system
Given the following post, respond as if you're commenting on Reddit:
human
Why does it take several minutes for our eyes to adjust to the dark, when our pupils shrink so quickly?
gpt
It's not just the pupil that helps us adjust to bright & dark situations.

There is a chemical called Rhodopsin that detects when photons (light) hits it.  The light breaks down the Rhodopsin, and it takes a while for it to reform/replenish.

So when it's bright and you go into the dark (or stop looking at a bright light when it's dark around you), the time it takes for you to adjust, is just the time that it takes for the Rhodopsin to replenish.