There are a number of skills that make up “vision”. Vision is actually a very complex process, involving the capturing of light by our eyes (the sense organs) and then the understanding of the information by our brain. But in order to get meaningful and easily interpreted information to our brain, we must first coordinate the muscle systems of our eyes. This too is far more complex than most people realise:
Sensitivity to patterns, fluorescent lights, busy shopping aisles, and discomfort with print are a group of symptoms that often occur together. Sufferers often have a personal history of migraine or there is a history of migraine in the family. The condition is known alternatively as Visual Discomfort or Visual Stress and is probably related to what was once known as Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome or Irlen Syndrome. Coloured lenses were found to improve comfort with print and therefore were popularised as a “cure” for reading issues. Our clinical experience is that sufferers often have undiagnosed focussing and convergence issues, and if present, then resolving these issues through regular glasses or vision therapy should be considered first. Given these results, we were quite skeptical about the use of coloured lenses.
Vision is a sense. Yet, it is more complicated than other senses like hearing, because it relies on good muscle control to get the information to the brain. In other words, focusing, eye teaming and eye movement control affect the quality of the visual information reaching the brain.
Don’t you just love Christmas morning? Those exciting minutes (or seconds) when the landscape under the tree changes from beautifully wrapped gifts, to a throng of crumpled paper, boxes, arms and excited smiles. But as you reach for your tool kit complete with screwdrivers, pliers and assorted batteries to extract the packaging, do you ever wonder, “how long will the novelty last?”
You can have clear sight and yet still suffer unknowingly from vision problems. If you experience headaches, blurred vision, tired, itchy or watery eyes, you may already know how uncomfortable visual stress can be.
