Wonder Wednesdays – What is astigmatism?

What is astigmatism?

If you read yesterday’s life update post, you probably saw this topic coming… 😆

Answer: Astigmatism is an eye defect in which the cornea, the clear round part of the eye that covers the pupil and iris, is not shaped correctly.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Or you could simply say that a normal eye cornea is shaped like a round ball while an eye with astigmatism is more like a football. This causes light that enters to be bent which means that the light rays don’t reach the back of the eye as they should, causing images to blur or distort. Sorta like this:

Image Credit: Shutterstock

Some websites defined it as a “refractive error.” For me personally, without my glasses, LED clocks are one of the hardest to read because the light from one number blurs into the next. (And until I got my glasses, I thought this was a normal thing and wondered how people could easily read those things. XD) Turns out, this usually causes light to not focus correctly, and in my case, bright lights became painful.

So, how does one get it? Most people are born with it. But luckily, glasses or contacts usually fixes it. 😀

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