If you couldn’t read this bit before you put your glasses on, chances are you just did. Kidding aside, you are probably here because you are in the prime of your life, you don’t wear your prescription molten sheets of silicon, and are genuinely concerned about what it could do to you. So let’s make this bit clear: not wearing your corrective lenses (for simple and common eyesight issues like near- or far-sightedness) doesn’t necessarily worsen your eyesight since they only assist the eyes and help them focus, but it can lead you to some other unpleasant side effects. However, in more complex conditions that usually happen during childhood like lazy eye or crossed eyes, not wearing your glasses made to physically bend your eyes into the correct shape would likely worsen the problem or make it permanent.

Then, what DOES happen when you don’t wear your corrective lenses? Besides the obvious, your eyes will attempt to focus your vision. This can take a toll on your eyes and cause headaches and eyestrain that can also temporarily worsen your ability to focus. So, after experiencing said eyestrain, that’s when you may notice that even your prescription lenses don’t focus as well as they should be, and it gives you that impression that your eyes are getting worse. This is mostly because near-sightedness and far-sightedness are caused by the shape of your eyeballs which can’t process light the way normally shaped eyeballs do. Think of your smartphone lens that couldn’t focus to a certain distance away or towards the camera because of how the smartphone camera lens were made, and how those fancy add-on lenses help them focus for really nice macro shots or zoom into really far away distances.

In fact, actual causes for worsening vision aren’t just limited to what eyeballs you were born with, but also bad habits like too much TV (hello, Boomers) or too much Facebook (hi, Gen-Z). Just like your hands and feet, your eyes have muscles that exert effort to focus on the things you look at. Excessive screen time or reading in a dimly lit room is like running a marathon for your eyes with only half a bottle of water. Long sessions scrubbing YouTube and scrolling through your social media cause them to dry up more easily, strain the muscles strain, and basically just cause a lot of fatigue.

So, the next time you leave your glasses home and spend the entire day feeling like you have axe through your head, you aren’t worsening your eyesight per se. But coming home with your vision finally restored with them glasses, you may want to think twice about celebrating with an all-nighter binge-watching Friends on full-brightness.

If you still don’t know for sure, why not visit the nearest Optical Clinic that’s right for you? We got you covered. Click here to find the nearest Sarabia Optical shop near you.

Get a free comprehensive eye exam plus discounts with an ALLCARE membership. Become a member now!