If you don't see well while driving at night, there's a chance you have night blindness. Night blindness, or nyctalopia, is the inability to see well at night or in dim lighting. It's not considered an eye disease, but rather a symptom of an underlying problem.

Our eye doctor can help diagnose, manage and treat your night blindness so that you can enjoy being out at night again.

Causes of Night Blindness

The inability to see well at night can be the result of conditions such as:

• Vitamin A Deficiency — Vitamin A helps keep your cornea clear; it's also an important component of rhodopsin, a protein that enables you to see in low light conditions.
• Cataracts — A buildup of protein clouds the eye's lens, leading to impaired vision, especially at night.
• Diabetic Retinopathy — Damage to the eyes' blood vessels and nerves can result in difficulty seeing at night.
• Glaucoma — Both glaucoma and the medications used to treat it can cause night blindness.
• Myopia — Also called nearsightedness, myopia makes distant objects appear blurry, and patients with it describe a starburst effect around lights at night.
• Keratoconus — An irregularly shaped cornea causes blurred vision and may involve sensitivity to light and glare which tend to be worse at night.
• Retinitis Pigmentosa (RP) — A progressive genetic eye disease which leads to night blindness and peripheral vision loss.

Treatments for Night Blindness

Your eye doctor will want to diagnose the cause of your night blindness in order to treat it. For example, vitamin A deficiency can be treated with vitamin supplements; myopia can be corrected with eyeglasses or contact lenses. Other conditions may require medications or surgery.

If you experience poor vision at night or in dim lighting, we can help. Contact Optique Family Vision Care in Springfield to schedule your appointment today.