How quickly do your eyes adjust?

[Daydreamer]

I've noticed that I can easily go between dark environments and light ones. People thought I was a little strange (along with other reasons) as a result back in secondary / high school. I remember on several occasions sitting in a classroom after watching a long presentation or a movie and the teacher turning the lights back on without warning. The vast majority of the students would complain about how sore their eyes were and some of them rubbed them because of this sudden change in lighting. I was unaffected. A girl once asked me why I didn't have a reaction; I think I just shrugged and muttered something about not having a problem with it.

Fairly recently I was reading a book where the narrator asked "You know that feeling when you leave a cinema after watching a film and you have to take a moment to adjust to the change in lighting?"

Personally, no that's not something I experience.

I've been to the cinema with my friends before and they've remarked on how their eyes need a moment to adjust after we came out of the theatre room. When I leave the room after seeing a film and we're in the hallway in a differently lit area I don't feel taken aback and my eyes aren't sore. Apparently I'm just completely unaffected. I can switch from indoor lighting to natural lighting easily.

This can be somewhat useful. If I need to go into a brightly lit room after being abruptly woken up from my sleep this doesn't bother me. Weirdly, when I was younger it used to but I seem to have developed a tolerance for it.

Also, there have been moments where I've exited a room and gone to turn off the light switch. Only to realise that the light wasn't on in the first place and the light was from the twilight outside. I forget that I didn't turn the light on in a lapse of judgement.

However, I am sensitive to lights in a different way. Sometimes I'll be sat in a brightly lit room for a while and I'll feel a tingling sensation in my head. Almost as if I'm slightly disorientated. It's a feeling that's bizarrely similar to how I feel when I'm hanging out with friends and suddenly hit a low in my social battery and have to retreat to recharge.

I find it interesting that I am seemingly under-sensitive to light yet over-sensitive to quite a few things. Somewhat fascinating to me how everyday perceptions can vary between individuals.

 

[onlything]

I'm on the other end of the, heh, spectrum in this instance. I am very sensitive to light and changes in its tone. It's always either uncomfortable or painful. I've gotten used to it, so I don't mind it (mentally) most of the time - that's just how the cookie crumbles for me - but it's still physically uncomfortable. I suppose you can build a tolerance to light (and sound while we're at that) as you build a tolerance to pain.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I think people can be overly dramatic when it comes to sudden change in light. If they have an audience - they're often quite vocal about the supposed hardship.

Ed

 

[FreeDiver]

I am very sensitive to sudden changes in light as well. However, I've been able to make myself less sensitive to the sudden change by closing my eyes a split second before the change happens and that helps eliminate the shock caused by the change. Another thing I do to cope with bright light is I just open my eyes a tinny bit, so as there is only a little slit open at the bottom to peek through. The down side to this is that I have to roll my eyeballs down and tilt my head back to be able to see straight in front of me.

 

[Ken S.]

I think people can be overly dramatic when it comes to sudden change in light. If they have an audience - they're often quite vocal about the supposed hardship.

Ed

Is it over dramatic if you have the same reaction when there is no audience? If I even open the front door during the day without first putting on my very dark sunglasses and ball cap I look like a vampire or gremlin hiding from the light. I can assure you that if you had to see through my eyes for just one day your idea that it is a "supposed" hardship would disappear. Also the OP is not on the spectrum so it's comparing apples to oranges.

 

[Raggamuffin]

I did mean if they have an audience.

I've had a few bouts during high anxiety of sensitivity to light. Especially in places like supermarkets with all the harsh artificial lighting

Ed

 

[Daydreamer]

Also the OP is not on the spectrum so it's comparing apples to oranges.

Eh...it's complicated.

I think if I was then I'd only be mildly so. At one point I had a therapist who thought I might be and suggested that I see a specialist. They wanted to rule out Generalised Anxiety, OCD and autism since my therapist suspected that there might be an underlying cause to my issues but wasn't qualified in that area. I decided not to seek a specialist since I found the idea of that a bit daunting. Frankly I was a little taken aback when I was given a leaflet on anxiety in people on the spectrum. It lead me down a rabbit hole and I ended up here.

A friend of mine thinks I might have social anxiety and keeps asking me to consider going back into therapy. I don't really want to, but I realise that there's probably something going on. Or maybe there isn't and I'm just being dramatic. I don't know, I'm just avoiding it at the moment. Usually I cope alright. Maybe the term BAP applies to me. I've wondered about that. Apologies to the mods for going off the topic of this thread, I hope this is alright.

 

[SusanLR]

There are two strange types of lights that really bother me.
I can't stand strobe lights or lights that flicker.
If the strobe is very intense, like the whole room is filled with it, I have to grab somebody's hand to lead me
out and keep my eyes shut. I found that out going through Hallowscream haunted house displays.
Sometimes they are too intense at Rock concerts and I have to close my eyes. Flickering lights make me
dizzy.

The other odd thing is lack of light. And I mean total dark like in a cave and they turn the lights off so you
can see what absolutely no light is like or going through a ride or tunnel at a theme park with no light.
I feel faint and feel vertigo. Yet if I shut my eyes in that darkness, it helps. Strange.

Adjusting from different intensities of light though doesn't seem to bother me. Like dark room to light room
or vice versa.

 

[Yeshuasdaughter]

I'm very sensitive to light. I like my house to be very dark most of the day. My parents or in laws come over and often exclaim for me to open the blinds because it's so dark.

 

[Bolletje]

I used to be fine with changes in brightness, but as I get older I get increasingly sensitive to going from light to dark and vice versa. Plus I’m developing night blindness, which sucks because I used to be really good at seeing in the dark.

 

[ZebraAutismo]

I’m light sensitive particularly artificial light. Gives me a head ache, make feel a bit sick and I can’t read because all the words are fuzzy and distorted and I can’t focus. I have tinted lenses which helps. I am diagnosed with Irlen Syndrone and dyslexia. I also have 2 lazy eyes and have prisms in my glasses.