The Eyesight Thread

[Gemini73]

My eyesight has deteriorated over the years and now I wear glasses. (shortsighted).

Not sure if staring at a screen gaming had its part to play, but do wonder if painting miniature figurines for years led to my eyesight (when looking at distant objects) taking a turn for the worse.

[SandyCoin]

Mine started getting worse when I was around 25 and I started an office job. My eyesight used to be excellent, but I think staring at a boring, white screen all day took it's toll sadly. I miss not wearing glasses, as they are a right pain.

[Cumberdanes]

Without my glasses I am close to blind. Everything more than a few centimetres in front of me is a complete blur.

[RichardUK]

I have perfect eyesight but I have a stress twitch in my left eyelid at the moment

[Minoru]

I've never actually had my eyes tested. I don't think I have perfect eyesight, vision in my right is pretty blurry, but I don't think it's bad enough to bother doing anything about either, so whatever.

[That]

I've never actually had my eyes tested. I don't think I have perfect eyesight, vision in my right is pretty blurry, but I don't think it's bad enough to bother doing anything about either, so whatever.

I was basically like this. Eventually I had a week where I kept getting eye-strain, so I took an hour out of my day to go to Vision Express. I don't really 'need' glasses to see or read, but things are a bit sharper and I definitely feel less tired after reading a computer screen a lot when I wear them.

It wasn't life-changing or anything but it was worth the hour and whatever cost it was, for what it's worth.

[Earfolds]

I still vividly remember the first time I got glasses, and the biggest thing to me was seeing the individual leaves on the trees for the first time. They had always looked like a blurry green mess to me before then.

[Robbo-92]

I really should go and get my eyes tested now you mention it, not had them tested in about 10 years since I lost my last pair of glasses I was meant to wear for close up work. Up until this point I had to wear glasses for the duration as I had a pretty bad squint in my right eye that required two operations to out right (one to sort out that eye and the other to make the other even), all good on that front now though (and has been for years) with thankfully no downsides.

My eyesight doesn't feel bad at all to me though, doesn't go blurred unless I intentionally stare at something for s prolonged period of time so I don't feel the need to get them tested imminently, just when I can be bothered really.

[Minoru]

I was basically like this. Eventually I had a week where I kept getting eye-strain, so I took an hour out of my day to go to Vision Express. I don't really 'need' glasses to see or read, but things are a bit sharper and I definitely feel less tired after reading a computer screen a lot when I wear them.

It wasn't life-changing or anything but it was worth the hour and whatever cost it was, for what it's worth.

Hm yeah, I should probably do that sometime, my eyes do tend to feel tired when I've been reading a lot. Maybe sometime it will feel worth making the effort for.

[Moggy]

I wear glasses, I realised I needed them when I was watching football in a pub with my dad. I wondered how much time was left and my dad sarcastically said “well 70 minutes have gone, so I reckon about 20?”. I figured that if my dad could see the writing on the TV and I couldn’t, that I might have a problem.

I could do with getting them tested again though, I haven’t bothered for almost 10 years now.

[Grumpy David]

Like Tiger Woods, I have better than 20/20 vision.

20/15 supremacy.

[Lime]

Just to encourage people to go to the optician - getting your eyes tested these days is about a lot more that whether you need glasses - they can pick up on all kinds of issues, glaucoma, retina issues, even brain tumours. I had a whole 3d image of my retina taken which the guy talked me through - you could see the optic nerve, any differences/deviations between the eyes etc.

They are such an important part of the body, I'd say it's worth the effort to get them checked out.

If you work with computers all day, you should be able to get the company to pay for your test.




This has been a public service announcement.

[still]

Just to encourage people to go to the optician - getting your eyes tested these days is about a lot more that whether you need glasses - they can pick up on all kinds of issues, glaucoma, retina issues, even brain tumours. I had a whole 3d image of my retina taken which the guy talked me through - you could see the optic nerve, any differences/deviations between the eyes etc.

They are such an important part of the body, I'd say it's worth the effort to get them checked out.

If you work with computers all day, you should be able to get the company to pay for your test.




This has been a public service announcement.

And they can pick up over-active thyroids. My GP certainly didn't!

[Tomous]

Like Tiger Woods, I have better than 20/20 vision.

20/15 supremacy.

I only found out the other day 20/20 vision wasn't the best vision possible. Seems to be a popular misconception.

[Mafro]

I recently switched from monthly contacts to daily ones and holy gooseberry fool why didn't I do this sooner they're so much better.

[Dowbocop]

Like Tiger Woods, I have better than 20/20 vision.

20/15 supremacy.

I only found out the other day 20/20 vision wasn't the best vision possible. Seems to be a popular misconception.

Europe tends to measure this in metres, the Americans tend to measure in feet. 20/20(ft) is therefore equivalent to 6/6(m) (give or take a few inches!)

The first number is the test distance (usually 20 feet or 6 metres). The second number is the distance at which the smallest seen optotype subtends 5 arcminutes (read: how small the letter you can see is!)

Imagine a letter E plotted on a 5x5 grid. Each square corresponds to one arcminute. If you cannot resolve those five arcminutes (i.e. see the lines) then the E will not look like an E to you. The bigger the letter the longer the distance it needs to be away from the viewer to subtend 5 arcminutes. The biggest letter on these vision charts is usually 6/60, so that letter would need to be 60m away for it to subtend 5 arcminutes. This goes down gradually with each line as you can imagine. The 6/6 line is subtending 5 arcminutes at 6 metres. Lines below the line of 6/6 letters subtend 5 arcminutes at a distance smaller than 6m (i.e. 6/5, 6/4). That's how you can achieve better than 6/6 visual acuity.

[Hexx]

Nerd!