Signs you need an eye test

A small change in power is easy to hide from yourself. You squint a little, the focusing muscle inside the eye works a little harder, and you hold things where they look clearest. The strain shows up somewhere else: a tired feeling behind the eyes, a headache across the forehead, a reluctance to read in the evening.

That is why the signs below are worth taking seriously even when you can still, technically, see. An eye test at the shop takes 15 to 30 minutes, and the most common outcome is a small correction that makes the evenings easier.

If distance looks soft when you look up from a laptop and takes a moment to sharpen, your focusing muscle has been locked at one distance for too long. Everyone gets some of this. If it happens daily, or comes with dry, gritty eyes, there is often a small uncorrected power or astigmatism underneath it that a test will find.

Blue cut lenses help many screen users feel more comfortable, but they do not fix strain that comes from a wrong power. We check the power first.

A dull ache across the forehead or behind the eyes on long reading or screen days is one of the classic signs, especially in people who have never worn spectacles. It comes from the effort of focusing through an error the eye is trying to correct on its own.

Not every headache is your eyes. A headache with nausea, a visual aura, or one that wakes you at night needs a doctor. But if the pattern is tied to close work and eases at the weekend, a test is the place to start.

Somewhere between forty and forty-five, the lens inside the eye stiffens and near focus fades. Menus move to arm's length, the phone font gets bigger, and reading in dim light becomes a chore. This is presbyopia, and it happens to everyone.

The fix is reading power: a simple reading pair, or a progressive lens that keeps distance, screen and reading in one pair. Both are explained in the Lens Lab.

Halos around oncoming headlights, glare from streetlights and difficulty reading signs at night are often the first sign of a small power or astigmatism that the eye copes with in daylight. An anti glare coating on the right power makes a striking difference.

In older adults the same symptoms can also be an early cataract, which is a doctor's diagnosis. If a test shows that spectacles will not fix the glare, we will tell you and point you to an ophthalmologist.

Children rarely complain, because blurry is all they have known. Watch for sitting close to the TV, squinting, rubbing the eyes, tilting the head, losing the place while reading, and headaches after school. Our kids eye test page goes through each of them, and what a child's test is like.

At the shop a computerised eye test takes 15 to 30 minutes and costs ₹150, complimentary with a spectacles purchase: an autorefractor reading, refined on a trial frame until the chart is sharp and comfortable, then the prescription explained in plain language. Walk-ins are welcome.