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Blurry Vision

Also known as cloudy vision, fuzzy vision, out-of-focus vision

The most common eye complaint there is — and the cause ranges from an outdated prescription to an emergency.

About 1 minute to read

Overview

Blurred vision is a symptom, not a diagnosis. Most of the time it means light is no longer landing cleanly on the retina — an uncorrected or outdated prescription, a tear film that is drying out between blinks, or a lens that has started to cloud with age.

What matters clinically is the pattern. Blur that has crept in over months, affects both eyes and clears with a new prescription is routine. Blur that arrives suddenly, sits in one eye, or comes with pain, flashes or a shadow across your sight is a different problem entirely and needs looking at the same day.

What are the common symptoms?

  • Vision that will not sharpen however hard you focus
  • Needing more light, or more distance, to read comfortably
  • Haloes and starbursts around headlights at night
  • Blur in one eye only, noticed when you cover the other
  • Eye strain, squinting and headaches after close work

What causes it, and who is at risk?

Refractive error — myopia, hyperopia, astigmatism and presbyopia — accounts for most blur, and is corrected with glasses or contact lenses rather than treated.

Beyond that: dry eye, where blur clears for a second after each blink; cataract; keratoconus and other corneal problems; diabetic retinopathy; macular degeneration; advanced glaucoma; and migraine aura. Poorly controlled blood sugar and some medications blur vision temporarily.

How is it treated?

A comprehensive eye exam is the whole point here. The refraction settles how much of the blur is simply optical, and the eye-health check finds anything sitting behind it.

Optical blur is corrected with glasses, contact lenses or, in suitable eyes, laser surgery. Tear-film blur responds to dry eye treatment. Cataract is fixed with routine surgery. Retinal and optic nerve causes are treated on their own terms — and there, how early the diagnosis is made matters more than anything else.

When to get seen quickly

Blur that comes on suddenly, affects one eye, or arrives with pain, flashes, new floaters, a curtain across your vision, or weakness or slurred speech, is an emergency — not something to book in for next week.

This page is general information, not a diagnosis. Only an eye care professional who has examined you can tell you what is actually going on.

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Related conditions

Myopia (Nearsightedness) Distant things look blurred because the eye focuses light in front of the retina rather than on it. Hyperopia (Farsightedness) Close work is hard, and in stronger cases distance blurs too, because the eye focuses light behind the retina. Astigmatism Vision is blurred or doubled at every distance because the eye's surface is shaped more like a rugby ball than a football. Cataracts The eye's natural lens gradually clouds, dimming and yellowing vision — and it is fixable with routine surgery.
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