Deteriorating Vision

If you wear glasses but your eyesight is still getting worse, this can be frustrating. There could be a few explanations. You may simply have the wrong prescription, and would benefit from a sight test and a different pair of glasses. Alternatively, your sight deterioration may not have anything to do with your glasses. Issues like glaucoma, cataracts or diabetic retinopathy all affect your vision, but can't be improved by wearing glasses. You'll need the underlying causes to be treated.

Eyesight can potentially get better, but it depends on what's causing the deterioration of your vision. Some issues ‑ such as cataracts ‑ can be treated, and this can result in you having much better vision. But other causes of eyesight deterioration can't be fully treated. However, by doing things like wearing glasses or making lifestyle changes, you can manage the symptoms or prevent them from getting worse.

Eyesight deterioration is usually very gradual, so it can be hard to tell if it's getting worse or not. Over the long term (as in, several decades), practically everyone's eyesight gets worse. The best way to measure if your eyesight is getting worse is by having eye tests every couple of years.

Many things can make your eyesight worse. Some things are inevitable ‑ such as getting older or your genetics. Others are simply bad luck, such as an accident or developing a disease. Lifestyle choices can also have a role ‑ things like smoking or eating a poor diet can increase your risk of having bad eyesight.

It's rare for your vision to improve with age, but there could be a couple of possible reasons. If you recently made a healthy lifestyle change (such as eating a more nutritious diet or quitting smoking), your eyes could be benefiting. Another possible explanation is something called 'second sight'. It often happens to people who are developing cataracts and who were previously long‑sighted. As the condition progresses, their nearsightedness improves. While it can seem like a positive thing, it needs to be checked by an optometrist as it can be a sign of eye health problems.

Spending large amounts of time staring at phone or computer screens is known to cause a number of unpleasant side effects, including dry eyes, eye strain or eye twitching. Generally, experts believe the effects are temporary and don't cause permanent damage. However, many years of screen time, particularly in early childhood, might increase the chances of a child developing short‑sightedness. There is some evidence that this is true, but it's not completely proven yet.

Yes, eyesight can get worse suddenly, but it's important to work out how sudden the change is and whether or not it's dangerous. Some sudden sight loss (that comes in a few days or even hours) can be a sign of rare but serious issues. If your sight suddenly becomes very blurred, you notice lots of floaters and flashes or a 'veil' sliding across your eye, this could be a sign of a serious eye condition that could lead to permanent sight loss. On the other hand, eyesight deterioration can 'creep up' on you. For example, your eyesight might have just been gradually getting worse without you realising over a few months or years, but you only realised when you needed to do something unusual (such as reading subtitles on a cinema screen).

Most of the time, sight deterioration is a perfectly normal part of getting older and isn't anything to be worried about. With regular eye checks and glasses, the issue can normally be managed quite effectively. Often, the decline in your vision will come to a halt in your 60s or 70s and will stay the same for many more years. That said, you should get any noticeable changes in your vision checked as soon as possible since it can sometimes be a sign of more serious conditions.