Common Signs You May Need Glasses

Frequent Squinting

Squinting is normal in some cases, such as when you transition from a dark room to a sunlit day outside, it's common to need to squint while your eyes adjust to the light. But if you're squinting constantly in sunlight without your eyes adjusting, or you're squinting in situations that shouldn't have enough light to warrant it, there may be a problem with your eyes. Some individuals also squint when their vision is blurred. The goal is to reduce the amount of excess light that enters their eye, which helps reduce the overall size of the image. This can work as a temporary fix in some cases, but doing it constantly indicates you're using squinting as a way to compensate for vision issues. Like blurry vision, the constant need to squint can indicate you're nearsighted or farsighted. Children who squint a lot may have a lazy eye, which occurs when abnormal vision development leads to a decrease in vision.

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Chronic Headaches

Many individuals don't think about their vision when looking for a cause of chronic headaches. But frequent headaches can be a sign there's an issue with your eyes rather than your head. Headaches occur when the eyes are strained trying to take in data, potentially because the lens is trying to focus on an object but failing to center light on the retina. Some individuals experience headaches because of farsightedness, especially if they're trying to focus on objects close to them. Astigmatism can also cause headaches. Astigmatism occurs when the curve of the cornea or lens has an imperfection. In a normal eye, the lens and cornea are equally curved and smoothed in every direction, but those with astigmatism have a cornea or lens that isn't smooth or evenly curve. This causes the light rays to be refracted incorrectly, leading to nearsightedness or farsightedness. The error in light bending is called a refractive error. An adult who has significant astigmatism may be aware their vision isn't ideal, but children often don't notice symptoms.

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