History Main / DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes

* This trope is alluded to in the title ''A Dark-Adapted Eye'' by RuthRendell (under the pen name of Barbara Vine). The story involved a bitter custody battle between two sisters that ends in murder, and is told from the point of view of a surviving niece who, after several years, is finally able to piece together the events that led to her family's tragedy.

* ''Film/The Dark Knight Rises''. '''Bane''' : Oh, you think darkness is your ally. You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn’t see the light until I was already a man. By then, it was nothing to me but blinding!

* ''TheMatrix''. Neo has spent his whole life up to this point inside the Matrix, which meant that he was sealed inside a tube. Morpheus' crew releases him into the real world.

* The dwarves of ''DwarfFortress'' will get unhappy thoughts about being "irritated by the sun" if they've been underground too long. If they've been underground even longer, they'll get unhappy thoughts about being "nauseated by the sun" and puke all over the entrance to your fortress.

* In ''{{Fallout 3}}'', your character seems to be affected by this for a few seconds. Afterward, he recovers, adjusts and sees in daylight with no ill effects.

* [[{{Riddick}} Richard B. Riddick]] suffered from this as a [[BlessedWithSuck side effect]] of his eyes having been modified to let him see in the dark. He normally wears [[CoolShades welding goggles]] to compensate.

** In 3rd Edition, Kuo-Toa and Sahuagin (who line underground and deep underwater, respectively) also had this trait.

-->'''Neo''': ''Why do my eyes hurt?''
-->'''Morpheus''': ''You've never used them before.''

* Gollum in JRRTolkien's ''LordOfTheRings''

* ''TheMatrix''. Neo has spent his whole life up to this point inside the Matrix, which meant that he was sealed inside a tube. Morpheu' crew releases him into the real world.

* The vampires in''The Breed'' were this way. They wore sunglasses during the day and in their world, it was the eye sensitivity that gave way to the idea of vampires being allergic to sunlight.

Any character, human, human-like, or monster, that's used to living in dark conditions will find it physically painful to adjust to the bright light of day -- a process that may take weeks. This is usually not a warning of their character, even if LightIsGood.

May produced BlindedByTheLight in quite normal lighting, when other characters are just fine, but it can also allow good sight that is merely painful. A mundane equivalent to WeakenedByTheLight. Sunglasses may help during the transition.

* Elwood, when he finally takes his sunglasses off in Blues Brothers 2000

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* n the TV show Psych, Shawn invoked this for dramatic/silly effect while coming out of a bank he had been in for a few hours.

* ''DungeonsAndDragons''. Drow spend almost all of their lives underground. When in daylight they suffer penalties to their chance to hit opponents.

* In Fallout3, your character seems to be affected by this for a few seconds. Afterwards, they recover, adjust and see in daylight with no ill effects.
* ''NeverwinterNights2'' (based on ''DungeonsAndDragons'' 3.5e) gives [[OurElvesAreBetter Drow]] and [[OurDwarvesAreAllTheSame Gray Dwarves]] Light Sensitivity - a penalty to rolls when in broad daylight. Both are Underdark-dwelling races. Averted in the case of Deep Gnomes, which do not suffer the same penalty despite being native to the Underdark. (Oddly enough, [[OurOrcsAreDifferent Gray Orcs]] receive a similar (but lesser) penalty despite living on the surface.)

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* In ''{{Sinfest}}'', [[http://www.sinfest.net/archive_page.php?comicID=2274 Crimney's reaction to stepping away from his towers of books.]]

* Onu-Matoran from Bionicle are used to living underground so the light stings their eyes a little bit.