Light Sensitivity - Eye & Vision Message Board

purple2067 · 03-08-2006, 04:50 PM

Lately, my eyes have been so much more light sensitive and tired. (Obviosuly from my severe dryness.) I walked out of the school building today, and it was only slightly sunny and I had to immediately put my sunglasses on. This never used to bother me. I mean, even a month ago, this would not have bothered me. Some days now, I can't go out of the house without my fitovers sunglasses.

Now, when I put the sunglasses on it just looks like normal light to me. And you know, the thing is that when it is *really* bright, the sunglasses don't even make that much of a difference! I've seen darker sunglasses, so I wonder if I can get darker lenses for my fitovers, or just get yet another pair with much darker lenses for the really bright days. (this would be my third pair - one with untinted lenses, the ones with the moderately tinted lenses, and then if I get these, one with DARK lenses.) If this keeps up, I might have to go back and see Joe the Optician again and see what he has.

The thing is, this concerns me because even on overcast days I tend to need sunglasses lately. On days when nobody else would even think about sunglasses, I need them. My doc still says that my tear quality is extremely poor even with the tiny bit of improvement that I had two weeks ago when I saw him last. I can barely keep my eyes open in even the slightest bit of sunlight lately. I know this is because of my poor tear quality, but it's very scary and disheartening. I can't even look up at the ceiling when the light on my ceiling fan is on. (and I have low-light bulbs in it!) It seems that while my dryness has "stabilized" and not gotten any worse lately (it is on the very severe end of the spectrum as it is) the light sensitivity continues to get worse.

I'll be mentioning this to my doctor when I see him on saturday, but I want to know if anybody else is experiencing this extreme light sensitivity due to dryness.

azebo · 03-09-2006, 07:19 AM

Hi Elyse,
I've noticed that my eyes can be a lot more light sensitive when they are really dry. The lights at work can really bother me sometimes. Does this affect your driving at night? My eyes seem most sensitive to bright lights... headlights, flouresant (sp?) lights, etc.

purple2067 · 03-09-2006, 03:24 PM

The fluorescent headlights really bother me. I've learned to use the tilt on the rearview mirror to deflect the bright headlights, but it's the headlights from oncoming cars that bother me most.

What I'm talking about mostly is sunlight and bright fluorescent lights though. Today was the first day in weeks that I wasn't totally blinded by the sun. And that's only because there *was no sun*! It was a VERY cloudy day. Not a spot of blue in the sky. I am extremely light sensitive even in normal sunlight lately, and sometimes even indoors with the bright lights in the school lunchroom. They are not really that bright, but to me they are. Sometimes I can barely open my eyes. In my bedroom, I intentionally put only one bright bulb in the fixture on my ceiling fan, and that is only there because I need enough light to read my college textbooks. It's a 100 Watt bulb. The other ones are weak little 60 Watt bulbs. I've even got a flat panel screen on my computer to reduce the glare, but sometimes that gets bad too.

Ugh, today I actually had to get off of the expressway and pull over to get a long, annoying string of mucus out of my eye. Haven't had to do that in a while either. I hate when it happens when I'm driving. First the sun glare, and then that. My eyes can't handle it anymore.

Cher2005 · 03-09-2006, 06:10 PM

I have extreme light sensitivety too and now wear 2 pairs of sunglasses. One is prescription and then larger dark tinted sunglasses over them. Helps a lot and no way can I go out in the bright sun without the 2 pairs. Especially to drive. The sun glares off the cars around me and blinds me out. Even on cloudy days, unless it's raining, I wear the both pairs.
Oh and I always drive with the visor down too. If I am driving into the late afternoon sun, there are big problems. Try to avoid that.

purple2067 · 03-09-2006, 09:11 PM

Thanks Cher. The problem is that I can't avoid driving during the peak sunlight hours. I leave for work at 7:00am, and the only way to get there is right in the path of the brightest sunglare possible. Coming home is the same thing. I am usually on the road around 3:30 in the afternoon, with very bright sunlight beating down on me. The windows in my car are not that dark, and even with my transitions lenses in my glasses and the sunglasses over them, it's not enough. The problem is that the second I get outside I have to put on the sunglasses and that doesn't allow the transitions lenses to get darker from the sunlight.