Red light blindness – the visual handicap that develops gradually affects most pilots including many that seem to have “perfect vision” under daylight flying conditions.

A good idea, if you are a pilot over the age of 40, is read fine print by red light before your next night flight.

What is red light blindness? Here’s an example: You plan on taking your wife out to dinner at a local “feeding hole” at a convenient airport about an hours flight away from where you hanger your plane.

You leave just a little after sunset in perfect weather. You need to cross-check your position and make sure the frequency of the next VOR is correct. Its dark in the cockpit so you turn on the red map light and spread a chart on your knees. You can’t read it there so you pick it up for a closer look…yikes, it is still blurred. You move the chart right up under the red map light, you sense your eyes are widening and your forehead strains as you try to focus the fuzzy figures of the VOR frequency. That’s red light blindness.

How does red light blur vision?

At the age of forty your eyes ability to focus close up declines due to changes in your lens to alter its shape to clearly focus an image on the back of your eyeball. (the retina) This condition is called presbyopia. In good illumination it is hard to read a newspaper held at arms length. I remember going through this and I will bet you have too. Red light has a rather long wave-length. It takes even more effort, on your eyes part, to focus on print in red light than in normal white light illumination.

The pupil of the eye dilates to its maximum under dim red light, attempting to admit more light to the retina. The net result from the lens thickening and increasing its curvature and the dimness of the red light causes the image to fall slightly behind the retina. I will high-light several sources that will include diagrams to ease your understanding of eye physiology which is beyond the scope of a short blog. If you have an interest in photography the human eye is similar in operation. If you are near-sighted or far-sighted click on the links in this sentence.

Let me know if these articles are helpful to you. I depend on your input.

Jim

Anyone who isn’t pulling his weight is probably pushing his luck!

Born and raised in Michigan. Graduated Kalamazoo College 1960 and Michigan Rackham Graduate in 1964. Retired to Salem, South Carolina on Lake Keowee five years ago. Married my wife Connie ten years ago. Five adult children between us. Active in the Salem Lions Club. Love to fish, bird watching, hiking, swimming, gardening and travel. I am instrument rated in SEL aircraft and enjoyed flying for years.

Jim

Are you looking to improve your eyesight naturally? Well, now you can. Vision improvement has never been easier and with this guide, you can start right now. No special tools or charts required. You don’t even need hours to spare. All you need is persistence and discipline. Ready?

1. An easy way to relax your eyes is simply to palm. Here’s how to palm: close your eyes and place your palms on them. Be careful not to press on them because this is harmful. Palming blocks out all light and is a great way for your eyes to rest. When you palm, feel free to imagine anything that relaxes you. I also find setting a timer helps take my mind off how long I have been palming. Palm for at least 10 minutes, twice a day, or anytime you feel like it.
2. Try to go for a week without your glasses and slowly increase that time. If you can’t see without them, then try a weaker one. Your glasses are like visual crutch. If a lame doesn’t practice walking without a crutch, he/she will never walk without a crutch ever again. For your eyes to recover, you’ll have to give it a chance to re-learn how to see without glasses.
3. Breathe. Believe it or not, sometimes we hold our breath without even knowing it. For as much as possible, take deep breaths. Breathing is probably the simplest yet most effective way to relax – that’s why it’s always recommended in any type of meditation class.
4. This may sound awfully simple but… blink! Observe a friend who wears glasses… how frequent does he/she blink? Compare that number to someone with perfect eyesight. I can guarantee the person with perfect eyesight blinks far more often. This is because blinking is nature’s way to relax our eyes.

Would you like learn more about the fundamentals of vision therapy? Visit my website now to find out more about effective vision correction. As a gift, I’m giving all my EzineArticles readers free subscription to my “Perfect Vision For Life” newsletter. Join more than 800 subscribers now. This is a limited offer only.

Eye Vision Exercise 1: Focus In and Focus Out

Stare at the period of this sentence. Do it for just a couple of minutes. Notice how your view of the period gets progressively worse the more you stare at it? Well, that’s actually the point of this exercise – not to get your vision worse but to help you realize that staring at words or objects just makes your vision worse. What can you do about this? Train your eyes to view things without staring at them. It’s sort of like a long glance. This is how you should be looking at objects – especially on the computer. Remember, long glaces. Try it!

Eye Vision Exercise 2: Double Vision Workout

Another exercise you can use to improve your eyesight is known as the double vision exercise. You probably already know that our eyes aren’t created equal. One of our eyes is actually stronger than the other. What we have to do in order to correct that is force our “weaker” eye to become the dominant eye. How can you do this? One simple way is to close the strong eye and let the weak eye do all the reading and viewing for a few minutes. You might have some difficulty seeing things during this time. Don’t worry though. This is all part of the exercise you need to make your weak eye stronger again. One way to make your weak eye see things better is to move it in and out of focus as mentioned in the previous exercise. Try this a few times a day and you’ll be surprised how quickly your eyesight starts to improve. Remember, just like other parts of your body, your eyes need exercise in order to perform its best.

Want an all natural way to improve your vision without lasik or glasses/contacts? Eye vision exercise is the safest and most cost effective way to improve your eyesight. You can see the benefits in just a few days.

Click here to improve your vision naturally.