. From first halo. My ex has halos in both eyes now for 4 months. This week she did indicate it's a problem. That means in about 5 months she must have the surgery to function in life independantly. You will not be able to prepare meals or know what utential is in your hands probably chop your fingers off. You wont know how much money is in your wallet. and so on all downhill from there. You will need someone with you 24/7 and at about 20.00 a hour for a aide private home care is very expensive.

Retail on my surgery billed insurance 20,000 dollars for the one eye. They paid 17600 or so for that eye. When the next morning eye surgeon removed the steel shield and dressing from eye in a dark exam room he put a small material with very many small holes in it. Then had me look through the holes (Filters out excessive light) and achieve something on the order of about 20/10 to 30 feet chart on the wall. I was reading partially the copyright fine print at the bottom of that chart. But it's all good.

Developed a bifocal lense prescription, no lines, transitions in the lens for light and weather changes, and discovered how far my handgun's front sight happens to be from my eye in a gun 1 ready to shoot mode, turns out 24 inches. So he built in a tri focal lense between the bifocal in the center of each lense so that 24 inches my vision is perfect.

Glasses came out to be 700 dollars after taxes. The other natural eye also recieved a new prescription based on the trifocal so that I wont suffer a form of being dizzy between one or the other doing things like driving.

The VA will take care of the Ex both eyes, I will be with her 24/7 literally at a moment's notice for everything day and night until she has the surgery done.

The biggest thing they will tell you after surgery. DO NOT LIFT A #### THING. I don't care if you are beefcake can press 500 pounds on one hand. That's not the problem. If you exert a lifting or pushing force against a hub nut to change a tire for example The pressure of the fluids in your body will concentrate in your eyeballs and totally undo everything that that surgery should have fixed. You will end up with a pernament split vision and you have two choices.

Wear a patch on one eye forever because you cannot function with split vision. OR burn the retina out and keep that eye as a sort of a human touch so you don't scare people with a glass eye or wearing a patch etc. You cannot ever get it back.

For me as a deaf person losing vision means suicide or a end of life situation. I am familiar with the School of the Blind in Maryland as a sister institution to that with the Maryland School for the deaf and how those people were both deaf and blind and still function particularly in today's society. I would not choose to live that way it's a impossible situation. A flight to Switzerland and the body cremated there and mailed home for disposal in the potters field. It's the way it is.

Everything I have done since surgery, particularly shooting and other activities that rely on vision has been a form of defiance against the bad old cataracts and enjoy life. I have since learned of a sensor panel that is with sufficient density can show detail to a blind eye provided the retina is still working. You would see a outline of a 18 wheeler but not enough to identify a model yet. That will come as the density of sensory inside that plate is progressed by technology so that if I have to do the cataract again it will be done and suicide would not be a necessary option. It will be a life changing.

My grandparent had cataracts 30 years ago, when there was not enough medical precision to chop them off and replace it with good lenses. Her life consisted of laying in bed in a darkened room on oxygen and various powerful medicines to keep her calm because she used to get angry lying there doing nothing. 7 years it took. She finally passed on due to lung failure at a elderly age. But life for her was a stone. Laying there in bed, being told to flip over or take walks in order to prevent bedsores that will infect and form sepsis in the blood that can kill her. That was no life and made a very big impression on me.

I was going to write a short list of things to look for besides halos of the moon and street lights. But you will know relatively fast when details of everything in your life goes away along with not being able to drive or chop food safely in the kitchen. But my ex is not quite there yet. But when the time comes I will have to be with her 24/7 as a servant and make sure that she does not hurt herself until the surgery can be done. Its going to be about 50,000 dollars for both eyes for her.

Might as well sell all of King Aurthers Camelot kingdom for a set of eyes. And you would too. If you knew you can see again after its done right.

One other thing. Presurgery. Each eye will recieve a group of about 12 to 15 different eyedrop medicines. Its essentially going to shut that eyeball down, paralyze it in place and clean the area that will be worked on at a incredible level of precision. People say they can hit a US quarter at 1000 yards with a properly scoped weapon etc. More power to them. Eye surgeon will be working at a more precise level beyond that. To make sure the new lense are put in correctly.

After you are fixed your first possiblity in every light source will have a large color line straight through it do not panic. That will go away in a few weeks as the lense adjusts and falls into place within the eyeball's structure and those lines should go away.

And you are left besides the no lifting a #### thing, not even a bible for a time, you are also given a instruction that should your Retinas show lighting bolts in your vision you have less than 4 hours to get to a eye surgeon to save that vision. After 4 hours, that retina dies and you are blind. No ifs buts or maybes. For me I was ordered to stop shotgun slugging. The recoil is too much for the retina. But the .45 +P is perfectly fine. If not better than fine along with the bowling activity and so on.

Another gift is sometimes in situations you can set your glasses down and not use them now and then. For nearsighting thats a beautiful thing. For those who are far sighted will get a different lense group.

Good luck.