On one occasion while working in sail-boat charter off season doing maintenance period. It happen to me one day that I didn’t wear sunglasses for protection while polishing a white gel-coat hull on a bright day with orange sponge.

Those eight work hours staring at that bright surface was enough to injure my eyes nerves and it took over two week to recover(with no special treatment). During that time and especially first few days my colour perception was completely off in orange, reds’n greens. Red roof tops were strangely greenish, and green and orange coloured objects had some weird offset in the glow around the edges.

It made my eyes struggle to keep firm focus on the subjects perceived as if they were shaking in a way. Since I cloud feel the strain in my eyes even when closed, I couldn’t rest properly.

I realised that the heat from reflected sun light damaged and overheated inner tissues of my eyes and the inside it felt warm. I was lucky it was not permanent as it was even affecting my “mental clarity”.

There was a sort of background glow from inside lingering on the margin of conscious awareness and subconscious perception. Distracting and strainful over a period where working environment requires looking out for hazards and obstacles.

That’s why staring at the sun rising or setting is less damaging as it lasts not more than 20-15 minutes. While doing it for hours working midday not staring directly, but just exposed to reflected sunlight. Can cause significant damage to eyes nerves and receptive organ tissue due to exposure to higher amount of infrared(heat energy radiation) component present in light during daytime.