I found four main areas that i have been working with to achieve this improvement. They are allowing the eyes to adjust to dark, doing eye exercises in the dark to strengthen the rod cells, strengthening the pupil and better confidence.
A saying that fits well here is “If you don’t use it, you lose it”, if you don’t use the rod cells in the dark making them fully active how can we expect them to fully function when we need them to? This is relevant for everyone not just those with eye conditions that make it difficult to see in the dark, they just experience it on a larger scale. An example of how I am training my eyes to adapt to the dark is instead of turning on the lights immediately when I enter a room, say if I am looking for my keys, I leave the light off. Similarly as the sunsets I will wait as long as possible before turning on the lights. Another way is night walks, as my neighborhood is pretty safe I can go for walks when its dark allowing the rods to be as active as possible.
The second technique is strengthening the rods by performing eye exercises in the dark with flashing lights, which can be found on our website under peripheral vision exercises. Due to the rods responding to movement and dim light, by being in the dark and flashing lights in the periphery you are helping to activate those weaker cells even more. Those with Retinitis Pigmentosa or anyone who has difficulty seeing in the dark I suggest doing this exercise before going on a night walk or anywhere that is dark to help activate the rods before going out.
The third reason for my improved adaption to the dark is that the muscles that make the pupils felt strengthened. This means that I could dilate the pupil better and take in more light in my surroundings. I could actually feel the fight between the direct light trying to constrict my pupils, but the dark environment trying to dilate them causing a fight between the two. When removing the bright light my pupils could relax and do its job trying to dilate enough to bring in more light. This was achieved by again spending time in the dark and doing eye exercises, allowing the pupil to fully dilate. Doing the opposite to this by performing the sunning eye exercise to fully constrict the pupil also gives it a good workout.
Knowing how I improved my night vision by spending more time in the dark helps explain my forth reason for improvement which is finding more confidence in a dark environment. Although my visual system was physically adapting better, psychologically I felt more confident being the dark. Something that anyone with low light vision problems will tell you is one of the larger difficulties with the condition. This in itself was a great achievement and I look forward to developing on it more.
Overall, its easy to see that by not avoiding what is weak and in fact spending some time with it brings more strength. Although challenging and frustrating at times it can be very rewarding.
Good luck with your exercises and happy healing! 🙂
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