5 Signs Your Eyesight Can Benefit From Glasses or Contacts

Your eyesight may be weakening, but you might not realize the problem because it doesn’t seem so obvious. If you’re noticing one or more of these five signs of a vision problem, an eye doctor can examine you to determine if glasses or contacts should be prescribed to help you see clearer.

1. Blurry Vision

Blurry vision is usually the most obvious sign of eyesight difficulties, but your vision might not be impaired in all situations. You may only notice blurriness when you’re trying to see things up close or far away, and might even try to ignore the problem if you can see clearly in most other situations.

If up-close writing or objects look blurry to you, an eye doctor will likely diagnose you with farsightedness and can prescribe eyeglasses or contacts to improve your vision. 

Corrective lenses can also be prescribed for nearsightedness, which is a vision problem that causes difficulties with seeing things that are farther in the distance. 

Astigmatism is an abnormal curvature of the eye that can make seeing objects from any distance difficult, and corrective lenses can also treat this problem.

2. Problems With Night Vision

If you see clearly during the day but have problems seeing at night, you should have your vision checked to find out if you have an eye condition that needs to be corrected. Your vision problems can also seem more obvious in dim lighting.

Night vision problems are often linked to different eye conditions, and many of these conditions are treatable. Astigmatism often causes night vision problems, or the issue could be related to cataracts or glaucoma that should be treated. 

Other serious eye conditions, such as retinitis pigmentosa and diabetes, can also impair vision in darkness or low light. If your eyes appear to be normal during an exam, the eye doctor may recommend increasing your vitamin A intake to see if that will improve your night vision.

3. Frequent Headaches

You might think that more frequent headaches are caused by stress, allergies, or some of the foods you’re eating, but sight difficulties shouldn’t be ruled out if you start to get headaches more often. 

Eye exams often reveal vision problems that are known to cause headaches, and you can put an end to your frequent headaches once the proper treatment has been prescribed to improve your vision.

Headaches can occur from straining your eye muscles and other muscles in the region when you’re squinting or straining in other ways to try to see more clearly. In addition to farsightedness, nearsightedness, and astigmatism, an inflammatory condition known as giant cell arteritis may be causing sight difficulties along with headaches. 

Headaches themselves can also impair your vision, and this is sometimes a common occurrence with migraine and cluster headaches.

4. Tired Eyes

When you’re reading, working on your computer, or doing other things, your eyes might start to feel more tired than usual. Dryness is a common cause of eye fatigue, but you might also be experiencing another vision problem that’s requiring you to strain your eyes to try to see better.

Whether your eye fatigue is linked to a common eye condition or an eye problem that’s known to occur less often, getting your vision corrected can help you feel more alert. In addition to making your eyes feel tired, eye fatigue sometimes causes other symptoms, such as eye pain, dizziness, and nausea.

5. Double Vision

If you’re seeing two of the same objects that appear to overlap each other, you should have your eyes checked to determine what’s causing your double vision. Your double vision may be occurring all the time, or the problem can come and go.

Common eye problems that cause double vision can often be corrected with eyeglasses or contacts so that you’ll see only one clear image, but your eye doctor may recommend other treatments if a major eye condition is leading to double vision. 

Double vision can sometimes be a symptom of diabetes, macular degeneration, or another serious problem that should be evaluated and treated to either reverse the problem or at least slow the condition’s progress.

Wrapping Up

You deserve to see clearly, and glasses or contact lenses may help you win the battle against your vision challenges. An eye doctor will suggest the treatment that will likely work best for you based on your exam results.