Sensitive to light = can see better in the dark?

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herbeey
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19 Jan 2011, 6:34 pm

If part of one's autism includes a heightened sensitivity to light, does this also mean that one would see better in the dark than most people?



Wallourdes
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19 Jan 2011, 6:37 pm

Dark is just the lacking in or the absence of light.

I can see better in low-light conditions, although daylight most of the time irritates my eyes.


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19 Jan 2011, 6:42 pm

I am sensitive to light, and can see okay in the dark - and am able to get around most places I know in the dark - although I do not know if I see better in the dark than other people. Insufficient data.



Helixstein
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19 Jan 2011, 6:53 pm

I am irrational afraid of the dark.


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herbeey
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19 Jan 2011, 6:53 pm

My question arose from the fact that I've just got pretty dark tinted lenses and I'm trying to work out whether the darkening is actually just normalising my vision, or whether it is just making it less intense but with the cost of making things darker than is normal.



the_curmudge
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19 Jan 2011, 7:01 pm

herbeey wrote:
If part of one's autism includes a heightened sensitivity to light, does this also mean that one would see better in the dark than most people?


You would think, herbeey, but it doesn't work that way for me. I have a different emotional reaction to light rather than a difference in visual acuity. Bright light makes me feel nervous and exposed, whereas dim light makes me feel soothed and protected.



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19 Jan 2011, 7:03 pm

When I was wearing dark lenses I forgot I was wearing them. I thought they were just my usual glasses.
I can see ok in the dark once my eyes adjust to it. It takes a few minutes. I know cause I used to take my telescope out at night. And when I went back inside outside looked so dark but when I was out there it didn't feel like it was that dark.


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Cicely
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19 Jan 2011, 7:59 pm

I am sensitive to bright light, but dim light is even worse. It drives me crazy. I don't think I see better in the dark than the average person.



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19 Jan 2011, 9:44 pm

I cannot stand bright light. My room is lit by either a desk lamp on my bedside table, or a two strands of icicle Christmas white lights around the ceiling. This is always fine.

However, I just started school again. I'm taking online classes, and while the ambient light was perfect, turning on all of these lights together did not enable me to read my textbook or see my notebook once the daylight faded. So I assume I have no benefit in dark vision. I believe that direct light on the text within a dark or dim room would be perfect since I enjoy my laptop in the dark. I turned down my brightness settings for that and only adjust them upwards for certain games.



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19 Jan 2011, 11:11 pm

Helixstein wrote:
I am irrational afraid of the dark.


Me too..but only since I got off of my anti-depressant. :? But hell if I'm going back on it...

But even if it's just a little but sunny, I have to be wearing sun glasses, cos the sun hurts my eyes so badly.


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19 Jan 2011, 11:59 pm

I can see fine in the dark but sometimes I need light.


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20 Jan 2011, 1:04 am

The only lighting in my room is a window, which I keep covered at all times, and a black light. Everything glows! I can see very well in the dark.



Nerdykid
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20 Jan 2011, 1:33 am

Helixstein wrote:
I am irrational afraid of the dark.


As am I

And sunlight hurts my eyes but unnatural light is okay.



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20 Jan 2011, 2:52 am

I go with indirect light. I don't think I could take any more than that. I can see exceptionally well in the dark.


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20 Jan 2011, 8:21 am

Think of it this way: Some people who have a hearing loss, even almost deaf, are extremely sensitive to the sound they do hear. It doesnt mean their hearing is above average. The same is true of light: Many legally blind people are light sensitive. (That's one of many reasons some wear sunglasses all the time.)

However autistic people do often have certain kinds of heightened visual awareness. It's not the same as seeing better in the dark (although many of us seem to). It's more on the order of seeing more visual detail on a smaller scale than nonautistic people. Even if we wear glasses. It was tested by showing people a tiny circle at a certain distance. The circle had a tiny slit cut out of it. People had to say what direction the slit was pointing. Autistic people outperformed nonautistic people on average at this test. I have wondered if that's why I find vision so painful because I'm aware of so much that vision cuts into little fragments for me instead of being a whole scene. And the more it does that the more it hurts. But I don't think that's tied to light sensitivity which is something different.

I'm extremely light sensitive because I'm not just autistic, I have severe frequent migraines. At least twice a week if not every day. This makes my head automatically turn away from light and the light hurts and makes me nauseated. In addition to what it does from being autistic. Direct lighting gives me migraines as well as old style fluorescent lighting and various forms of light and dark contrast including sunlight through vertical blinds. I will be extremely happy if they ever manage to make colored electronic ink that behaves the same way as a regular computer display. Then the light from the display won't give me migraines either. There's a lot I have to avoid. And again that's in addition to autistic light sensitivity which causes its own problems.


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