History Main / DayHurtsDarkAdjustedEyes

* ''TabletopGame/DungeonsAndDragons''. Drow spend almost all of their lives underground. When in daylight, they suffer penalties to their chance to hit opponents.
** In 3rd Edition, Kuo-Toa and Sahuagin (who live underground and deep underwater, respectively) also had this trait.

* ''TabletopGame/ForgottenRealms'' shows that orcs and drow find the surface much too bright during the day. For this reason, they rarely leave the underdark, or at least only at night. [[HybridPower Half-orcs and half-drow are not affected by this weakness]]. And at least drow can get used to daytime life over time, as Drizzt has proven.

** Also also applies if you happen to open your blinds on a particularly bright day after waking up.

* In the first book of Megan Whalen Turner's ''Literature/TheQueensThief'' series ''The Thief'', we are introduced to the titular thief's ...ahem...[[ObfuscatingStupidity dramatic nature]] when, at his first glimpse of sunlight after several months in prison, he falls on the ground howling and swearing at the top of his lungs.

* One comic has ''ComicBook/{{Daredevil}}'' dryly wonder to himself [[SarcasmMode whatever shall he do]] when he's being pursued by mercenaries wearing nightvision goggles in his darkened apartment...as he's reaching for the light switch.

* ''Discworld/TheFifthElephant'': During an enemy ambush, Vimes lights up a cigar while surrounded by bandits before they're dispatched by him and Assassin/clerk Inigo Skimmer. When Inigo later chides him for this grandstanding, Vimes points out that it boiled down to him turning on a bright light in the darkness.

* In ''Film/ItsAMadMadMadMadWorld", Mickey Rooney and Buddy Hackett need a pilot and find Jim Backus sleeping off a drunk. The room has the blinds drawn and when he gets up he thinks he's blind and staggers to the window. When he opens the blinds, the blinding daylight sends him flying backward, screaming in pain.

* In ''VideoGame/{{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. The same effect happens in ''VideoGame/{{Fallout New Vegas}}'' and ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 4}}'' when the Courier leaves Doc Mitchel's house after being nursed to health and Sole Survivor exits Vault 111 respectively.
** Averted in the opening cinematic for ''VideoGame/{{Fallout 2}}'', in which the instructional film explicitly (and humorously) demonstrates this trope to the Vault Dwellers and highlights the need for protective eyewear; and the Vault door opened rather sensibly at night time.

* This is probably why ''VideoGame/{{Mega Man 4}}'s'' Pharaoh Man is affected by the Flash Stopper. As he's supposed to emulate long-dead Pharaohs and explore dark pyramids, it could be similarly deduced that he's designed for dark environments and freezes when exposed to bright flashes.

* Often averted in real life, although animals such as owls and cats have eyes that are optimized for night-time vision, they are not harmed by sunlight and can see perfectly well during the day (evidenced by the remarkable difference in size between their dilated and constricted pupils).

* One comic has ''ComicBook/Daredevil'' dryly wonder to himself [[SarcasmMode whatever shall he do]] when he's being pursued by mercenaries wearing nightvision goggles in his darkened apartment...as he's reaching for the light switch.

May produce 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. Often indicated by a character's holding up his hands to shield his eyes.

TruthInTelevision, as anyone whose eyes have been dilated after staying a time in a dark place can testify.

-->'''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!

* This trope is alluded to in the title ''A Dark-Adapted Eye'' by Creator/RuthRendell (under the pen name of Barbara Vine). The story involves 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.
* In ''Literature/AClashOfKings'', Catelyn goes to question Jaime Lannister, who's being kept chained up in a dark cell in the bowels of Riverrun. He hangs onto his dignity as well as he can under the circumstances, but has to ask her for a few minutes to get used to the light before he can look at her.

* PlayedForLaughs in ''WesternAnimation/TheLEGOBatmanMovie'' when Batman tries to say "good night" to Alfred, who points out it's morning, and demonstrates by opening the windows. Batman recoils and hisses at the light.

* In {{Limyaael}}'s "Know Your Enemies", Melkor hates the trees because his eyes are sensitive after so long in Mandos.

* One episode of a ''WesternAnimation/TheNewAdventuresOfZorro1997'' had the villain Miguel Vianueva, who had escaped to California after thirty years in a spanish dungeon. After noting he's mildly blinded by a lantern during his first attack at night, Zorro comes to the next confrontation with a ''flare'' tucked in his pockets.

* Often averted in real life, although animals such as owls and cats have eyes that are optimized for night-time vision, they are not harmed by sunlight and can see perfectly well during the day.