What Does It Mean When Your Eyes Keep Sliding Out Of Focus?
It's natural to feel worried when your eyes aren't working quite as intended, but should you be concerned if your eyes frequently slide out of focus? You may experience the problem as blurred or double vision, and it often occurs while trying to focus on a specific person or object. This is a relatively common problem, but it can be disruptive or even hazardous if you lose focus while driving or in similar high-risk environments. These are four possible causes of this kind of visual distortion to go over with your optometrist.
Checking Your Prescription
If you wear corrective lenses, it may be that your vision has changed and your glasses or contact lenses are simply struggling to keep up. Besides creating issues with your perception, it can also put extra strain on your eyes, leading to fatigue and difficulty maintaining focus. When you schedule an appointment with your optometrist, it should be relatively quick and easy to double check that your current prescription is accurate before moving on to other potential culprits.
Tracking Your Eyes' Motion
Looking at and focusing on an object may seem as natural as breathing, but it requires sophisticated coordination between both your eyes and your brain to pull it off. Although rare in adults, some disorders such as strabismus can interfere with this tracking ability, and the slight latency it causes may be responsible for your visual abnormalities. Your eyes' coordination can be measured through carefully tuned tests to rule out this possibility or begin putting together a treatment plan.
Ruling Out Migraines and Other Disorders
Once basic physiological causes have been ruled out, your optometrist may choose to continue investigating less common conditions. Sometimes your eyes aren't the problem at all, but your brain instead. Migraines can manifest as visual distortions and do not necessarily cause pain at all, meaning you may be experiencing them without recognizing them. Another possible disorder is nystagmus, which is characterized by involuntary twitching or vibration of the eye, which you may only register as blurred vision.
Reducing Eye Fatigue
If your optometrist is satisfied that you are otherwise healthy, he or she may conclude that your trouble is simple eye fatigue. This is especially common for individuals who spend many hours per day looking at a computer screen, which can quickly stress and tire out your eyes and the nerves that power them. Your optometrist may recommend that you reduce your time spent in front of a computer, wear specialized glasses while online, and use eye drops to keep your eyes moisturized. With any luck, slightly better digital habits will be all it takes to reduce your blurred vision. Because of the potential for a more serious disorder, however, you should still schedule an exam with your optometrist to make sure you aren't experiencing a real medical issue.
For more information, contact local professionals like Dixie Ophthalmic Specialists at Zion Eye Institute.
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