5 Common Reasons Your Eyes Feel Tired

Your brain processes most of the information it receives from your eyes automatically. You don't have to think about discerning the color of an object, perceiving the distance between your hand and an object, or interpreting shapes as meaningful symbols. In fact, if you have healthy eyes, you likely don't think about them often.

However, when your eyes become tired or strained, the fatigue may make it hard to think about anything else. Eye fatigue can lead to blurry vision, itchy sensations, difficulty with depth perception, headaches, sensitivity, and watering.

You can treat some types of eye fatigue with rest or medicated eye drops. But in many cases, the most effective treatment is to determine the cause of the problem, remove it, and avoid it in the future. In this blog, we list five of the most common reasons your eyes may feel pained, strained, or tired.

1. Exposure to Harsh Light

Most eye fatigue occurs when your eyes are forced to endure difficult conditions for a long period of time. For example, when you drive toward the setting sun during your evening commute, you automatically squint. If you squint for long enough, those muscles in and around your eyes become sore.

In some cases, the source of harsh light is obvious, like in the glare example. However, light can strain your eyes even if it doesn't seem overly bright. Many individual experience eye fatigue after using electronic devices due to the color of the light from the screen.

2. Focus in a Poorly Lit Area

When your eyes must work harder to provide the same level of vision, the extra effort may manifest as tenderness or irritation. A lack of light can be just as problematic as an excess of light — especially if you try to read, draw, or perform another small-detail visual task in this setting.

If you are prone to eye fatigue, you could experience strain after performing any small-detail visual task for a long period of time — even in good lighting. You may need to schedule regular breaks for your eyes to resolve the issue.

3. High Levels of Stress

Many individuals who experience chronic stress have been told to try relaxing certain parts of their body, such as the jaw and shoulders, because these areas tend to retain tension.

However, many of these people do not realize that they may also squint, furrow their brows, or otherwise tax the muscles around their eyes when stressed.

4. Lack of Sleep

Like any other part of your body, your eyes use periods of sleep to become refreshed. A lack of sleep can slow the response time to visual information, which forces the eyes to work harder and feel tired.

Additionally, a lack of sleep may dry out your eyes, which can exacerbate feelings of eye fatigue.

5. Refractive Vision Issues

While eye fatigue often happens when both eyes are overworked, this strain may also occur when one eye has to compensate for the other. If you have an untreated refractive vision issue, your eyes have to work particularly hard at normal tasks — causing eye tiredness.

Corrective lenses with the correct prescription should clear up eye fatigue caused by this type of vision issue completely.

If you suspect that one of the common causes of eye strain listed here is affecting your eyes, then avoid that situation to see if your symptoms improve.

If your eye fatigue persists in spite of your experiments with removing the causes listed above, consult with your eye doctor. You could have an underlying condition or need an updated corrective prescription.

For expert eye care, trust the professionals at Fraser Optical.