Night Driving and Sensory Overload

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Night driving gets to me a lot more than daytime driving. It's too hard to see the road, there are too many bright lights in my eyes, and I'm afraid an animal will run in front of the car and I won't see it in time to stop. Unfortunately I have to drive at night several times a week to get to my job.

I just hate driving in general. At night for the reasons mentioned above, in the day because the sun is somehow always in my eyes, and there are a lot more cars which stresses me out. Somehow I can still do it without crashing.

I feel that the daytime brightness of day driving is a lot more overloading than the dark + headlights of night driving. I think that my brain is overloaded not by direct glare, but total amount of light over time. I find no problem shining lights directly into my eyes, but the constant illumination of a lit office or sunny day is overloading. Even a cloudy day is too bright. The best days are rainy days. The best offices are near-dark. The dark of a room or outside is relaxing.

I've seriously thought of doing exactly that; just get a homemade bumper sticker that said something to the effect of, "I have Asperger's and your headlights are blinding me; please turn off your brights!" I've tried flashing my brake lights at people who blind me like that, but they don't seem to get it. I also find it very hard to tell the difference between regular lights and full beams; they both seem equally intense to me.

Thanks for all the suggestions guys, they're much appreciated. Winter break is coming up after next week, so I'l have less night driving to do for a while, and I'll also have an opportunity to catch up on lost sleep! That will improve the sensory overload problems I've been having considerably.

Just a note to those of you who use yellow or orange tinted glasses while driving; I read that it's dangerous to do that because it decreases contrast, making things harder to see, and gives the impression of improved vision, where the reverse is actually true.

http://www.laramyk.com/resources/educat ... g-glasses/

Oh I hate it! I avoid driving at night on very active roads. It's like I can't see anything with all those stupid headlights. If there are too many drivers on the road with their infernal headlights on I catch myself even slowing down to the consternation of those behind me. Sometimes I get honked at because I'm trying to pull out on to a busy intersection but I don't move because of the inability too process what's going on. That at times causes me to have a big meltdown in the car because to me they are pushing me to go faster than I am capable of. I used to call road rage but I understand that's a little different lol

I also find it hard to drive at night. Normal headlights seem like they are brights and brights seem like they are the sun. Any light I look at has a glare effect to them (that star-shaped ring of light rays). I got pulled over the other night when I was driving to the store because I had been speeding. There were a lot of cars on the road so I was having a little trouble seeing and focusing. The officer didn't give me a chance to explain my situation and I doubt I could have spoken even if I wanted to. Luckily, he just gave me a warning. Now I'm afraid to drive at night because I expect to see a cop pull up behind me and I dread having that bright light of theirs pointed at my eyes again and those dreadful strobe lights.

I have a hard time driving at night. The headlights, reflections from cars and signs, reflections from the road, and street lights and stop lights, mess me all up and I have a hard time being able to see correctly because of it. I don't know if I should call it confusing, lack of focus, or what. I really don't know what it is in order to call it something; it's just that all the lights and reflection of light mess me up badly.

I don't drive at night very often. If I do and there's an oncoming car, I am usually forced to look at the white shoulder line, or at the very least, to the lower right of my windshield to the side of the road.

I've given up on driving altogether now as my anxiety is too bad.

I did find night driving very stressful/difficult though, more so than daytime driving. As others have said, headlights, and especially the LED ones, were horrible. Also, on some roads near me even the 'cat's eye' lights in the road were being replaced by LED type. I found it most difficult with lights from behind. It was really hard on dual carriageways or motorways to work out which lane people behind me were in so I never dared overtake at night.