Using sunglasses to preserve your night vision

[Bitter Ashes]

Something I've kind of been thinking about for flyposting at night is the bloody annoying habit of losing my nightvision when I get near a street light and then not being able to see a bloody thing when the lights stop.

I know that traditionally sailors used to wear eyepatches to preserve their below descks night vision when they were up on deck, but tbh, I don't fancy walking around with an eyepatch. Would sunglasses serve the same purpose?

Put them on when there's light around and whip them off in the dark so I can see? I suppose having a pair handy if a flare goes off would be helpful too. What do folk think?

[Tablo]

Sounds like a good idea to me. I say go for it!

[Bitter Ashes]

My mind's been working on this a bit more since I last thought on it. Imagine this during a demo in the evening where you need to break through a police line.

1) It's dark. You put on your sunglasses
2) Light a flare
3) Push through the lines

The coppers would be unable to see with all that light around, while you with your sunglasses would be fine and when the flare ends you can whip off your sunglasses and still have better vision than the coppers who just lost their night vision.

The morale effect of not being able to see what they're facing could swing things. Also it'd stop rubber bullets and the like because they wouldn't be able to aim them without seeing.

The difficulty being of course that most demos, where you need to break the line, do not take place somewhere it's dark as there's street lighting around and usually a helicopter with a searchlight.

[Tablo]

Well, I really do think that in more militant actions where flares are in use it could come in handy. Even in day time activities, whether or not a flare is used to blind protestors, could be of use. I've never been in any militant protests so I can't say, but if you can use some shades it seems worthwhile since it protects your eyes from all kinds of things from UV rays to pepper spray.

[Dulce et Decorum est]

What they taught me at Army Cadets was that when you are in a dark environment which is suddenly lit up by a strong light, you cover one of your eyes with your hand, beanie or balaclava to preserve the night vision on that eye, while you use the other eye to look around normally (Sort of like the Pirate thing).

But of course, using one of your hands when trying to push through a police line wouldn't be practical but you would retain better night vision with that eye than you would if you used sunglasses.

[Bitter Ashes]

Our drill in British Army was to go prone and shield our eyes if a flare went up. A tripflare drill was to just turn around and run. Obviously the coppers wouldn't be doing this, or dropping their club/sheild to cover their eyes. They'd pretty much have to look directly at it unprotected

[Dulce et Decorum est]

I would imagine that there is some method that Riot Police use to keep their natural night vision in the event that a flare went off nearby.

Besides, in an urban environment I would imagine there would be plenty of light in the firsts place (Fires, street lights, flashlights etc) instead of darkness.

[Susurrus]

Lol "O god light, everybody run!" If only it were that easy to beat the police....

[Dogs On Acid]

Good sunglasses shouldn't dilate your pupils, or so I've heard.

They stop UV radiation from getting to the eyes but prevent the pupil from dilating and hence allowing excessive radiation of other wavelengths.

So unless they're crap, it won't help with NV.