It’s important to stay hydrated for many reasons, including for your eye health. People who don’t drink enough water are more likely to suffer from dry eye than others. While there are many different causes of dry eye, dry eye is a side effect of dehydration. 

Here is what you need to know about how staying hydrated helps your eyes. 

What Can Happen To Your Eyes If You Don’t Stay Hydrated?

If you don’t have enough tears, your eye may become itchy, scratchy, or have a burning sensation. You may also experience blurred vision, trouble focusing, and headaches. Your eyes may appear red and you may feel as though there is something in your eye.

You may also experience dry eye. Dry eye can lead to problems like eye inflammation and corneal abrasions. It can increase your risk of developing cataracts. You may even experience temporary vision loss that is reversible with rehydrating your body.

Your Body Needs Water To Make Tears

Water helps your tear production. Tears help to repel bacteria, protect the cornea, and keep your eye moist and healthy. 

You actually have three different types of tears.

• Emotional tears are the ones most people think of. These well up when you get emotional. While most people cry when they’re sad, people can also cry when they’re happy, angry, or experiencing other emotions.
• Reflex tears are the ones that happen when you get something in your eye. Your eyes start watering in an effort to flush the foreign object out.
• Basal tears are constant. They’re the ones that protect your cornea and help to keep your eye healthy. If you have dry eye, you may experience tightness or burning in your eyes, as you don’t have enough basal tears to keep them comfortable. 

People’s eyes may water when they’re dry, which can cause people to think that they don’t need hydration. However, this is your body trying to rehydrate, similar to how your body sweats when you get hot in an effort to cool you down. 

What Causes Dehydration?

Some common causes of dehydration include:

• Simply not drinking enough water
• Alcohol
• Excessive salt intake
• Diabetes
• Caffeine
• Stress
• Hot weather
• Excessive screen use (due to how looking at screen causes you to blink less often)
• Prescription medications

A Note About Hydration Needs

In general, it’s recommended to drink about 8 glasses of water a day. However, it’s important to remember that hydration is a very individual thing. Your activity levels, height and weight, diet, the climate where you live, and more can affect how much water you need. For instance, what keeps one person hydrated may not be enough or may be too much for someone else. 

As such, it’s important to pay attention to your thirst cues. If you have a diet rich in foods like watermelon, soups, yogurt, and the like, you may not need as much water as someone who eats things with a lower water content. Rather than fretting about how many ounces you’re drinking, pay attention to what your body is telling you.

How To Tell If You Are Dehydrated?

Some signs of dehydration include:

• Darker urine (pale or clear indicates being hydrated)
• Feeling thirsty
• Dry eyes, lips, or mouth
• Not needing to pee much
• Tiredness
• Dizziness 

Dry eye is unlikely to be one of the initial signs that you’re dehydrated. If you start to notice that your eyes are dry, get some water. While dry eye may start off mild, it can worsen.

Keeping water with you through the day makes it easier to remember to drink water.

What If My Eyes Are Still Dry When I’m Hydrated?

If you’re vigilant about staying hydrated but you still suffer from dry eye, your dry eye is likely the result of something else. Talk to your eye doctor about the issue. They’ll be able to help you determine what’s going on. You may benefit from eye drops.

Corrective Lenses Help To Prevent Dry Eye

It’s important to give your eyes a break from screens and contacts to help them stay hydrated. Wolcott Optical can help you find blue-light glasses to protect your eyes from dry eyes resulting from staring at screens all day, as well as a backup pair of glasses you can use in order to avoid wearing your contact lenses for too long. 

Contact us today to learn more about the eyeglasses and contact lenses we provide. While we are not eye doctors, we care about protecting your vision with quality corrective lenses.

There’s a persistent myth that if you wear glasses or contact lenses, they will end up making your vision worse in the long run. Similar myths fly about all areas of healthcare – people assume that vaccinations poison you instead of help you, that psychiatric drugs keep you reliant on them rather than actually helping with mental health issues, and more. 

However, such myths are just that: myths. Glasses don’t make your vision worse. But here is what you need to know about why people think they can indeed make your vision worse and why this is not the case. Let’s jump on into it. 

Why People Think Glasses Make Your Vision Worse

There are several reasons why people think that glasses make your vision worse. Some reasoning comes from those who believe that there are natural, holistic solutions to all issues while other reasons come from people who don’t understand certain factors involved with getting glasses.

Here are some of the main reasons why people think that glasses make your vision worse.

Myth #1: You Force Your Eyes To Adjust

People think you force your eyes to adjust to the lenses and that trying to find “holistic” ways to fix your vision is better than relying on contacts and glasses.

Myth #2: The Breaking-In Period Is Unnatural

People claim that your prescription will only be right when your eyes are in an adjusting state and that the breaking-in period is unnatural and a sign that you shouldn’t be wearing glasses.

Myth #3: Glasses Damage Your Vision

People say that glasses can damage your vision since the lenses are in front of your eyes, and you would have to move your head to see to either side.

Myth #4: Glasses Weaken Your Eyes 

People claim that wearing glasses for too long damages your eyes and weakens the muscles. People have similar concerns with contacts, like how you can accidentally hurt yourself putting them in or taking them out or how they may impact oxygen to your eyes.

What People Claim Can Be Done About Vision Changes Instead Of Using Glasses 

People who believe that glasses make your vision worse can claim that vision changes can be reversed or prevented from worsening by doing eye exercises and adjusting your diet accordingly, such as by including antioxidants and fish oil in your diet.

While these are very important for your eye health and can help to prevent issues, they’re not a substitute for corrective lenses. You should indeed do these things, however, if you have blurry vision, you should look into glasses or contact lenses too.

Do Glasses Actually Make Your Vision Worse?

No. There is no scientific evidence that glasses weaken your eyesight. Glasses actually help your eyesight.

Corrective lenses do just that – correct your vision. While wearing contacts for too long can strain your eyes, you can switch to glasses to alleviate eye strain. Blue light glasses can also help with excessive screen time.

It’s natural for your vision to worsen as you age – this is not because of your glasses, but just the natural aging process or because of eye diseases. Your vision can also worsen if you do things like staring directly into the sun.

Specialized glasses and contact lenses can even strengthen your eyes, rather than weaken them, such as glasses for crossed eyes or lazy eyes in children. After wearing these, the child may not need glasses again in the future after the vision therapy has concluded.

Do Glasses Make Your Eyes Dependent On Them? 

No. Wearing glasses does not make your eyes dependent on them or cause your eye muscles to atrophy. Glasses do not make your vision worse, but you may find yourself reaching for them because you like being able to enjoy clear vision that you don’t have otherwise. 

Does Taking Care Of Your Eyes Prevent Your Vision From Worsening?

While it’s good to take good care of your eyes, this won’t exactly prevent your vision from worsening 

People tend to need stronger prescriptions as they get older not because their prescription worsens their vision but because eye conditions can worsen with age, like nearsightedness. 

Only eye surgery can fix your vision if you do not want to wear corrective lenses. While taking care of your eyes is important, doing so won’t improve bad vision. 

Why Does My Vision Seem Worse After Wearing Glasses?

Your eyesight doesn’t actually get worse when you start wearing glasses, but it may seem like it because your perspective shifted. When you see the world clearly, you’re then more aware of the effects of your uncorrected vision. Your vision isn’t worse, but you can realize just how far from perfect it was now that you know what it’s like to see clearly.

If you experience bothersome symptoms with your glasses after two or so weeks, your prescription may be too weak or too strong, you can see your eye doctor to have it adjusted. Your glasses shouldn’t make your vision worse or cause long-term adverse symptoms.

Do You Need Glasses?

Come to Wolcott Optical and browse our wide selection of frames! We have frames for all different styles and needs. Contact us today to learn more about our glasses.