How To Impove Night Tme Driving

How to improve night time driving

Did you know that 70% of accidents involving collisions between vehicles and pedestrians happen at night? If you didn’t know, now you do, and you are probably wondering how to improve night time driving. Difficulty in night time driving especially due to bright blinding headlights are actually more common than most think. So if you find it hard and frightening to drive at night? You are not alone. But why is driving at night so challenging? One may ask! There are also several answers to this, but usually, all things being equal, it is mostly caused by visual sensitivity to brightness emitted by the lumens of other car headlights

Elderly people however, have a different case entirely. Due to the human ageing process, their eye sights may be poorer at night and this causes difficulty in driving at night even though they are okay during the day. Gradually, the size of their pupil reduces as they age and so there is a limit to the lights that hit the retina and the cells responsible for night sight. 

Apart from all that, older people are more prone to eye defects caused by illnesses like glaucoma, cataracts etc. Either way, old or young, if you normally get scared driving at night and find it significantly easier driving during the day; if the headlights from oncoming vehicles distract you and blind you a bit more than normal, if you generally hate driving at night, even though, it may be because of an eye defect of some sort, there are some measures you could take to have a better and more improved night time driving experience. 

Here, we have compiled a list of the top five measures and safety tips on how to improve your night time driving. Read on! 

5 Must-know safety tips for driving at night

5 Must-know safety tips for driving at night
  1. Mind the light levels in your own car: 

Most drivers do not know this or understand this principle, but when the indoor lights of the car are turned on, it compromises your eyesight when you are driving in the night and causes fatigue because your eyes are trying to adjust to the lights outside and you would just be making things harder on yourself. 

  1. De-Focus your eyes:
safety tips for driving at night

One of the reasons you are distracted by lights when driving at night is because that is what you focus on. What you need to do is to look around and focus on the whole road rather than just the incoming vehicles. 

The way the eyes are structured is such that, like a camera, it zooms in on what we focus on and highlights it more, but when we look around, the eyes have a wider scope of the surroundings and see both light and darkness. It’ll be easier to focus when you are not just looking at the blinding headlights approaching you. 

  1. Protect your eyes from the sun during the day: 

It would be advisable to wear sunglasses during the day. That way, your eyes are protected and not strained especially when you need them at night. 

If you are one who drives at night a lot and you struggle with night driving, you have to protect your eyes during the day to be better able to have them fresh and focused at night. Too much bright light during the day automatically impairs night vision and causes difficulty, so protect the pupils when there’s sunlight.

  1. Adjust your eyes naturally

One very helpful tip if you find it difficult to drive at night is to adjust your eyes to the dark naturally. Before you set out at night, sit still in perfect darkness for 10-20 minutes and let your eyes adjust. The eyes are perfectly capable of adjusting well to darkness, and it’ll help you focus better when you begin to drive at night. 

  1. Adjust Car headlight
Tips for Seeing Clearly While Driving at Night

Oftentimes, especially when the car is brand new, the headlight may be uneven or unbalanced. So, it is best to be corrected by aligning your car headlights properly so the lights from your car can be cast the perfect way. 

However, it is also important to make sure they are not too bright as to blind oncoming vehicles. 

You should also clean and restore your headlight regularly. Even when the lights are aimed correctly, they cast a dim glow when something like dirt or grime is blocking the lights, best way to do that is with Headlights restoration kit so fix that by cleaning thoroughly and adjusting accordingly. 

If you have an old car with a plastic lens, it may have been subject to oxidation and this is a huge problem for you especially when you are driving at night. You should consider restoring them with a headlight restoration kit or know when to replace the headlight bulbs

Conclusion: 

Driving at night can be really rough sometimes especially if you have some eye sight issues.  It is a scary, but true fact that most accidents occur at night, and mostly, the innocent pedestrians are the ones who lose their lives. 

The measures and tips we have compiled are sure to get you on the right track if followed to the letter. 

You could also go for regular eye tests and check up to make sure your eyes are in perfect condition so as to make driving at night easier. 

Here are some additional tips for your consideration

  • Take supplements that help boost eye sights
  • Wear night driving glasses. It’ll help deflect the lights coming in and improve focus
  • Stop staring directly  into oncoming headlights
  • Gently massage your eyes before going out at night. 

These steps may seem very basic and. counter-intuitive, but the positive effects cannot be over emphasized. These measures would ensure to keep you safe and secure while driving at night, while focusing your eyes on the road as opposed to the lights that cause the distractions. 

Also, if you are going to be wearing night glasses, it is important you pick the right one. To this end, you may be better off consulting an expert just to be sure. 

Like this article? Share it with others!
More on our blog
How to test headlight relay
Car Headlights

How to test headlight relay

Automobile headlight systems are only marginally more sophisticated than your home’s light switches, despite how intricate they may seem. The electrical circuit between your home’s […]

Read More…

Read More »

Table of content

click on the flag to change language please.

Russian spanish German French Italian Arabic Japan Philippines Romanian Moldova Turkey Portuguese Portuguese netherlands swedish vietnamese Finnish Bulgarian Greek