Why Are My Eyes Blurry?

Vision can be blurry in many different ways.

Your blurred vision can be sudden and temporary, and a few blinks of your eye clear it up. It can also come on gradually, and be such a slow process that you ‘acclimatise’ to it, and just accept your vision as reality. But blurry vision definitely makes the day harder, as it means you can’t go about your job, study or hobbies with ease.

In this article by Milford Optometrists, we'll explain some of the most common causes of blurry vision by looking at the different parts of the eye that can affect your sight.

Lack of sleep and dry eyes

When we think about eye health, the easiest way to think about them is from front to back. On the front of your eye, the key layer that gives the ‘final product’ of vision is your tear film. This is like the windscreen on your car, and if this has debris on it, or is dry or too moist, it really does affect the visual outcome. Commonly, our eyes get dry due to lack of sleep or too much use of our eyes – if we do stare too long at our devices, it definitely does lead to dry eye and the vision then gets degraded.  Interestingly, it isn’t always linked with any discomfort.

Eye diseases

The next layer of your eye is something called the cornea. This is the clear layer that you can see when you look in the mirror. There are a few eye diseases that can affect the layer and cause blurry vision, but they are largely rare and uncommon. It is best to book an eye exam with one of our optometrists, as there are tests we can run that point towards a particular disease: 09 489 4797.

Cataracts

The lens of your eye comes next. This is an incredible structure that, when we are in the first half of our lives, can change its shape and be a different power – really that is amazing. The key change that can happen to this lens is called a cataract – and is extremely common. A cataract is when this lens is no longer clear and causes difficulty with your vision, particularly your far vision and particularly in lower contrast settings.

Degradation and floaters

Our eye is largely filled with jelly, or we call it the vitreous, and this is prone to degradation and floaters, which can cause blurry vision.

Eye diseases and advancing age

The retina. This is like a film and takes the ‘photo’ of what you are looking at. There are a few eye diseases that affect your eyes, and realistically these are more common with advancing age. As a general rule, this would cause blurry vision or be limited in the centre of your vision.

The final, and definitely not ‘last but least’, the beautiful iris – did you know that all irises are different – so they are like your fingerprint and unique to you – cool huh!  This is designed to manage the amount of light getting into your eye and really has no function on whether your eye is blurry or not.

There are lots of ways that an optometrist can look at your eyes to assess what is causing your blurry vision, and the best way to find out is an eye exam. Make an online appointment, give us an email at info@milfordoptometrists.co.nz, or call us on 09 489 4797 to get booked into Milford Optometrists.

And in the next blog, we can discuss the different glasses reasons why your eyes can be blurry…