Types of Lenses & Facts about Vision

Eyeglasses are trending and often used as accessories by fashion stylists. In fact, with a big brand like Gucci on your frame, you can tell how far eyeglasses have gone with fashion.

So do not worry if lenses bother your vision. Instead, go for the latest frames for a classier look.

But if you need glasses to aid your vision then it’s important to study the types of lenses available in the market and learn how to clean your pair.

Plus, different lens types help with different eye conditions. And as technology advances, lenses have also improved in quality. Advanced thin and lightweight plastic lenses have replaced the bulky glass lenses.

Today’s lenses do not break easily like glass types did.  However, they are coated with a film to protect the eye from the damaging ultraviolet rays.

The 5 Types of Lenses

The following are some of the best types of lenses available in today’s market.

  1. Polycarbonateplastic lenses.

If you are a sportsman or participant in activities that can damage eyeglasses, then these types of lenses are ideal for you. The lenses are impact-resistant and don’t break easily. They also have an inbuilt film for protection from UV rays.

  1. High index plastic lenses

As the demand for thinner and lighter lenses rose, high-index plastic lenses were introduced. They are thinner and lighter. And as the name suggests, have a very high index of refraction.

  1. Polarizes Sunglasses

These lenses were specially designed to reduce shining from surfaces like water or a white surface. Therefore, they can be ideal for sports or driving. However, you will need to seek the right prescription from a doctor, depending on your eye condition. They will suggest the right curved (concave or convex) lenses for you.

  1. Photochromic lenses

These types of lenses are designed to change from clear to tint depending on the light intensity. When you are at a direct UV light, the lenses turn tinted, and you would not require sunglasses. However, inside a tinted car, the lenses won’t turn because the windscreens absorb the UV light.

  1. Aspheric lenses

These types of lenses assume many forms of curvature depending on the effect they have on your eye. The thinness and the flatness also determine the portion of your eye covered.

Having learned some of the best lenses in the market, let us shift focus to cleaning and protecting eyeglasses:

On one occasion or another, eye lenses get dirty and may obscure vision. Professionals suggest using clean fingers to clean the lenses with warm soapy water.

Run clean water on the lenses and then wipe with a dry soft cloth. You may lack the prescribed super-fine washable fiber cloth that traps dirt and dust.

But by all means, avoid using a paper towel or your cloth or any household cleaners as you would end up leaving scratches on your lenses.

Vision Myths & the Truths behind Them

What have you heard about the human eye, vision, and the various types of lenses? Is it real or just a rumor?

Back in your young and innocent days, people told you to avoid doing some things that would harm your eyes. How much of it was real?

While some were mere myths, others were true but may have been misunderstood or misrepresented by the messenger. But now you are grown enough to find out for yourself and pass the knowledge to your young ones.

We had to travel down memory lane to recall some of the myths and seek an expert’s opinion. Here’s what we found, some of them will surprise you!

 

Myth: Watching TV at close range will harm your eyes

 Fact: Sitting at a close range to a TV is not scientifically proven to harm the eye. What happens is that in case of a lot of screen seizures, they usually cause temporal strain to your eye. Since most people don’t blink when looking at the screen, the eye gets dry, and the vision suffers until your eyes moisten again.

Myth: Reading in dim environments will ruin your vision

Fact: At a dim light, your eye pupils expand to get more light to the retina to interpret the image correctly, and the eyes focus on the image. Reading only gets hard in a poorly lit environment, but that doesn’t harm your eyes. The difficulty experienced is interpreted as a problem developed due to reading in a dim environment.

Myth: Looking directly at the sun will harm your eyes

Fact: Looking at the sun directly can be uncomfortable for your eyes. But that cannot harm your eyes. Since the light is too much for your retina, the pupil contracts as much as possible to reduce the amount of light going to your eye. Therefore, you will obviously not see the sun clearly and move your eyes away immediately. A lot of people explain this as an eye condition, yet it’s just a normal thing. Sunglasses have the best types of lenses to help look at the sun directly.

 

Myth: Eating carrots help improve your eyesight

Fact: If improving eyesight was that easy, we would have no visually impaired people. One would simply take a bunch of carrots and start getting better. Carrots, however, consist of crucial vitamins that improve general body health, not just eyesight.

Myth: Wearing someone else’s glasses will hurt your eyes more than helping

Fact: Wearing someone else glasses will affect your normal vision, but once you remove them, your vision will be restored. Glasses only change your eyes’ light reflection pattern, which changes your vision ability rather than doing any harm. The types of lenses used do not matter, either.

 Myth: Wearing sunglasses indoors can reduce your eyesight ability

Fact: Sunglasses are only meant to reduce the sharpness of sun rays. Wearing them indoors, away from bright sunlight, can lead to poor vision. Many have interpreted this as an eye condition. However, simply removing them restores your vision to normal.

 

Myth: Crossing your eyes will make them stay that way

Fact: since eye muscles can move, crossing your eyes is harmless. The muscles can roll your eyes up, down, inwards, or even outwards. This is a result of focusing on an object. The eyes will eventually revert to their normal position when the muscles relax.

Can Binge-watching Affect Your Eyes

What other rumors have you heard about vision? Many vision myths are linked to TV watching.

Binge-viewing is a term used to define prolonged hours of continuous television viewing or streaming on sites like Netflix.

So does spending long hours in front of a TV set affect vision? Perhaps not. But as we shall soon see, spending long hours watching TV or streaming may have many health-related impacts.

One study by the States Vision Council of the United States reveals that approximately 80% of the population uses devices for not less than two hours daily, leading to an increase in the number of eyestrain cases reported.

According to the council, almost 60% of shoulder and neck pains, headache, blurred vision, and dry eyes reported daily results from Binge TV Watching.

But dry eyes are not really a vision problem; this often happens when you look at something for long without blinking, which is common during long TV hours. Also, the effect is mild and may go unnoticed. And as soon as you blink, the eyeballs will moisten up.

Separate research by Ronald Chervin, a director of Michigan Medicine’s Sleep Disorders, says that watching excessively before going to bed may make you lose sleep.

Ronald says that screens produce a broad-spectrum light, for example, blue light from TVs, which may cause eye conditions due to prolonged hours of watching.

Additionally, the lights emitted by electronic devices cause a delay in the release of melatonin, which is responsible for sleep. As a consequence, one may stay awake for long or face problems with their sleep patterns.

Chervin says that all humans are healthy with their evolved cycle of 24 hours of sleep, and a change in this pattern can lead to insomnia.

Watching movies or shows triggers the mood, causing a rise in adrenaline levels interfering with sleep.

Avoid excessive streaming, for example, having episode after episode before going to bed because it interferes with your sleep cycle.

Chervin advises that you avoid exposing yourself to the excess blue light emitted by electronic devices by settling into a nice relaxing routine like reading a book, brushing your teeth, and wearing your pajamas.

Final Words

That’s pretty much all you need to know about the types of lenses and the common myths about vision.

Don’t hesitate to consult an eye specialist if you suffer any eye-related problems. Remember an eye specialist is different and more qualified than an optician.