Site for Sore Eyes Berkeley: Daylight Saving Time…Time for Some Changes

One event worth mentioning for the beginning of this November is Daylight Saving Time. Regardless of this change in time and having to setting the clocks back one hour, the first few days need some getting used to. In short, the mechanical clocks may be set right, but the body clock needs to catch up. Your eyes are part of your body, and they too need to catch up. The staff of at Site for Sore Eyes Berkeley would like to offer some pointers about how to keep your vision focused at this time of year.

Readjusting to the change in light (or rather, the lack of light) in the evening is something that everyone quickly becomes conscious of. For the past few months, you’ve been able to watch the sunset as you drive home from work or school and have probably been wearing your sunglasses well past 5:30 and 6:00 in the evening. You’ve obviously stopped wearing shades as you drive at night, but did you know that your night vision could be affected without you being aware of it?

According to the National Safety Council, traffic fatalities are three times more likely to take place at night than during the day. Ninety percent of reaction time is vision-based, and depth perception, color recognition and peripheral vision are not as clear and sharp when you drive at night. With the new Daylight Saving Time upon us, this is especially worth keeping in mind. Here then are some pointers and practices for safe and sound night driving. Use them and share them with friends and family…

•          Keep the headlights, taillights, signal lights, and windows of your clean. This may sound obvious, but it can be taken for granted. This simple practice will make all the difference in how well you see as you drive.
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•          If you wear eyeglasses or contact lenses, make sure that your prescription is up to date, and that they are properly polished for optimum vision.
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•          Here is one that not many people know: remember to keep your eyes moving from side to side as you drive, rather than focusing on the center line or the road ahead. This practice keeps your eyes adjusted to the dark and will help avoid “highway hypnosis,” a state which impairs reaction time.

Thank you for reading and following some of the steps we’ve listed here. For more information and tips on safe driving conditions at night, click here.

Site for Sore Eyes at Berkeley would like to close this edition with some interesting trivia. Did you know that Benjamin Franklin has been (mistakenly) credited for coming up with the concept of Daylight Saving Time? He did come up with an unofficial theory on this in an essay he wrote, entitled An Economical Project for Diminishing the Cost of Light, where how money and time could be saved on candles by encouraging people to wake and rise earlier in the day. Old Ben was also the inventor of bifocal glasses (the first type of progressive eyeglasses), which is something we at Site for Sore Eyes Berkeley certainly appreciate.

Again, thanks for reading. Be safe…and keep your sites on healthy vision.