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Eye Glasses: 5 Early Signs You Need Them

Healthy vision and eyesight are dependent on your lens and cornea. And if you can’t see as clearly and are running to the eye hospital near you, chances are you have a refractive error in your eyes and need prescription eye glasses. Usually diagnosed by an optometrist, refractive errors are caused by a cornea that is not shaped perfectly. The cornea happens to be the clearer part on the surface of the eye. The job of the cornea is to bend and focus the light waves. With refractive errors, the light that is coming from an object focuses on the retina. This results in a blurred image and requires you to wear prescription glasses to help focus your vision.

That said, refractive errors can occur in healthy eyes as well, according to Dr Ritika Sachdev, Additional Director at Centre for Sight. She helps us understand the different types of refractive errors:

Near-sightedness or Myopia

Usually genetic, myopia is often discovered and diagnosed in one’s childhood itself where the kid may be prescribed eye glasses. Near-sightedness progresses over the years, especially during the developmental period of a teenager’s body. People who have a higher magnitude of myopia tend to have a major risk of retinal detachment (this may require surgical repair).

Far-sightedness or Hyperopia

This kind of refractive error can also be genetic. Children who develop hyperopia may be able to bring it under control in their adulthood. In the case of mild hyperopia, the distance vision is better whereas near vision is blurred. In the case of advanced hyperopia, vision may get blurred at varied distances.


It occurs when the cornea has an asymmetric curvature. Usually, the cornea is equally curved in all directions. The light when it enters the cornea is focused equally in all directions. But in astigmatism, the cornea’s front surface is curved more in one particular direction than another. This kind of abnormality may affect the vision that is similar to looking at a distorted or wavy mirror. In general, astigmatism causes blurred vision at various distances.


After the age of 40, the lens tends to become rigid and it does not flex easily. Thus, the eye loses its focusing ability and the person is not able to read at a closer distance. This usual phenomena of aging of the lens can be associated with astigmatism, myopia, or hyperopia as well.

Signs You Need Prescription Eye Glasses

signs you need prescription eye glasses
  1. Headaches & Tired Eyes: If you’re having eyesight problems, you tend to strain more in order to do simple things like watch TV or read. This strain can result in tired eyes which feel better if they’re kept shut for some time. It can also cause frequent headaches, typically around the forehead, brows and around the eyes. You may also end up rubbing your eyes often because they feel itchy from the dryness cause by straining.

  2. Squinting: If you ever notice a person who wears spectacles without their glasses trying to read something, you’ll notice they narrow their eyes, almost squint. They do this unconsciously to bring what they’re looking at in focus. This is a natural reaction that one may experience as an early sign of poor eyesight as well.

  3. Needing More Lights: Suddenly, everything looks dull to you unless all the lights are on? Perhaps more than you were previously comfortable with? You could have presbyopia and may need reading eye glasses.

  4. You Have Blurred Vision or See Halos Around Lights: Make note if things begin to look fuzzy to you. Or, when you’re looking at lights like headlights, streetlights, lamps, and the light they emit looks hazy, almost like there’ a halo around it, chances are, you need prescription glasses. If you’re older, this scattering of light could indicate cataracts.

  5. Your Eyes Don’t Adjust To Darkness As Well: Think of when you get out of a plane at night. Or perhaps when you first turn off the light before bed time. Our eyes are naturally able to adjust to the darkness, and soon enough, they can determine shapes and silhouettes in poorly lit conditions (not to be mistaken for pitch darkness). If your eyes have a refractive error, this ability to adjust gets compromised to some degree.

Treatment: Eye Glasses; Cure: Refractive Eye Surgery

While eye glasses can help you lead a normal life and see clearly in most cases, there are alternatives that can provide a more permanent solution. Surgical procedures, both laser and otherwise, can be performed by a surgical eye specialist or ophthalmologist. Refractive eye surgery helps improve the affected eye’s refractive state. It reduces or totally eliminates the dependency on eye glasses or contact lenses. There are different methodologies to correct errors like the surgical remodeling of the cornea (keratomileusis), lens replacement or lens implantation (cataract surgery).

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