Night blindness is not an enjoyable eye condition. The consistent inconveniences that it brings can be discomforting both physically and emotionally.

With night blindness, there is a malfunction in the capacity of your photoreceptors cells. Located in the retina, photoreceptors are responsible for your enhanced vision when the lighting is poor. These cells, which are termed “rod cells”, are primarily in control of your night vision.

Rod cells are sensitive to even single light photons, with the capacity for transmission to rod bipolar cells. This way, your brain can sufficiently process information from dim light. Therefore, when these photoreceptor struggle to do their job, it becomes relatively difficult to navigate one’s self in dark surroundings.

There are a number of circumstances that can trigger the occurrence of night blindness. One of the most notorious culprits behind night blindness is the deficiency of Vitamin A. Vitamin A is chiefly required for the chemical rhodopsin, which is fundamental to your ability to see at night.

When you don’t have enough vitamin A in your body, your propensity for night blindness increases. Such vitamin A deficiency is relatively common in developing countries. This does not mean a person doesn’t have vitamin A in their diet. It could be that a body is struggling to absorb vitamin A from the meals one consumes. In other cases, a deficiency in zinc can promulgate night blindness.

There are also cases where night blindness (as inspired by a deficiency of Vitamin A) can be incited by pancreatic issues or even inflammatory bowel disease. Meals which are low in fats are also naturally deficient in vitamin A. The worrisome reality is that vitamin A impairments must be addressed medically, otherwise the resulting vision damage can end up being permanent.

Another condition that can transpire into night blindness is myopia, otherwise referred to as nearsightedness. Cataracts and glaucoma can also cause poor night vision in the long term.

Now, you may be curious how poor night vision can be accurately diagnosed. It is important here to discredit the raging misconception that night blindness can be be self-diagnosed. This is incorrect. Your eye doctor remains the ultimate authority for diagnosing night blindness. The eye test your doctor will probably run is a pupil adaptation test. This painless procedure measures your capacity to detect and interpret colors overall, suggesting your visual acuteness.

Sometimes a procedure known as electroretinogram may be required to determine the reaction of your rod cells to light. Furthermore, your doctor could carry out an optical coherence tomography test on your eyes to determine the health of your retina in terms of the arrangement of the layers.