Stress can happen for a variety of reasons, especially from changes such as spending more time at home or working extra hours as an essential worker. While stress is a common experience for many Americans, it’s important to know how to cope with and regulate your stress — especially if you start experiencing other problems caused by your stress.

At Visions Optique, we’re here to make the health of your eyes a priority, and that includes managing your stress levels to keep your eyes strong. Learn more about how stress impacts your eyes and if you have any eyecare concerns, contact the team at Visions Optique and Eyecare in Scottsdale to schedule an appointment!

Stress and Your Eye Health

While stress might feel like something that couldn’t affect your eye health, too much stress can start to impair and impact your eyes. But why is that?

When you’re stressed, your body starts producing higher levels of adrenaline, causing pressure on your eyes. This pressure can start to cause blurred vision, eye strain, and other eye problems.

Knowing the symptoms of stress-related vision problems can help you know if your stress is to blame. Those signs can include:

• Blurry vision
• Eye strain or discomfort
• Eye twitching
• Sensitivity to light
• Abnormally dry or wet eyes
• Floaters that swim across your eye

Once you know that the symptoms you are experiencing correlate with your stress levels, you can start to address the stress. However, if you’re not sure if your eye problems are caused by stress, or your eye problems persist or worsen, schedule an appointment with your optometrist immediately.

Ways to Reduce Stress

So how can you help improve those stress-related vision problems? To start, you want to find ways to tackle the initial stress. This means getting enough sleep, staying hydrated, or meditating. If the stress persists, try to pinpoint the cause or source of that stress.

When you take some time to focus on yourself, what’s causing you stress, and being mindful, you’re able to combat negative thinking and better understand what’s making you stressed. Being mindful in your day-to-day life can also increase your self-esteem and help combat symptoms of anxiety, in addition to preventing stress from affecting your vision.

There are different ways to help reduce stress in your body. The most important thing is to find something that works for you:

• Read a book
• Take a shower
• Write in a journal
• Exercising
• Taking deep, slow breaths
• Take supplements
• Burn candles
• Limit the amount of caffeine you consume
• Spend more time with friends and family
• Try yoga