one-time night blindness in one eye

[scwater22]

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!

[scottkaiser1991]

I'm a 23 year old healthy male, I experience this problem too, and it only happens when i shut off the light in my bedroom to continue reading on my cell phone, then when i turn the light back on my right eye sees much darker than left as if there's a tinted glass in the middle of it.

After some research I concluded my own little theory: I do not think it's an eye disease. it's not a disease because nothing physical has changed in the right eye, otherwise the physicians would have observed it.

I do believe this has to do with which eye we use more. For instance, when you use a camera with a view finder (that small window to see through), which eye do you close sub-consciously? To me it's the right. another scenario is that I always close my right eye and use my left eye to see through the pin hole on the door. I have no explanation why i choose to do that, i just do that. (same reason I use mainly my right hand). My left eye is more short-sighted than my right, and i think that's because I ride it harder than my right.

Now here comes my hypothesis. Because my left eye is the one i use more often, and when i lay in bed holding my phone super close to my eyes, my left eye is functioning so much more than the right to the point my right eye might even shut down for a while. it could only happen in situations like this because when the object is so close and so bright to my eyes, they don't both have to work in order to create depth (this would also explain why many of you experience this after reading a book/watching tv/browsing on cellphone in the dark because these surfaces are flat). So after my brain adjusts to seeing from only one eye even though i think i've been using both, then when i turn on the light all of a sudden, the one that's been working will adjust right away (hence the left eye can see well), while the idle one takes a little while to start up and absorb light again. in other words, this would be a huge problem if it doesn't go away, but a few minutes after i turn on the light both of my eyes can see well again.

I am no medical doctor but this is the conclusion i'm willing to adjust since no real MD has given us an answer yet. If any of you find an explanation please post here.

[hairmandvd]

same problem (right eye and I sleep on my left side) first time last night I woke up and my right eye felt like a curtain over it so I went to the bathroom and looked in the mirror both eyes were open but like a heavy fog in my right eye it took about five minutes to come back I,m 63 by the way but it was scary at first.

[Graphismo]

I've also had the same thing but having had a retinal detachment where I did lose my vision (thankfully now restored), that's the first thing that comes into my head thinking it's happening again in the other eye.. I have a had habit of looking at a screen in bed before I go to sleep - usually an iPad, and of course it's backlit. When I turn the lights off my right eye - the one that hasn't had the RD - often feels like it's gone blind which is scary since I'm very dependent on it! I have to put the lights back on to reassure myself that I haven't got another detachment. I can't help wondering whether looking at a backlit screen is causing the problems. If one eye is dominant - as my good eye is - then that would explain why I get the temporary night blindness in that eye. It goes off after about 5 minutes and returns to normal, but is alarming all the same.  I did mention it to a health professional a while ago and they said it's quite normal as we get older (I'm 57), but I don't know the scientific explanation. I'll see whether I get the same thing if I just read a normal book without the backlighting.

[reep1]

This happened to me last night as well.  I am a pre-diabetic over 40 female.  Any others on this site with a similar Dx?  I wonder if it a metabolic problem.

[daughterdoe2]

interesting - so many people with these issues.   My situation is a bit different, since I am amblyopic.  I am right-eye dominant, with permanent blurred 20/400 vision in the left eye.  several nights in a row now I have turned out the lights with only my alarm clock light showing in a dark room.  If there is a little ambient light, everything is hazy/foggy and very hard to make out.  If there is no other light, it's like I can't see anything in front of my face.  but I can see the digits on the clock quite clearly when I look over at it.  Turn the lights on and everything is perfectly normal.   I haven't noticed any night driving issues or other diminished vision than that.  Scared me for sure, since I can only rely on the one eye for my vision.  I will visit the doc to see what they say, but given other posts might be tough to get a meaningful explanation.

[SpakainaGalva]

So someone know diagnostics ? Why it is happening and what causes night spot in eye.. ?