Why do our eyes take time to adjust to the dark after being in a bright room and what is actually happening to help them adjust.
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Your eyes contain 4 different types of “light sensors”. You have one each that can sense red, green, and blue. They use a chemical that interacts with the light (remember that light is energy) and then triggers the signal to the brain that says “Hey! I see red/green/blue” and our brain makes the image.
The 4th type of sensor only sees shades of gray, it too uses a chemical to find the light BUT that chemical is really fragile. Specifically, green and blue lights have *too much energy* and they destroy the gray-seeing chemical.
So in bright light, the blue/green energy destroys your gray-chemicals and your eye needs to constantly make more. If you suddenly turn out the lights, at that moment you have no gray-chemical and it takes a few minutes to make more. Once you make more, Voila! You can see shades of gray!
It’s worth noting the Red light does not damage the gray chemical so if you limit your vision to red light, your gray-chemical is intact. This is why military vehicles and other places where night vision needs to be preserved they have red light bulbs. You have enough light to see normally, but then if you suddenly jump out of the plane/tank/APC you have your night vision intact.
Your pupils dilate in the dark to allow more light in allowing you to see more with less light. This is why it hurts your eyes to go from a really dark room directly into sunlight and why it’s important to wear the dark glasses after your eyes have been medically dilated because your dilated pupils are now letting in way too much light for conditions and it takes a minute for your pupils to react and constrict to the new light
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