This happens all the time and I don’t know exactly how my eyes do this. When I turn off all of the lights in my room to go to bed, all I see is pure darkness (which is self explanatory). I close my eyes and go to sleep. However let’s say 15 minutes later, I have to get out of the room. Now when I open my eyes, I can see everything (like all objects such as the door, tv, and drawers). I just think my eyes adjust to the darkness, but I would like a scientific answer as I am curious to know. I find it bizarre and fascinating that this can happen.
In: Biology
In the back of our eyes there is a tissue called the retina. Within the retina we have two main types of cells that is in charge of our vision: rods and cones. The cones are mostly in charge of our “day vision”, color vision while the rods are mostly in charge of our “night vision”. The rods are more sensitive in the dark which allows us to see things (just not in as much details as it when it is bright). When you first close your eyes there is an adjustment period of which the maximum amount of time the rods need to activate in the retina. There needs to be a certain percentage of rods to activate in order for you to see in the dark. The opposite situation would be how you go from a dark room and into the light and it takes a bit for your eyes to adjust.
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Your eyes have two kinds of light receptors to detect light: rods and cones. Cones are responsible for detecting color and are most effective in bright light. Rods, conversely, are not that sensitive to color, but are much better in low-light conditions. However, since the rods are so sensitive to brightness, they get “washed out” in bright light. It takes some time after the bright light has gone away before the rod cells come back to their full effectiveness. This is what you’re experiencing; the delay between turning off the lights and your rod cells recovering from the light.
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