Do you ever have to get up at 3am to tend to a crying baby and then after you get her back to sleep realize that you have to go to the bathroom and completely blind yourself when you turn the bathroom light on which then renders you blind again when you try to navigate your way back into your dark bedroom? Anyone? No, just me? Well, if you ever do find yourself in this situation, here's a trick that really works. When leaving a dark room and entering a light room (or vice versa), keep one eye closed. The open eye will adjust to the light and then when you return to the dark room, the eye that was closed will sill be used to the dark conditions.
I didn't make this technique up. It's based on the pirate eye patch principle. Pirates who often went above and below deck, used eye patches to have one eye adjusted for the top deck and the other eye already adjusted for the darkness below deck. The strong sunlight that a pirate experienced above deck could require minutes of adjustment to the dim lighting below deck. In the critical moments of modifying the rigging, navigating, and especially during battle, every second counted. A simple switch of the patch from one eye to the other saved time and was more convenient than being temporarily blinded when going between decks.
7 comments:
That's very interesting. Thankfully I am over the having to get up for a crying baby stage, but I do occassionally get up in the middle of the night. If I happen to remember this technique I will give it a try!
I love your blog.
Elaine, you are easily one of the smartest people I know! Great idea! ;-) Unfortunately, even at age 5, Anthony still gets me up at least 2x/week, so I'll have to try this one!
Melanie - I love your blog too and I miss reading it!
There was a Mythbusters show about this and I found it incredibly interesting. I never thought to apply it to my everyday life though! Brilliance!!!
This will help in the bathroom but if the room is too bright your eyelid will let too much light pass into your eye and your color cones will still be stimulated and you won't have all your night vision in that eye. I have been on photo shoots where the photographer was using so much strobe lighting that i could see the object being photographed through my eyelids.
Terrific post. I never knew that I always assume pirates were missing that eye. I know some cool stuff about pirates and the Isle of Youth but I've typed enough.
I love this!!! I assumed they were missing an eye! I am sure I will be sharing this with others.
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