Blurred vision: momentary fatigue or a more serious problem?

All of us have experienced momentarily blurred vision. It is most often caused by fatigue, especially if you stare intently at a computer screen for hours. Sometimes, however, blurred vision has a more serious cause.
 
Sitting all day in an air-conditioned room at a computer or other screen is not good for your body, so it is logical that your eyes react to such an environment too. When concentrating on text or information, people tend to blink less, which causes the surface of the eye to dry out. The eye defends itself against this, for example by making you blink more often.
 
It is a natural reaction: as soon as you feel that your vision is unclear or blurred, the first thing you do is blink. This is exactly one of the tips ophthalmologists give: although we don't normally think about blinking, make an exception during long periods of focused work and try to blink more often.
 

Unclear vision caused by a health condition

 
As with various refractive errors and eye diseases, blurred vision is also associated with a notorious disease that affects a certain percentage of the population: diabetes. If you know about your condition, it is advisable to have regular check-ups with an ophthalmologist.
 
But there is no need to panic straight away – blurred vision can also be caused by an unhealthy lifestyle, which is in your own hands. With a poor diet and little physical activity, problems with blood pressure are very common, and blood pressure also affects your eyesight and can cause headaches. So now and then it doesn't hurt to step out of your comfort zone – or even break into a run – and do some sport.
 

How to treat blurred vision?

 
To find out for certain what is causing your hazy or blurred vision, make sure you see an ophthalmologist, who will help you identify the cause. An eye pressure measurement will also tell you more, as eye pressure contributes to this unpleasant condition. The examination can also reveal other causes, such as eye inflammation, mechanical damage or burst blood vessels... The eye is a complex organ and one symptom can be linked to various causes, which is why it is most reliable to leave the diagnosis to a specialist.
 
For less serious causes, your doctor may recommend lifestyle changes or eye lubricants in the form of eye drops or artificial tears, which are also used for dry eye syndrome.
 

Astigmatism is on the rise

 
An ageing population goes hand in hand with more cases of eye disease. The human body wears out – this applies to our bones and muscles, but also to our eyes. Astigmatism is a common cause of blurred vision in older people and often accompanies other refractive errors, such as short-sightedness or long-sightedness.
 
Besides the fact that a person with astigmatism may see blurred with one or both eyes, the condition also distorts the perception of objects and distances. This is caused by a deformed lens of the eye, on which light rays are not refracted to the same point and therefore form a distorted image on the retina.
 

Treatment of astigmatism

 
If your doctor finds that your eye may have astigmatism, you can choose from various solutions. If you wear glasses, special cylindrical lenses prescribed by your ophthalmologist will help with astigmatism; the optician will build this cylinder into your prescription lenses. Contact lens wearers need not worry either, as manufacturers have people with astigmatism in mind and adapt their products accordingly.
 
A more advanced treatment is surgery in which the surgeon implants a specially curved artificial lens into the eye to replace the original, deformed part of the eye.
 
Probably the most reliable and fastest solution is laser eye surgery, which achieves excellent results and helps patients improve vision that has until now been limited by refractive errors. These operations are painless and free patients from their vision problems permanently.