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Dispelling Myths About Vision: All Those Things You Thought You Knew

Leave it to us to come up with a post that's designed to make you rethink your intelligence, eh? Well, we hope you'll forgive and forget once you realize we're here to arm you with more information after we've made you feel a little bit dumb.
 

There are many myths about vision and the use of eyewear including reading glasses that have been floating around out there for years. Even if you've caught onto the fact that they're not true by now, you're going to read this list and go "ahhh" because surely at some point you've made one of these statements to one person or another.
 

1. Use of glasses (including reading glasses) makes your eyes worse - wearing eyeglasses or vision tools of any sort will not make your eyes worse. It's all about perception! If you've been wearing your reading glasses each and every time you pick up a book, the first time you try and read without them, you'll find that the words appear blurred. Your first thought may be "oh no, my eyes!" but if you think back to that time in your life when you had to start wearing reading glasses; you'll remember that it was that very blurry issue that started it all and you've just forgotten.
 

2. Reading in the dark will hurt your vision - this is one of those statements that is giving all you parents out there an "aha!" moment. Why? Because you know that this is a threat you made to your child when you caught him/her sneaking in a late night reading session with a flashlight under the covers. Well, guess what? It's probably not the first time, but you LIED! Reading in the dark can definitely cause eye strain regardless of age or vision, but there is no lasting damage as a result.
 

3. You need to take off your glasses to exercise your eyes - some people who normally wear reading glasses will read without them just for the heck of it. The belief is that reading without glasses can exercise the eyes and strengthen vision. Sorry to burst your bubble, but nothing you can do for yourself, short of using glasses or getting surgery can actually reverse any decline in vision. If you've been buying into this misconception, you don't need to be dealing with the headaches from eyestrain; put your glasses back on!
 

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