To ask if not wearing glasses when you need makes you eyes worse

[User40407]

I’ve always told my ds1 who wears glasses that he should always wear to prevent his eyes getting worse. I’ve just read something that says wearing glasses only corrects your sight when you are wearing them and not wearing them has no impact on your eye sight either way. Aibu to ask if this is true?

Is he long or short sighted? Not wearing glasses could cause eye strain. My dd squints without hers

He’s long sighted

I am short sighted, I only wear my glasses when I go out or if I watch TV sat on the sofa (vv rare - like 2-3 times a year - usually watch on my computer). My prescription has improved slightly over the last ~10 years.

I was told when I was about 19 that I needed glasses for seeing things far away (I can't remember what it's called!) I got them, but really struggled to get used to wearing them all & I didn't feel like they improved my vision at all, so I just stopped wearing them.

The next time I went back, before the optician had even started the examination, he bollocked me for not wearing them, he looked at my notes & said I should wear them all of the time & he could tell before the examination that my eyes were far worse already. He then looked at my eyes, did the examination & said that I needed to come back & see someone else.

When I went back about a week later, to see the next person, I was told I didn't need glasses anymore! My eyes had improved (although, I'm still wary that my eyes were ever really truly bad enough for glasses to begin with!) I've had my eyes checked every year since & they are still perfect 12 years later.

So I think sometimes wearing them all of the time can make eyes worse, obviously not for everyone, but I knew from the beginning, mine were not helping me.

I would love to hear an optician's opinion rather than anecdotal data.

I am far too short sighted to not wear mine though.

If he's long sighted, then that can improve permanently, so long as glasses are worn. We had a problem with DS2 refusing to wear his glasses, leading to a very stern lecture from the optologist about him being at real risk of ending up partially sighted if we didn't make him persevere.

I’d honestly love to know this too. My partner is adamant that directly you wear glasses your eyesight deteriorates.

He has a history of eye issues and ended up having laser eye surgery and a lens replacement in one eye. He was told by an expert apparently that you need to keep using your eyes to work the muscle. I am in my forties and can feel my eyesight has worsened. I keep wondering if I should be wearing reading glasses but he said that’s the first step to needing glasses all the time. That I should work my eyes and read small print even when it’s not as clear as if I pop on his old glasses that were in a drawer.

I’d love an optician to tell us the correct thing to do. Does working the eye to read small print keep the eyesight better than thinking sod it I’ll stick some glasses on, it’s easier?

I would love to know this. I don’t wear glasses as much as I could (astigmatism, slightly short sighted), but would if I knew it was ‘better’ to.

On the very rare occasion I don't have my glasses on I really have to squint and strain to see much of anything which might cause my eyesight to deteriorate?

I had my prescription weakened last time I went to the opticians. However I'm short sighted and most people get longer sighted as they get older so maybe its that?

I get massive headaches if I don't wear my glasses when I need them, or take them off when I don't need them - eg for reading. However I have also been told in the past to leave them off for a while in the mornings to make sure my eyes are doing some harder work.

Astigmatism and childhood long sightedness can be improved by glasses. Short sightedness is just corrected when you wear glasses and often gets worse.

What age is he? Found this online:

In children, uncorrected or poorly corrected refractive errors can get worse because of eye strain.

After the age of 40 age related long sight is common. I wear my glasses more often for reading hese days as I can't see small print that well now

www.nvisioncenters.com/best-lenses/worse-vision/

Optometrist here! Children under 7 are in what is called the 'plastic period' which means the connection between the eyes and brain are still developing (some studies have shown this can extend a little beyond 7) If within this time there is a significant prescription of any kind (long sighted, short sighted or astigmatism) or an eye turn, not wearing the prescribed glasses would affect the development of this connection between eyes/brain and it cannot be rectified later. So if any of this applies OP yes he should be encouraged to wear his glasses as his optometrist directed

After this time as the child and eye grows, longsightedness tends to improve and short sightedness worsens. This is related to growth and can't hugely be influenced

As an adult, wearing glasses will make you see better at the time (obviously!) reduce eye strain etc but won't affect the long term progression of your sight, much of which is again age related unfortunately

I hope this makes some sense/is helpful!

There was a period of a time where I didn't wear my glasses as often as I should - at my next opticians appointment, I got told off as he could see a lot of evidence of eye strain. I started being more responsible and wearing them when I was supposed to, and at the following appointment my prescription had improved.

www.allaboutvision.com/eyeglasses/faq/do-reading-glasses-make-vision-worse.htm

I had an inkling about 10 years ago every time I got a new prescription my eyes 'settled' into it and got worse. Every time I went to the opticians they were a diopter worse. Since then I stopped wearing my new glasses. So just over a decade later of wearing progressively older prescriptions my eyes went from at worse -7.25 to -5.75.

There is a lot of research. All with lots of flaws. However if you look up lens induced myopia it is interesting.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3278587/

Also the repeatability of subjective eye test results:

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/269517089Reproducibilityyofsubjectiveerefractionmeasurementt_
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A recentish study that suggests undercorrection decreases the progression of myopia (conflicting with the results of a couple of earlier studies which turned out to be flawed in terms of not accounting for the amount of close work subjects did)
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https://www.researchgate.net/publication/2775614777_Effectoffundercorrectiononnmyopiaprogressionnin12-year-olddchildren.

All interesting. The salient point, IMO, is that if you do close work, or anything which does not involve distance vision, wearing your distance lenses, then your vision is being overcorrected. IMO there is bio feedback. The body tries to compensate for the eye muscles working harder to focus close to wearing distance lenses and increases axial length, if you are growing, or the eye muscles may overdevelo and not be able to relax, if you are not. Resulting in more shortsightedness.

Catch 22 if you need to see to a standard ie, with driving your sight needs to be up to scratch. However I would recommend resting eyes in weaker prescriptions in between using them for driving (for non distance vision).

I was given national health glasses as a kid for an astigmatism. Refused to wear them for vanity reasons. I go to the opticians fairly regularly and the astigmatism is still there but I don’t need glasses. So I’m convinced that the astigmatism improved with age and that not wearing the glasses helped. I feel that had I worn the glasses I’d be a full time glasses wearer now. It’s a slippery slope.

But Op, there is some research I have read that suggests positive lenses makes shortsightedness better. Maybe the reverse is true with negative (shortsighted lenses)?

If I don’t wear my glasses I get a stinking headache and start to feel sick 🤢

This is related to growth and can't hugely be influenced

I'm not sure this has been proven conclusively.

He is not myopic (short sighted) so info about myopia isn't relevant

If I don’t wear my glasses I get a stinking headache and start to feel sick 🤢

Here in lies the problem. I wear my old prescriptions. Started with the prescription down. Doing this consistently and my myopia prescriptions stooped progressing and actually decreased. Go figure. My eyes were worsening way beyond adolescent growth. Until I stopped wearing the new glasses apart from when I absolutely had to.

He is not myopic (short sighted) so info about myopia isn't relevant

It sort of is in terms of the possibility of a biofeedback response.