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one-time night blindness in one eye

Hi everyone,

To start with, I'm a 20 year old healthy female. I few nights ago something really strange happened to me when I turned out the light to go to sleep. A few minutes after I turned the light off, when my eyes should have adjusted to the dark, something didn't seem right with my vision. So I covered my left eye with my hand, leaving my right eye open, and everything went pitch black. I couldn't see anything out of my right eye. With my left eye I could see the shapes and shadows that you can usually make out in a dark room, but out of my right eye was just total pitch blackness. I turned my light back on, and everything was completely normal; I could see with both eyes. Then I turned the light out again, and once again, I had vision in my left eye but not in my right.

This happened a few nights ago, and it hasn't happened again since. This is probably irrevelant but I thought I'd mention it- I have a couple of enlarged lymph nodes as well as a swollen tonsil on the right side of my neck/head that have all been checked out by a doctor. I also have a new lump on the top of my head, also on the right side. As I said, this is probably all irrevelant to the vision problem, but I thought that maybe since all of this is on the right side of my head, which is the same side as the problem eye, it could somehow be involved.
Does anyone have any ideas of what could cause one-time temporary night blindness in one eye? Thank you for reading!
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Avatar universal
Reading this forum has made me both relieved and scared.  Early parkinson's?  Retinitis pigmentosa, which usually leads to loss of central and peripheral vision?  OMG!  I think it's made me even more neurotic, having me constantly check my left and right vision.  I have slightly different symptoms than most.  While most seem to have issues with the right eye, mine occur on the left side.  It happens quite frequently actually, whenever I am about to go to bed and shut the light on my nightstand off.  I also don't experience complete blindness/darkness.  Mine is more like a film/filter over my left eye.  I can still see shapes, etc., but it's like you're looking through a brown filter or brown fog.  The situation immediately resolves itself when I turn on the light.  I have gone to a neuro-ophthamologist and all the preliminary tests (field vision, pressure, retina detachment, etc.) came back fine.  She has sent me to a cardiologist to make sure everything is fine and will do a carotid duplex ultrasound next week to determine if my blood flow is normal.  I am highly myopic (-10 on both eyes) and so it may be dealing with that.  I also have neck issues with what seems like a knot at the bottom of my skull.  Maybe it is dealing with that (the duplex ultrasound should help determine if the knot is creating restricted blood flow).  I am hoping and praying that this condition is something that can be treated and fixed.  I would hate to be diagnosed with something as grim as retinitis pigmentosa and witnessing my vision get worse and worse every day.  I will update this forum as I go on.  I have noted all the possible diagnosis suggested on here and will bring them up to my doctor.  

For whatever it is worth, I come from a family with doctors.  My best friend is an optometrist.  I spoke to her about my symptoms and she said that they are very non-specific.  She said I shouldn't worry about it, but being the hypochondriac that I am, I know it's not normal.  I want to be more proactive about it, especially since it is dealing with my one and only vision.  I have spoken to my cousin, who is an ER physician, and he said not to worry about it either.  Eyes sometimes have a hard time adjusting to light.  

As a warning though, it is NOT normal for total blindness to occur regardless of lighting conditions.  If you are experiencing any sort of vision loss despite turning the lights on/off, especially if you're experiencing numbness/weakness in one side of your body or slurred speech, you should go to the ER, that is usually a sign of a stroke.  
Helpful - 0
177275 tn?1511755244
This problem does not have to be serious.  Especially if you were reading or in bed with a bright light on one side. The eye nearest the light would have more visual chemical (visual purple) blanched than the light away from the eye. When the light was turned off it would take the eye nearest the light longer to adjust to dim light or total darkness.

There are some diseases such a retinitis pigmentosa that severely affect the night vision but it should have been visible to the ophthalmologist.

JCH MD
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Avatar universal
I'm a 20y/o African female with the same problem. I went to get my eyes checked (including for retinal detachment) but the optometrist said everything looked fine. Praying there's no problem!
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Avatar universal
36 yo. male, had my first episode last night. Right eye went nearly blind after I turned off the lights and laid down to sleep. After I got up and turned the lights back on it went normal; turned them off and still could find some difference between the eyes, but after a while my night vision too got back to normal.

From the comments above the closest thing to a diagnosis is intra-cranial swelling leading to a squeezing of the optic nerve and/or the eye, any other explanations?
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Avatar universal
I have just discovered this forum. Those contributing might be interested in this one which comes up if you Google   celiac night vision   or click on
www.celiac.com/gluten-free/topic/102373-celiac-night-vision
I thought the symptom was unique but some of the descriptions here do seem to overlap!
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Avatar universal
Thank godness I'm not alone either!

I recently detected this problem too (in my right eye...), but I'm fearing it might be linked to the fact that I recently increased my intake of sugar (not good, I've got to admit, but I'm already lowering the amount !).

I guess it just happened one night when I turned the lights off, and I kind of felt like my sight was "wrong", and I closed my right eye, then the left one and I noticed that my right eye had gone completely blind!
I tried giving it some time, while lying face up (since I know sometimes lying on one side can affect our sight since we deform the eyeball..), but after maybe 5 minutes, it didn't really change...

I'm going to the ophtalmologist tomorrow, and I'll see what he tells me ! I mean, I use glasses and my eyesight is actually really bad, but I mean, I'm not blind either..

Just for the record, I'm 19 years old and (as far as I know) I'm completely healthy...

It still doesn't take away the feeling that this is all very strange, since people from all ages suffer from this :/ and yet, no one seems to know the real reason behind it >.<!!
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177275 tn?1511755244
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