Headaches and Vision

girl holding hear head

Migraines and cluster headaches are two examples of headaches that can affect your vision. Cluster headaches often involve excruciating pain behind one eye, and that pain can radiate to other parts of the face, head, and neck. If you’re having a cluster headache, your eyes can also become red and swollen, or produce excessive tears. With a migraine headache, you’re likely to experience light sensitivity, as well as visual disturbances like flashing lights or haloes around light sources.

Sometimes, a vision problem can cause your headache.

  • Eye strain can cause a headache. Eye strain itself can be caused by astigmatism or hyperopia, which each cause objects to appear blurry, so that people to have to squint to focus. It can also just happen because you’re overusing the muscles in your eyes. If you have to read, write, drive, or work in low-lighting for extended periods of time, give your eyes a break for twenty seconds every twenty minutes, looking at something twenty feet away.
  • Presbyopia can cause headaches. This condition, which is the hardening of the eye that happens as we age, can result in trouble focusing, leading to sore eyes and headaches.
  • Monocular vision affects five percent of Americans, and borderline binocular vision affects another ten percent. This means that about 15 percent of the population relies almost solely on one of their eyes to see. This can make coordinated viewing activities difficult and can cause headaches.
  • Pain caused by glaucoma is sometimes mistaken for migraine pain. In glaucoma, there can be an overproduction of fluid in the eye, or the fluid may not drain sufficiently. The excess fluid created can create enormous pressure in the eye, which can lead to vision loss if it’s not corrected. Sometimes, glaucoma has no symptoms, but in other cases, it causes a headache felt in or around the eyes and forehead. This headache can range from mild to severe and may involve nausea or vomiting.
  • Some other conditions involve headaches and vision issues as well. These include giant cell arteritis, ocular ischemic syndrome, herpes zoster (shingles), and pseudotumor cerebri. Because the connection between headaches and vision is so complex, it’s smart to see your doctor as soon as possible, to get to the root of the problem.

If you’re looking for an ophthalmologist or optometrist in Derry, Londonderry or Windham, Spindel Eye Associates is here for you. Celebrating our thirtieth year of eye care, we proudly provide our patients with personalized eye care, using top of the line technology. For more information or to schedule an appointment call 603.421.6536 or contact us through our website.