As we get older, eye care isn’t just a matter of whether or not to opt for contact lenses or laser surgery. A regular visit to your eye care specialist is one of the more important items on your list of things to do. For a senior it may mean the difference being seeing well or putting up with the consequences of age related visual changes.
Each year we get poised to hear the words presbyopia, cataracts, senile miosis or worse. All of these terms, in one way or the other, mean that our vision isn’t quite as good as it used to be. Seniors experience more difficulty moving from bright to dark spaces or seeing details in shadowy areas. It takes longer for the eyes to adapt when you move from darker indoor lighting to brighter outdoor lighting. (www.nmlightingdesign.com/topics/index.php).
Scary as it all is, it doesn’t mean that you have lost all of your ability to see, or that you can’t carry on with your activities of daily living. It just means that you need to be mindful of the fact that changes are occurring, and that you might need to make some adaptations in your environment. Poor vision is one of the biggest contributors when it comes to falls among seniors. Appropriate lighting is essential to prevent falls.
Seniors need significantly more light than they did when they were younger in order to see the same things. Higher levels of indirect light are necessary to maximize vision. These changes happen so slowly that you may not realize what is going on. It is important to see your eye doctor regularly and be aware that you can do things to help yourself. If you can make only one or two changes in your life, improving the lighting in your home will give you more for your money than anything else.
Raise the overall light levels in your house, increase task level lighting, reduce glare by blocking or filtering bright lamps or light from your windows in order to control brightness. Consider track lighting that directs light to your work area and eliminates glare and shadows. Look into under cabinet lighting to light up your countertops and double as night lights or consider balanced spectrum lights that filter out harsh glare.
Leave a Reply