Do You Have Astigmatism And Don’t Even Know It?

Brandon posts in the forum:

Been moving at a pretty good pace in the course, in the middle of my first equalizing prescription change. Its been one of the more interesting events in the myopia reversing process. Had this moment where I could see everything outside clearly but my brain had no sense of depth, like looking at a painting with both eyes open. My brain was pretty confused that week, now its fine.
Anyway, I’ve been wondering about something considering my astigmatism. Back in june of 2014, alex suggested that for my first normalized prescription we try and knock off my considerable astigmatism prescription. It seemed to work ok at the time, and I haven’t had it since. However, I’ve been thinking if what I now consider clear sight is really what clear sight is, or if my sense of that has deteriorated. I know I still have at least some astigmatism left. Everything looks fine, so its probably an imagined problem, but I was wondering if you had some sort of suggestion on how to concretely test whether astigmatism correction is still needed or not, if I haven’t had it in a while?  
Also, I like how you’ve been doing the videos, think I’ve watched almost all the ones you’ve put out. Its simple, and seems to work well.

That’s how they get you, fear of missing out.  Here’s what I told Brandon:

If you’re not experiencing double vision (multiple images that won’t fuse) that won’t clear at any distance, and otherwise have no subjective sense that your vision isn’t right somehow, then don’t worry about the astigmatism correction. If it all looks fine, then it’s all fine.

Yes, possibly there is some astigmatism left. If it’s not apparent though, it will resolve as you continue spherical reductions and your myopia reduces. It tends to do so fairly quickly for many students, to a point where in person I am sometimes fairly aggressive about reducing astigmatism right from the start (less so here online, since it’s a bit more hands-off).

So again, just enjoy the astigmatism-free prescriptions.

It is a good idea to wear the correction you need, to see clearly.  In the case of astigmatism, it’s easy to self-assess.

Does some blur not clear up, no matter what distance?  Maybe you need astigmatism correction.

Not sure whether there’s blur?  Then probably, there isn’t any.  But you can also turn to written text, which tends to answer that question quite well.  And if all that looks clear, or clears as you get closer, you’re most likely all right going without more prescription complexity in form of cylinder and axis specific correction.

Steve also adds some great comments to the thread:

Here’s my experience on reducing/eliminating astigmatism correction.

At my peak, my cyl was OS 1.00 and OD 1.25, so a bit less than yours. For my first normalized, I dropped the cyl by 0.5 in each eye (OS 0.5, OD 0.75). 2nd normalized by another 0.25 (OS 0.25, OD 0.5). Differentials have all been spherical.

Initially I had a hard time adjusting, just like you. I think one thing that kind of messed me up was the fact that I almost exclusively wore spherical contacts over the years. My Optometrist just never decided to get me started down the cyl path since I was only around 1.00cyl. For that, I am grateful! However, I always had a hard time switching between spherical contacts and glasses with the cyl built-in. My first 2 pairs of normalized glasses were no different. Yes, they had LESS cyl, but I could almost instantly tell something was “off” when putting them on. After a while, I would feel dizzy or get a migraine. This effect was far more pronounced in the daytime.

Fast forward a year or so and I was finally able to use one of my spherical differential glasses as my normalized (that was a GREAT feeling). While this also took some initial adjusting, my eyes were much more comfortable during the day and for extended wear. Now, my eyes/brain just can’t handle even a slight amount of cyl without giving me a headache. I definitely still have astigmatism, I just compensate with more Sphere instead (0.5cyl = 0.25 Sphere). I have some visual anomalies (ghosting) sometimes, especially at night with lights, digital clocks, etc. I have learned to ignore it most of the time. I’ll take some ghosting over feeling dizzy with migraines any-day.

While I’m not sure if taking astigmatism out completely at about 2.00cyl was the best idea, going back to the full cyl is probably not a good idea either. You could try cutting it in half and see how you adjust. 

HERE is an old blog post with a chart to check for astigmatism. You most likely still have a measurable amount.

And one more, Brandon’s comment:

That helps quite a bit. My doubts seem to have come from a combination of straining my eyes somewhat at work, fairly new normalized glasses, and the volcanic dust thats been blowing through this week and making everything hazy. Especially that last part, didn’t realize how much of an effect it had on irritating my vision. So I’ll be keeping the current course of prescriptions unless something else comes up.

ALso, thanks Steve, I recognize some of those symptoms but didn’t know they were from astigmatism at the time. That chart showed me interesting things too. My left eye only has barely noticeable irregularities, while the right still has quite a bit. I get the headaches too when I use old glasses with the astig. correction, its like getting to see ridiculous detail for 60 seconds before a 2 day headache. Was amazed the first time I tried it.