A few years back, Marie Gluesenkamp Perez started noticing the extreme brightness of car headlights in rural Washington, where she lives—and felt bombarded. “You come around a curve and get these headlights smack in your face,” she says. “They make you lose reaction time. It’s a real safety risk.”

As a U.S. Representative, she’s working to change federal regulations to limit how bright headlights can be. Rep. Gluesenkamp Perez—who is also co-founder of an auto repair shop in addition to her political service—points out that even though vehicle safety has improved in the past decade, total road fatalities have gone up . Deadly accidents occur disproportionately at night , as headlight brightness has increased.

It’s not just headlights. Our eyes are increasingly assailed by ultra-bri

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