Effects of Alcohol Abuse on the Eyes and Vision

Since this muscle movement is affected, we take longer to focus on objects. One study also showed that alcohol consumption can affect our ability to distinguish between contrasting images, which also contributes to blurry vision. After a number of years of heavy alcohol consumption, you might find yourself with decreased peripheral vision. Continued exposure to alcohol in your system can begin to affect the edge of your visual field, leaving you with tunnel vision.

This happens when the blood vessels in the eye become irritated and enlarged. If someone is suspected to have nystagmus, they will likely undergo a CT scan or an MRI to get a scan of the brain. Often these rapid eye movements are due to neurological problems in the brain. Rapid eye movements or involuntary eye movements are often called nystagmus and can affect one or both eyes.

Sensitivity to Light

Ophthalmologists consider alcohol consumption a modifiable risk factor, meaning individuals can prevent alcohol vision decline by limiting or stopping consumption. Fetal alcohol syndrome (FAS) is a condition babies develop when pregnant mothers abuse alcohol. FAS increases the chances of unborn babies developing mental and physical defects such as eye diseases. Studies showed that alcohol reduced vision in low-illumination environments, especially at night.

Law enforcement officers assess several alcohol-induced changes to the eyes when performing a field sobriety test on a suspected impaired driver. These correlations may contribute to several possible complications or effects on the eyes. This can be incredibly annoying as your eyes can never focus on one point for very long. Nystagmus may sometimes cause you to lose balance often or have trouble balancing yourself while standing for long periods of time. The disease can take anywhere between a few days to weeks to fully develop. Unfortunately, once it does start to progress, there isn’t much that can be done to stop it.

Slow Pupil Reactions

Another problem that excessive drinking leads to is migraine headaches, as the eye becomes sensitive to light; the result is pain. Alcohol is a depressant which means it slows down the central nervous system and makes people feel relaxed. When intoxicated, alcohol also slows down the rate at which neurotransmitters operate in the brain. As a result, information is not passed between the eyes and the brain as quickly as it usually is when a person is sober. This delayed response leads to slowed eye-muscle coordination, causing people who are under the influence of alcohol to experience blurry vision or double vision.

This is in addition to the problems arising with other organs and the health of the whole body from excessive or long-term alcohol abuse. Occasionally drinking moderate amounts of alcohol doesn’t usually cause any health problems. But if you are a heavy drinker—which means consuming alcohol more than a few times per week or binge drinking—you https://ecosoberhouse.com/article/what-reasons-for-you-to-stay-sober/ will likely experience health issues as a result. It is hard to predict whether you will develop effects that harm your liver, heart, nerves, or eyes, and you can experience a combination of these. If you drink excessively, be sure to see a healthcare professional so you can get help cutting down before the effects on your health get worse.

How alcohol can affect your eyes and vision

However, the damage is near permanent at this point, and symptoms will progress with continued alcohol consumption. Short-term effects of alcohol on vision clear on their own as you sober up. However, long-term conditions require treatment by ophthalmologists. One of the physical characteristics of someone who is a heavy drinker is bloodshot eyes. This change in appearance is due to alcohol abuse swelling the tiny blood vessels in the eye, enlarging their appearance and making the eyeball look red.

Sure, we know that drinking affects our vision and can cause blurred or double vision, especially at night. This is sometimes known as “beer goggles.” After all, impaired vision and a slowed reaction time are why drinking and driving are often a fatal combination. Short-term or immediate vision effects of drinking too much can impair your peripheral vision, resulting in tunnel vision. This makes it harder for your pupils to react, so they can’t constrict or dilate properly. Even common tasks, such as driving at night, can become a challenge with the direct impact of headlights decreasing reaction times. A Journal of Ophthalmology study found that night vision gets worse after drinking in both men and women.

Like double vision, if the bloodshot eyes do not revert back to normal after a night of drinking, then it could be more serious and require medical attention. If your eyes are bloodshot, avoid touching them and talk to your doctor for a proper diagnosis. Toxic amblyopia was very common before World War II due to excessive drinking and tobacco use. Now the disease has become rarer and is often only seen in people suffering from alcoholism. Due to the increased risk for heart disease caused by alcohol, signs of heart disease can be observed in the eyes. Symptoms include optic neuropathy, atrophy, bleeding in the retina from vascular occlusions, and even hypertensive retinopathy.

Consuming an excessive amount of alcohol is a risk factor for age-related macular degeneration (AMD). Age-related macular degeneration is the main cause of severe vision loss in people over 50. Drinking in moderation (defined as one drink per day for women and two drinks blurry vision after drinking alcohol per day for men) isn’t going to cause any lasting negative problems with your eyes. Even if you have an episode where you feel dizzy and your vision feels different from usual, these symptoms will probably resolve themselves as the effects of the alcohol wear off.