• Question: can bad eye sight make you dizzy

    Asked by name no.2 to Adrian, Iroise, Joe, Rachel, Ria on 16 Nov 2016.
    • Photo: Iroise Dumontheil

      Iroise Dumontheil answered on 16 Nov 2016:


      I am not sure, often dizziness is experienced when there is a conflict in a brain between information received by your eyes (vision), your muscles in your body (proprioception), and your inner ear (vestibular system). For example if you are inside a boat your eyes tell you everything is still, but your muscles and inner ear tell you you are moving (with the waves). This can make some people sea sick, and that’s why people suggest they should go outside or by a window and look at the horizon because then they will see it moving and the information from their eyes will fit with the information from their body and inner ear.
      I once ran an experiment with a virtual reality system where we created this type of conflict and one of my participants got really sea sick!!
      So if you don’t see well this may lead to some conflict like this and dizziness.

    • Photo: Adrian Chu

      Adrian Chu answered on 16 Nov 2016:


      Speaking from experience, without glasses I think I can easily get headaches because my eye muscles would be desperately trying to get a focus on further objects but to no avail. Dizziness I’m not sure, because clinically there are definitions of syncope and vertigo but dizziness is a rather general complaint or description of some other symptoms.

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