What Happens If You Delay Your Eye Test?

A few days ago, I realised my eyesight has gone a tad bit bad during a conference. The texts in the presentation appeared somewhat blurry to me. Then I remembered that I have not gone for an eye check-up in four years. I did go for an eye test two years back. Since the prescription had not changed too much, I kept using my old glasses. And because of the pandemic, I kept delaying and delaying till it got to this. I got my eye test done yesterday.

And the verdict…

I can call myself blind. Previously I was slightly blind. Now without my glasses, I cannot see anything. Everything is a massive blur with a mass of whiteness.

Why is a Regular Eye Test Important?

Most often, the prescription for your eyes does not change. You go for a check-up. Get the same result. You feel as if you wasted your time. Getting the same results is the best result you can expect, but it leaves you dissatisfied as you spent your time and money.

For me, my recent eye test brought a lot of surprises. Because it increased by a lot. And I am thrilled to get my new glasses and equally worried as the massive change in prescription will make it harder for me to adjust. (It’s -3.75 to -4.50).

Even my optician got worried. He asked me if I can see the floor straight, getting headaches or visual distortions with the increased power lenses. Well, it will be apparent to me after I get my high prescription glasses in few days.

Apart from the change in prescription power…

Eye tests are crucial to check for abnormalities in your vision or in your eyes. With age, you are prone to eye diseases. Your vision changes may be from underlying eye diseases. If you get blurry vision, headaches too often, you should consult your doctor. These symptoms are common and can be from simple digital eye strain. But it can also be from an underlying eye disease or any other disease in the brain. Do a google search for any incurable brain disease. You will find blurry visions, headaches, dry eyes as common symptoms. These symptoms only seem to come but can spell trouble.

No need to fear. Diseases can come when they come. The only thing you can do is get regular check-ups. Just like a complete body check-up, get a comprehensive eye test once every two years.

Causes for Increase in Eyesight

Eyesight can keep progressing throughout your life. Your vision can keep deteriorating as you age. And many factors add to your woes. For my vision changes, I can contribute to these culprits.

1. Stress

The past year was stressful. With many people losing jobs, rest hanging in the uncertainty and the economic standstill, it was difficult to not get stressed. All of a sudden, we faced lockdowns reminding us of the apocalypse movies. (You need to stay indoors, or you get attacked by zombies.) Most of us have this thought at least once. We are heading towards doom and whatnot. Well, when we are stressed, even the impossible scenarios can feel real.

2. Lifestyle Choices

If you are stressed, you will look for means to cope with your situation. And that means unhealthy lifestyle choices. You can go for comfort eating, smoking, drinking and anything that can take your mind off things.

3. Lazybones

My resolution for the New Year has been exercising. I would pledge that in the new year, I will live healthily. Wake up early in the morning and go for a run. But that will be broken within a few days. It is hard to oblige to your unrealistic goals. And with lockdown, when you cannot go out of the home, I left my already forgotten resolution and stayed in bed till the sun rose too high up.

4. Increased Screen Time

This was inevitable. With the lockdown, all offline services got halted, and you can access things remotely. You started working from home on your computer, ordered food or medicine over your phone and even attended classes online to improve yourself. If you add up the average time you spend on digital devices, it is alarmingly high.

Wait, you have blue light blocking glasses that help you with digital eye strain. You can stay for long hours on computers, but that is not a healthy habit. You might prevent the harmful blue light from the computer or any digital device, but you are still exhausting your body. You will be excessively tired from doing a monotonous activity of staring at the screen all day long.

5. Lack of light

Staying indoors means you are not taking the necessary morning light. Also, when you work from home, you generally do not light up your room. You don’t need light in the room as there is sufficient light from the screen for you to see. This is where you are wrong. Working in a dark room on a computer stresses your eyes. The light from the computer screen feels excessively bright, and it strains your eyes.

How to improve your eyesight?

There are many easy tips online that claim that they can improve your eyesight. I hate to burst the glass castle as this is not true at all. Once your sight gets bad, it is impossible to get it back to perfect vision. It is impossible to reduce the power of your prescription glasses. But you can stop it from progressing. You can try out those healthy tips and not let your eyesight from worsening. You can try yoga, eat vitamin-rich foods and vegetables and avoid deep-fried foods to keep your vision functioning for long.