Can Stress Cause Blurry Vision?

Key Takeaways:

Stress causes a bodily response that temporarily changes some of our body’s functions.
If experienced for longer periods, stress can cause a wide range of adverse effects on our bodies.
Some such negative effects include vision problems, both permanent and temporary.

Can stress cause blurry vision? Given the many causes of stress we face daily, stress seems inevitable nowadays. It can also manifest as sudden blurred vision, making us prone to long-term or chronic stress-related vision loss. So, how can you avoid something that seems to be a natural part of life?

In this article, we’ll explore the effects of stress on our visual health and how we can help mitigate it. Ready to learn more? Read on to discover how stress impacts your vision.

Stress and the Body

Stress is a natural part of life, given the hustle and bustle of life. It’s our mental and physical reaction to what life throws at us, whether personal or professional.

When something makes you feel like you’re in danger, your body reacts by going into a fight or flight response. When this happens, your body’s nervous system releases stress hormones like adrenaline and cortisol.

When those hormones get released, they cause changes in your body’s functions that help increase strength and focus and provide better reaction times and stamina. Some forms of stress response you may notice include:

faster heart rate
high blood pressure
tighter muscles
quicker breathing
sharper senses

The Effects of Chronic Stress

Many experiences can trigger a stress response, but they usually only show up temporarily. While it seems ironic, some short-term stress can even benefit your health. It helps develop your body’s response to situations that can be serious, both physically and mentally.

However, with recent global events and modern-day expectations for many of us, chronic stress has become commonplace worldwide. If suffered long-term, stress can be detrimental to one’s health.

Chronic physical stress and prolonged mental stress can both cause a multitude of symptoms that can affect your well-being. Some common symptoms include feeling anxious, depression, irritability, trouble sleeping, and headaches. One effect people may overlook is stress-related vision problems.

Stress and Vision Loss: The Impact of Stress on Vision

Does stress affect your vision? Yes, it does. When you are stressed, your body’s response includes dilated pupils that help you see better to spot possible threats. Because of the stress hormones, your blood pressure rises, which may also put additional pressure on your eyes.

Can stress and anxiety cause vision problems?

However, severe stress levels can cause more serious negative effects on your vision. In fact, according to studies, mental stress may cause glaucoma and vision loss symptoms.

Consequently, the same research suggests that vision loss also causes mental stress. The study says that this may affect one or both eyes and may either consistently show up or only occasionally.

On top of glaucoma, chronic stress can also result in stress-related macular degeneration. Stress disrupts blood flow around the eyes due to poor circulation. In turn, this may lead to optic nerve damage, eventually resulting in visual diseases and disorders like macular edema.

Stress-Related Vision Problems: Signs and Symptoms

What vision problems can stress cause? Here are some eye issues to observe:

Stress may cause light sensitivity and blurred vision. Light can easily hurt your eyes, and it may make focusing on your vision more difficult.
You may experience eye spasms. You may feel random eye twitching when you’re stressed or sleep-deprived. These twitches are usually painless.
Stress may cause dry eyes. You may feel some eye discomfort or pain because of a lack of lubrication. This, in turn, can also cause watery eyes as your tear ducts try to compensate.
You may see eye floaters. These floaters are the tiny spots and squiggles you may see move across your vision. tiny spots that swim across your vision.

Stress and Blurred Vision

Can stress cause blurry vision? Can anxiety cause blurred vision?

Prolonged, extreme stress may have worse repercussions than temporary eye strain and slightly blurry vision. Apart from the possibility of getting glaucoma and developing macular edemas, stress may also worsen visual system diseases that you are already experiencing.

Chronic stress can also worsen optic neuropathy, which is caused by damage to your optic nerve. It may also make diabetic retinopathy worse, a vision loss condition that may come with diabetes.

Temporary Loss of Vision Due to Stress

On its own and as an isolated case, stress doesn’t cause temporary total vision loss. However, the body’s response to stress can cause your posture to change and put more pressure on your eyes. It may also cause dimming and tunnel vision as your body activates flight or fight mode.

Stress and Eye Floaters

Have you ever noticed tiny shapes and lines that lazily float across your vision? Those are floaters.

Floaters naturally appear. They’re caused by changes in the fluid in your eyes that cast shadows that may appear as these random shapes. They’re not harmful, and you don’t need any form of treatment when you see them.

Most of the time, you don’t notice floaters. However, because stress causes changes in your vision, particularly by making you more focused and aware of your surroundings, your floaters become more easily noticeable.

Avoiding Stress-Related Vision Problems

Trying to lower your risk of stress-related vision loss is simple: decreasing stress levels is the best way to avoid these vision problems.

That’s easier said than done, given how busy most of us are as we deal with our everyday lives. But you can be mindful of your overall health to help protect your eyes from damage. These include eating healthy, regular exercise, and getting enough sleep and rest. It also includes supporting your eye health with proper nutrition.

Take Care of Your Vision With iGenics

To ensure that your eyes are healthy and protected from long-term damage, iGenics is an incredible supplement that you can try out. It contains ingredients that specifically help boost your vision health.

iGenics contains “Age-Related Eye Disease Studies” (AREDS)-2 ingredients. It uses natural ingredients that contain science-backed nutrients that have been observed to help fight against age-related vision degeneration. These AREDS-2 nutrients include lutein, zeaxanthin, copper, and zinc.

iGenics also has vitamins K and A for added antioxidant support.

On top of these, iGenics uses turmeric powder instead of fillers as the supplement’s “flow agent.” Not only does using turmeric not dilute the other healthy ingredients in the supplement, but it also provides more nutrients and antioxidants to help support vision health.

Overall, iGenics is a supplement you can add to your diet to fortify the health of your eyes. It provides antioxidants to fight free-radical damage and boost your immune system’s anti-inflammatory response. It also helps boost your ocular nerve’s function while helping reverse vitamin deficiencies that may affect your eyes.

Frequently Asked Questions

How Long Does Blurry Vision From Stress Last?

This depends on the case. If you suffer from short-term stress, possibly causing vision problems, it can correct itself in a few weeks. If you suffer from chronic high stress, the visual symptoms you may experience may likely be permanent. You should visit your eye doctor to help correct this.

Does Lack of Sleep Also Cause Vision Problems?

Yes. If you’re sleep-deprived, you may also experience blurred vision. After all, lack of sleep can also boost stress hormone release. Some common eye problems from sleep deprivation include random eye spasms, dry and wet eyes, and a higher risk of eye infections.

How Can I Lower My Stress Levels?

If you suffer from chronic stress, you may help reduce your stress levels by following a healthy lifestyle. This includes a healthy diet, proper nutrition, and regular exercise. Apart from this, you may also practice calming exercises such as deep breathing exercises and meditation.

Keeping Your Body Calm and Your Eyes Healthy

Can stress cause blurry vision? Definitely, which is why you have to remove stress to gain your good vision back. While we can admit that stress is unavoidable, it’s best to be aware that we can take steps to reduce it. On top of that, we can also find ways to help our bodies mitigate and avoid the long-term damage it may cause to our bodies, especially our eyes.

Knowing this is the first step to helping protect your body from such damage. Transition to a healthy lifestyle with the right diet, supplements, and exercise, and see how it can help your eyes in the long run.