Eye conditions and symptoms

We want to make sure you enjoy healthy, happy eyes for as long as possible. So we’ve put together some information about various eye conditions, their symptoms, and advice on what to do if you’re ever concerned about eye health.

Difficulty seeing at a distance

Myopia, also known as being near-sighted or short-sighted, is a very common cause of blurred vision, where far away objects appear out of focus.

Myopia symptoms and signs
A person with short sight will be able to see things up close quite clearly. But for tasks that require distance vision, like driving or watching TV, their vision is blurred. It’s common for people with myopia to also experience symptoms such as fatigue, headaches or eye strain.

Understanding eye fatigue

Vision is our primary sense, but with non-stop usage of smartphones, computers and other digital devices - eye fatigue is becoming extremely common.

Although eye fatigue can cause discomfort, it usually isn’t serious and goes away once you rest your eyes. You may not be able to change the amount of time you spend in front of a screen, or the factors that cause eye fatigue, but you can take steps to reduce it:

• Wear lenses that help to give some relief to the eye’s autofocus system

• Rest your eyes - look away from your screen and focus on distant objects regularly

• Adjust the brightness, text size and contrast on your device so that the screen is comfortable to look at.

Difficulty seeing up-close

Long-sightedness, also known as hyperopia, affects the ability to see objects nearby. People with hyperopia can usually see distant objects clearly, but closer objects tend to be out of focus.

Symptoms of long-sightedness
Long-sightedness can cause difficulty in seeing clearly for up-close tasks such as reading or computer use. This means the eyes have to work very hard to see, which can often lead to headaches, tiredness, back and neck pain, or other problems.

UV protection

While moderate exposure to sunlight can have beneficial effects on health, the dangers of too much sun are widely recognised. However, far fewer people are aware that overexposure to UV rays can damage their eyesight.

Did you know?
There’s UV light even on cloudy days, and not just in summer, so it’s important to protect your eyes all year round.

How can I protect my eyes?

• Never look directly at the sun

• Buy sunglasses with lenses that screen out 75%-90% of visible light

• When buying glasses and sunglasses, choose lenses that cut 100% of UVA  and UVB rays and offer improved protection.

Eye care for children

It can be difficult for children to notice sight problems, especially when the symptoms are minimal. Therefore, it’s important to schedule regular eye exams for your son or daughter so that any problems they may have are identified early. And of course the sooner that vision problems are detected, the better the outcome.

At Eyesite, we have lots of tricks to make eye tests easy and fun for our little customers. Children can be tested at any age, but ideally, we like to see them before they first start school and learning to read.

Computer use

It’s probably safe to say that you spend at least several hours a day looking at a screen of some sort. Whether it’s spent on the computer at work, at home, or a combination of both, more and more people are developing ‘Computer Vision Syndrome’.

Symptoms can include:

• Tired eyes

• Dry eyes

• Burning eyes

• Headaches

• Difficulty falling asleep or light sleep

• Neck or shoulder pain

Nowadays, we can’t really pass on screen time, but there are ways to alleviate it:

• Visit an eye care professional to correct and prevent computer vision problems

• Avoid excessively bright light coming through the windows or from indoor lighting

• Adjust the settings on your computer display

• Take frequent breaks during the workday or limit your smartphone use in the evening

The health of your eyes couldn’t be more important to us. That’s why we provide a complete eye health examination when you visit us for an eye test.