Do you see many people around you wearing glasses? Actually there should be more people wearing glasses to correct their vision. Many people around us are not aware that they need glasses. This is because either their vision changes was gradual that they didn’t notice the changes or they have not had a proper eye examination in ages.
It is best to keep vision in check and you may pop into an ophthalmologist clinic for an eye examination to be performed even if you don’t feel like there’s anything wrong with your eyesight. Nowadays, many optical shops and public health awareness campaigns offering free eye examinations.
Here are some of the common signs that you may need a pair of glasses:
1. Frequent squinting
By squinting you are trying to reduce the light entering the eye and make the blurred image to appear smaller. You may feel that you’re seeing clearer, however, it’s just a temporary fix and yes, it highly likely that you're trying to compensate for poor vision or blurred vision. You may be experiencing farsightedness or nearsightedness. If you notice your child squinting, could be lazy eye, a condition caused abnormal vision development in infancy and early childhood contributing to poor vision.
2. Eye fatigue or strain
There are reasons to why you may be facing eye pain or fatigue. Some of the common reasons are lack of sleep, allergies, flu or cold which the pain should be gone in few days as you recover. However, if you are experiencing pain whilst preforming regular activities such as watching television or reading, it is definitely time for you to get your eyes examined. You would want to make sure that you don’t have an undiagnosed disease, vision change or an eye infection.
3. Frequent headaches
Headaches are one of the most common outcome of farsightedness and /or astigmatism which cause objects which are either close or far to appear blurred. Frequent headaches are triggered especially when you strain your eye to focus better.
4. Blurred vision
Blurred vision indicates that you're farsighted (seeing poorly close-up) or nearsighted (seeing poorly far away). You may notice it when you’re driving, reading or working on a computer.
5. Seeing halos around light
When your eyes can’t focus properly, light becomes scattered and blurry. You may even notice hyper-fluorescent circle around lights bulb, street lights and car headlights. Normally, such symptoms can be corrected with glasses but sometimes halos also are one of the symptoms of cataracts.
6. Sitting close to the TV
When you’re unable to see far (nearsightedness), you may sit closer to objects (in this case a television) to compensate for being unable to see from far away without even realizing that you are doing it.
7. Eye rubbing
Eye rubbing may indicate eye fatigue or eye strain. In this case a pair of glasses can be a great help. Eye rubbing could also be caused by eye infection or allergies. It is best to have a professionals such as an physician or an eye doctor to have a look at it.
8. Holding book too close or too far from your eye
If you’re getting nearsightedness, you may be holding a book too close to your face and likewise if you’re farsighted you would be holding the at arm’s full length in order to see the fonts clearer. Starting at the age 40, most people experience some form of farsightedness, or presbyopia, as they age. Reading glasses can help.
9. Closing or covering an eye to watch TV or read
You may be closing or covering the "bad" eye so it doesn't get in the way of your vision. That can signal that you have lazy eye or astigmatism. Or it can mean you have a cataract or double vision caused by strabismus.
10. Difficulty seeing at night
This situation is commonly caused by nearsightedness and such condition should be able to be corrected using glasses. There are also other underlying reasons contributing to poor vision at night such as cataracts.
Vision is something we should never take for granted. Poor vision may be gradually affecting our day to day activities without even realizing. Hence, it is best to have regular check ups and be up to date of other eye care tips. Look out for more vision care tips to come in future posts.