Why does sight get worse with age

This is completely normal. There are steps you can take to keep your eyes healthy and maintain your eyesight for as long as possible. Be sure to talk to your optometrist about how to take care of your eyes and receive regular eye exams.

As you age, your eyes can change. If you need corrective lens for astigmatism irregularly shaped corneas , hyperopia farsightedness , or myopia nearsightedness , your prescription can change, and you may need a stronger lens to clear your vision. It is completely normal for prescription needs to change with age. The lens of your eye also hardens with age, which can lead to age-related farsightedness, called presbyopia.

As the lens becomes more rigid, focusing on the retina directly is more difficult. This leads to blurred vision and trouble seeing things clearly close up. Muscles that support the lens also relax with age, contributing to visual errors. Presbyopia is a condition that typically occurs around age 40 or later, but you can develop the condition any time after age 35, the National Eye Institute NEI publishes.

Age-related changes in the eyes often begin in your late 30s to early 40s. Most of the potential vision issues that can come up for young adults are going to be related to eye strain or possible eye injuries. Eye strain can be the result of looking at screens and long-term exposure to blue light, such as that emitted by computers, smartphones, and television sets. Often, young adults spend a lot of time looking at screens, and this can contribute to tired, irritated, and strained eyes.

Digital eye strain, or computer vision syndrome CVS , can happen from prolonged screen time. Most American adults spend around seven hours every day looking at a computer screen. This can cause CVS , which can include the following symptoms:. Eye strain from spending so much time looking at a screen can be minimized by following the rule.

Every 20 minutes, look at least 20 feet away for about 20 seconds at a time. This can help to reduce symptoms of computer vision syndrome, as it allows your eyes time to relax and re-center. Eye fatigue and strain are common in your 20s and 30s, as you likely spend a lot of time at the computer, on your smartphone, and watching tv. Exposure to blue light from these devices can be harmful to the eyes over time.

Try and rest your eyes when they get dry, strained, and irritated. Take frequent breaks from your screen. Reducing your exposure to blue light and screens for at least an hour or two before bed can help you to get more restful sleep as well.

It can be tough to cope with worsening vision, particularly when it seems to happen earlier than expected. For dry AMD, there's little patients can do except take specific high-dose vitamins to reduce progression of the condition and to prevent wet AMD. For wet AMD, injections into the eye seal leaking blood vessels to stop the problem worsening and sometimes improving vision.

Patients need four to eight injections a year for life. Injections must be given within weeks of symptoms appearing to be effective Eylea may be more effective so you need fewer jabs. A new technique, Oraya's IRAY, uses low voltage X-ray beams to stop abnormal blood vessels growing and reduce inflammation and scarring. A trial at King's College Hospital London found it reduces the number of injections needed.

Cataracts are cloudy patches that form on the lens, commonly caused by ageing. Symptoms include cloudy or blurred vision or small patches of vision loss occurring gradually. At first, you might think your glasses are dirty.

You may also need extra light to see smaller print. Risk factors: Getting older, smoking, excess drinking, diabetes and family history. Treatments: The only treatment is to have the cataract removed — more than , operations are performed every year.

Not everyone needs surgery as their cataract is not affecting their vision. Traditionally, surgery has involved removing the cloudy lens through a mm incision in the eyeball using a metal blade and replacing it with a clear plastic one.

Most patients can resume their normal life in a few days. First, the lens is softened and broken up using high frequency ultrasound and the fragments are flushed out. The latest advance is where the surgeon operates the laser via a robot. This is said to be more accurate, but there is not yet scientific evidence that it's superior.

Cataract surgery has involved removing the cloudy lens through a mm incision in the eyeball using a metal blade and replacing it with a clear plastic one. The replacement lens can be used to correct short or long-sightedness or astigmatism. Patients should discuss their needs with the surgeon. You can also get multifocal lens implants that work in a similar way to varifocal glasses.

This complication of diabetes is caused by high blood sugar levels damaging blood vessels, leading to fragile new blood vessels growing on the retina and leaking. Then you may experience shapes floating in your vision, blurred vision or sudden vision loss.

Untreated it can cause blindness. Risk factors: Uncontrolled high blood sugar is a major risk factor, as is high blood pressure. Treatments: 'Everyone who is diagnosed with diabetes should have a free retinal scan and an annual check-up,' says Mr Hardiman-McCartney.

A third of people with type 2 diabetes have signs of retinal damage when they're diagnosed. In the past, laser treatment was used to heal leaking blood vessels, but increasingly Lucentis and Eylea monthly injections are used to tackle blood vessel growth.

Should YOU have laser eye surgery? Most people have some form of eye problem, from short sight, long sight to age-related issues such as cataracts and everyday complaints such as conjunctivitis and dry eye.

Here, in the third part of our unique How To Beat series, experts reveal the latest thinking in treating sight problems and how best to protect your eyes. The NHS advises having your eyes checked every two years. Short and long sight are known as refractive errors, where the shape of the eyeball stops light being focused on the retina. Laser eye surgery can correct long and short sight, which are known as refractive errors, where the shape of the eyeball stops light being focused on the retina.

Short sight myopia , where distant vision is blurred and near vision is clear, means the eyeball is too long from front to back, so light rays are focused just in front of the retina.

The normal length of an eyeball is 24mm. If it is just 1mm longer, you will be short-sighted. Daniel Hardiman-McCartney, clinical adviser to the College of Optometrists, says that though the eyes stop growing between the ages of seven and 13, your sight can worsen as the cornea, the clear window at the front of the eye, changes over the years it becomes stiffer and thinner, and the curvature can alter. More children are developing myopia, probably as a result of using screens and spending more time indoors.

It is thought playing outside is protective, perhaps because of higher levels of light and the fact the eyes don't have to focus on near objects. Long-sightedness hyperopia , when distant objects appear clear and close vision is blurry, occurs because the eyeballs are too short or the cornea is too curved, so the light rays focus beyond the retina. An estimated , laser eye procedures are carried out each year. It is not available on the NHS without special medical circumstances, so 98 per cent are done in the private sector.

It tends to become more noticeable with age — this is because your near vision is already poor, so when age-related problems with reading kick in, the blurriness is more noticeable. A third kind of refractive error, astigmatism, occurs when the lens or cornea is not perfectly spherical, causing blurred or distorted vision. It can accompany short or long sight.

All three problems can be helped with glasses or contact lenses, but more people are opting for laser eye surgery. Over time, this lens gets less flexible and loses its ability to change shape, which makes it more difficult to focus on things up close. There are some things you can do, other than wear reading glasses, to treat presbyopia.

With monovision, one eye will see close up while the other sees far away. It takes some adjustment and women are usually happier with this option than men.

Progressive contacts and glasses are another option. These are lenses that have both near and far prescriptions in them, usually half and half, but each prescription is unique. You can still get LASIK or other corrective surgeries in this time frame, depending on what your doctor says.

Not all people are good candidates for surgery. Cataracts are when your eyes start to appear cloudy, or when you see more details not related to reading fade from vision. You will need surgery to correct them, which is called a cataract transplant. These are surgical but routine operations that doctors specialize in, and if you have other issues, you can look at combining your surgical options as well.