To ask how long it takes for your brain/eyes to adjust to wearing glasses?

[Destinysdaughter]

I recently had an eye test and was told I have astigmatism. Got a prescription,chose a pair of glasses and sunglasses and picked them up yesterday. I put on the sunglasses and everything went weird...the pavement suddenly looked like it was sloping away from me and suddenly I felt like I was about 3 feet tall! Objects to my side like signs and cars felt like they were leaning as I walked past them. It was really disorientating, like being in a house of mirrors at a fairground and made me feel a bit sick.

After 5 minutes I took them off as I felt like I couldn't balance or walk properly.

Is this normal, does this go away when your brain gets used to them? I have heard that you can feel a bit sick or headache but I had no idea my depth perception would be so affected? Please help!

Sorry I know this isn't a proper AIBU but would really appreciate some responses as I don't know what to do.

It took me quite a while to adjust as mine are a strong prescription, even if you get headaches and sore eyes they tell you to keep wearing them as it’s normal and will settle down soon so don’t be tempted to give up. Overall I’d say 2-4 weeks for me, it was amazing seeing how things really looked once I’d adjusted.

Was it vari or bi focals that you were prescribed?

I have glasses for reading and glasses for driving and get fed up with switching between the two. When i tried a vari focal prescription i couldn't cope at all. Took them back for a refund after 2 days and carried on with 2 pairs. Zero time to adjust when i put them on/off.

It's really normal. Especially for first time wearers or a big change in prescription ime. It will only 'go away' once you wear them long enough to adjust.
Did the optician check the fit for you? Sometimes I've found that a slight difference in eye line compared to lens can make a difference. And a good optician will check.

The weird feeling goes within an hour I think. Been a long time since I've experienced it if I'm honest but I don't remember it being an on-going difficulty.

It took me a few days to get used to mine I kept taking them off because they made me feel sick (I have quite a high prescription due to refusing to wear my glasses until I was 25!). I just persevered and eventually my eyes got used to them.

I got a new prescription last year and bigger lenses and the same again it took a few days for my eyes to get used to them and I felt sick and dizzy. Started wearing contact lenses last week and felt disorientated for the first day or so.

I think there must be something wrong with your glasses - they haven't made them up properly. It does happen sometimes, it happened to my mum and she fell down the stairs. Take them back to the opticians and get them to check. They should make your vision better, not make you feel ill.

I picked up my new vari vocals on Thursday (worn varis for years) and today is the first day I've felt totally comfortable with them,it usually takes 3 - 4 days for me.

It’s only that bad when you focus on having glasses on your face for the first hour or so, it gets so much better really quickly after that

Ooops,FOCALs not vocals- they don't speak!

It can take a while, the opticians I use say if you struggle build up how long you wear them for, start with short periods have a break then try again. If after a week its still awful go back.

Usually when I change prescription it takes a day or two, my last change I just couldn't adapt. When I went back they said it might be because of the shape of the frames and the distance from eye to lens (I've also got astigmatism and they said changes in that distance can have an effect too) They made some adjustments and although it took a few more days they're fine now.

Thanks for your replies, they do make my vision clearer as I've been having double/blurred vision for the last 3 months. It's my depth perception they seem to be affecting. I'm 54 and hadn't had any problems with my eyesight until recently

Maybe I need to wear them at home and see if my brain gets used to them and if not go back to the opticians?

Are they bi focals op?

Yes wear them around the house for as long as you can then wear them a bit more. I'm a grumpy cow and wasn't prepared to keep tripping over DDs toys or grabbing at the banisters feeling like falling so i did not persevere. Took them back. Sticking with normal glasses. No regrets.

Really normal! I’ll always remember the first pair I got, like I was two foot tall and the room sloped up at the corners! When my astigmatism was changed a lot I got it again, lasts from anything from an hour to a few days on and off (but so worth it as I can finally read text on a screen clearly)

I've been wearing strong glasses since I was 7, including for astigmatism. So I take hardly any time to adjust to a new pair of glasses.

But yes, you will find that unless you are looking straight at an object, the nature of the lens can make things you see at an angle slightly odd. It can take time to adjust to glasses.

Go back and see if the prescription is the same on all parts of the lenses. If it's not it can make you feel nauseous.
Get them to check their measurements of your centres.
Keep going back until you're comfortable with your specs.
I had a real problem with a pair from local Specsavers a few years ago. They insisted they were fine. So I took them to a much bigger branch of Specsavers in the nearest large town and sure enough the lenses weren't right. They redid them and my specs were perfect.

A couple of hours at most.

I believe varifocals can take a couple of weeks.

Try starting them on a new day when you get up. If I go from one pair to a new prescription straight away then it feels totally weird and makes me dizzy.

Though saying that my last pair felt really bad. I had a headache pretty much constantly and felt like I was in a fish bowl (was fine looking straight forwards but any movement of the eyes and it was all distorted)
I took them off after 2 days and went back, it turned out they had put the wrong prescription lenses in. So put the proper prescription in and off I went. It was better but still giving me headaches so went back after a week, they changed the angle of the lenses and off I went.
Nope still had headaches with them so they agreed to redo my eye test. Turned out they had got the prescription wrong... New glasses were ordered and collected and all was fine.

So moral of the story.... Go back and get them checked, if they don't feel right then go get advice from the opticians they are the best to help, and sometimes they do make mistakes.

Very normal if your prescription contains cyl (astigmatism) and you’ve not been prescribed it before. The way I explain this to my patients is this - Astigmatism means your corneas are not spherical, and so you have two curves to your cornea causing 2 images in your eye. This causes the image your brain fuses together to be more distorted, and so when you have this corrected for the first time, you notice the lack of the distortion - only your brain, being used to it, processes it as distortion, and not the other way round. Try putting your glasses on first thing in the morning when you have fresh eyes, as it were, which can help speed up the adaption process, and wear them for at least a week to give your eyes and brain chance to adapt (assuming they’ve been correctly fitted by an optician, that is - if they’re fitted incorrectly you will have issues due to that!) and return to your optician if you’re still struggling at that point as they may need to make adjustments, either to the fit or to the prescription as it may be too much to take in one go. Hope this helps

Wow thanks, that's really helpful, good to know I'm not alone and thanks for the scientific explanation too!

It's the same as wearing hearing aids for the first time, it takes time for your brain to learn to process sight/sound differently.

I could never walk downstairs in mine as I would misjudge my step all the time. Now my eyes are slightly worse and I find them much easier to wear for long periods. Maybe the prescription is slightly strong?

I think that if you are 54 and not had a prescription like this,then the notion of it taking a couple of hours to adapt is nonsense.
My experience is 38 yrs+ as an optician shows that ones' adaptation is very individual and I've seen people who put new spex on and walked away with never a problem and in the more extreme cases in excess of 3 months.
I've said to people in practice that if you put your glasses on-dont move head or eyes-is vision noticeably better? then the drunken/distorted sensation is just temporary as the best vision is in the straight ahead direction and it will always resolve if the prescription is made correctly.a quick return to the optician will confirm but often,grin and bear it and it will improve so you'll probably hate taking them off!

DH takes a few days to adjust.
DS (10) slings them on his face, and is as happy as larry, and only gets annoyed by DH stressing about him getting used to them slowly, and not getting headaches!