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Night Vision Training

You can do several different things to help improve your night vision, though few of them involve any actual training of the eyes. The most common way to improve night vision is to supplement your diet with vitamins that you might be missing, and which can affect the quality of your night vision.

  1. Vitamin A

    • It is well established that vitamin A is one way to help improve night vision. There is an old saying about eating carrots to improve night vision. This is actually true, because carrots are very high in vitamin A. Physiologically, vitamin A deficiency results in reduced function of rods and cones, which are the parts of the eye that turn incoming light into signals for the brain. Supplementing with vitamin A may restore optimal function to the rods and cones of a vitamin A-deficient person.

    Zinc

    • Zinc is another vitamin that affects night vision. A deficiency of zinc reduces ability to see at night, which can lead to night blindness. Supplementing with zinc reverses the deficiency and helps to improve night vision. There is also evidence, according to the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition, that zinc and vitamin A have a catalytic effect on each other. Taking them together can help to improve night vision more than would taking either on their own.

    Bilberry

    • Bilberry is similar to the blueberry, and is native to Northern Europe. The idea that bilberry helps to improve night vision is a popular one, and most likely originates from British World War II pilots, who believed that their night vision improved after eating bilberry jam. Subsequent research on bilberry's possible effects on night vision hasn't turned up much, but taking bilberry can't hurt--and bilberry jam does taste good.

    Peripheral Vision

    • One way to train your eyes to see better at night is to rely more on your peripheral vision than on your direct vision. This technique works because the cones are concentrated in the middle of the eye, while the rods are concentrated on the sides. The rods are responsible for night vision, so if you train yourself to not look directly at objects at night, you may improve night vision.

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