Can Dehydration Cause Vision Problems?

If there’s one thing we’ve become more aware of as a society over the past couple of decades, it’s the importance of hydration. Or, at least our growing collection of trendy water bottles will tell you that! And, by and large, this trend is a good thing, because hydration is so important to almost every function in our bodies. What we don’t talk about as much, though, is the connection between dehydration and vision. Specifically, can dehydration cause vision problems?

Before we get into that, let’s talk about what dehydration is. As you might assume, dehydration happens when your body doesn’t have the fluids it needs to function. After all, water is essential for organ function. As you live your day-to-day life, though, your body loses fluid through sweat, urination, and bowel movements. Things like alcohol consumption, excess sun exposure, vomiting, and diarrhea can increase your risk of dehydration. People with diabetes also need to drink more water than most people to remain hydrated.

As you lose fluids and don’t replace them quickly enough, your body will begin to engage in tactics to hold fluid within the body, which causes dehydration symptoms. These include increased thirst, decreased urination, dry mouth, headaches, muscle cramps, lightheadedness, drowsiness, and even reduced tear production. And, dry eye isn’t the only way dehydration affects your vision. Let’s talk about dehydration eye symptoms and what you can do to prevent them.

Dry Eyes

As you might expect, there is a connection between dehydration and dry eyes. If your eyes feel dry, they aren’t hydrated enough. This, in turn, likely means that your body isn’t hydrated enough. Tears are essential for clear vision because they keep your eyes lubricated. They also wash away debris like dust, dirt, and eyelashes. This helps prevent eye infections and keeps our eyes comfortable. Reducing tear production is one way our bodies try to combat dehydration on their own.

If you are experiencing dry eye, you can use eye drops to help with lubrication and mitigate discomfort. However, the best way to treat dry eye is to drink lots of water.

Eye Strain

Another common eye problem caused by dehydration is eye strain. The connection between dehydration and eye strain may seem less obvious than the connection between dehydration and dry eye. After all, eye strain can also be caused by spending too much time using a computer or tablet. However, eye strain caused by dehydration is actually usually due to the eyes not being properly lubricated. It’s similar to dry eye, but it just manifests slightly differently. Symptoms of eye strain caused by dehydration include blurred vision, double vision, headaches, and eye fatigue. Luckily, the solution to these problems is simple: drink more water.

Blurry Vision

Can dehydration cause blurry vision? As we’ve already mentioned, the answer is yes. Blurry vision is sometimes caused by the eyes not being lubricated enough, which is the main way dehydration impacts vision. It can also compromise your tear film, which acts as the eye’s first refractive surface. This means that dry eye can actually impact the way light enters your eye, which in turn makes your vision less clear. The solution, thankfully, is simple once again: drink more water, and this symptom should disappear.

Headaches

Another way dehydration impacts vision is by causing headaches. We’ve all probably experienced a dehydration headache at some point in our lives, whether it’s because we were out in the sun for longer than we expected or we just left our water bottle at home by accident. When you are dehydrated, you lose brain fluid, which causes shrinkage and pressure on the nerves. Depending on where the headache presents itself, this may impact your vision. Headaches and vision changes often feel related. If it hurts behind your eyes, for example, you may be less likely to open your eyes or to be able to focus on the visual task you need to. The connections between headaches and blurred vision, as well as dehydration and eye fatigue, also make sense in this case.

Dehydration is also a common, often overlooked trigger for both migraine headaches and ocular (visual) migraines, causing symptoms like throbbing pain, blind spots, flashes of light, or blurry vision. It is also a major trigger for about one-third of patients who experience migraine vision aura. This is also because dehydration causes the brain to shrink slightly, pulling away from the skull, which irritates nerves and causes pain.

How to Keep Eyes Hydrated

To keep your eyes happy and healthy, you should avoid dehydration as much as possible. While your run-of-the-mill dehydration will just lead to the symptoms we’ve already mentioned, severe, untreated dehydration can even lead to brain damage, seizures, and death.

Staying hydrated requires you to drink plenty of water every day. It is recommended that you drink eight 8-ounce glasses of water or more each day. You should also cut back on the amount of caffeine and alcohol you put into your body.

And, as we discussed earlier, feeling thirsty is actually one of the first symptoms of dehydration, so if you feel thirsty, you are already on your way to a problem. Keeping a water bottle nearby to sip throughout the day is a great way to combat dehydration. This is especially important if you are going to spend time outside or in the heat. Drink water constantly when you are doing any kind of physical activity.

It’s also important to make sure your kids are staying hydrated. Send them to school with a fun water bottle, and call them in every so often when they are playing outside in the summertime to drink some water.

Hydrated Eyes: Keeping Your Eyes Healthy

So, can dehydration cause vision problems? In the short term, the answer is yes. Drinking those 64 ounces of water every day can go a long way in preventing dry eye, blurry vision, eye strain, and headaches. However, there is a lot more you can do to keep your eyes in top condition, starting with getting your eyes examined on a regular basis.

Make sure you have a well-balanced diet that includes eye-healthy foods. Kale, spinach, carrots, bell peppers, sweet potatoes, and other richly pigmented foods are typically great for your vision. They can also help you stay hydrated because of their water content. Including these foods in your daily diet can help to protect against eye diseases such as glaucoma, cataracts, macular degeneration, and dry eye syndrome, keeping your vision strong.

You can also choose to take vitamins to supplement the nutrients that you should be getting from your food. There are so many nutrients that are beneficial to the eyes and vision. It can be hard to get all those nutrients from your food alone. Consider taking a supplement, like our Ocu-Plus Formula, that will give you the daily recommended dose of each all at once. By combining good nutrition with hydration, you’ll keep your vision healthy for years to come.