Preparing the Vehicle and the Eyes

Night driving rewards preparation more than technique, because most of what goes wrong is decided before you set off.

Clean glass, inside and out. The handbook is specific: keep the windscreen and windows clean, and clean the inside at least once a week. The inside of a windscreen films over with a residue you don't notice by day — and by night that film scatters every oncoming headlight into a starburst, exactly the glare-multiplier effect from Vision & Perception. A dirty windscreen and an undipped oncoming vehicle are a much worse combination than either alone. Use the demister to keep both screens clear, since a misted screen does the same thing.

Working, correctly aimed lights. Everything in this lesson assumes your headlights reach as far as they should. A blown bulb halves your light, and misaimed lights either short-change your seeing distance or dazzle everyone coming the other way — the equipment side of Lights, Indicators & the Law, and part of The Daily Check.

Protect your dark adaptation. It takes many minutes to build and is lost instantly:

• Keep the dashboard dim and avoid bright screens. A phone glance at night costs you seconds of road vision on top of the distraction itself — the two lessons compound.
• Ease out of lit areas. Pulling from a lit petrol station onto a dark road, you are briefly under-adapted; give it a moment before building speed.
• Age slows adaptation, so an older driver's night margin should be larger.

And know when not to drive. Night driving is more demanding, and it coincides with the body clock's low point. Fatigue put the circadian trough at roughly 2am–6am — the hours when unlit roads, reduced vision and minimum alertness arrive together. Sometimes the correct night-driving decision is to leave in the morning.