New glasses make me sick to my stomach: Is this normal?

I finally broke down and got some glasses. Not a very strong prescription, but my distance sight was noticeably not as good as it might be.

Anyway, this was just yesterday. When I wear them it makes me nauseated. They seem to help my vision, I suppose, but I’d rather not have slightly better vision at the cost of ralphing once or twice a day.

Will this go away?

It’s similar to motion sickness. I’ve had reactions to new glasses. I get a little dizzy. Things reflect and move in front of me. Goes away after a couple days.

I use glasses for distance too. Can’t read the street signs without them when I’m driving.

Occasionally when I have changed prescriptions I’ll have some mild disequilibrium for a few days until my eyes adjust (but nothing as severe as what you describe).

Providing you have a prescription that is right for your eyes, I would expect your eyes to adjust within a few days. If not, go back to the optometrist and have the prescription checked.

You get used to it. When I first had glasses my perspective was off, and it “felt” like I was shorter and walking in the ground rather than on it. Rectangular objects like computer monitors looked irregular for a little while too. Within a week it went away.

I experienced that several years back with a new pair of progressive lenses. I was fine seated but moving around the higher magnifications were too disjointed from what I was used to and nausea ensued. Progressives have gotton better since and I think a larger lens helps a lot too.

Part of it though is just giving your brain time to adjust. It will, it’s remarkably adaptive.

All of the answers above are correct, even the ones that disagree. :wink:

Yes, it’s common for a new prescription. No, it shouldn’t stay like that. If it persists more than three days, go back to your optometrist, or to another one, and get it changed.

My last exam was with a slightly crazy but very good doc, who looked at my last lenses and exclaimed, “Too much power! Too much power! Why are you nearsighted folks always given too much power?!” Now, I have no idea what “power” really means, but as he was flipping his little flippy lenses, there were some I really liked better that he said had “too much power” and, indeed, the lenses he ultimately gave me are better long term than any “too powerful” glasses I’d gotten from other optometrists. I did have a few headaches the first three days, but then that settled down. I now find that I don’t have eyeaches or headaches at the end of the day because my eyes are tired, which was a problem I’ve had with the last few glasses, and one of the things he attributed to “too much power”.

So, if you’re not happy, take them back to your optometrist. And if you’re still not happy, try another optometrist. They are not all created equal, nor do they all share the same opinion of what the best lenses for you are.

It’s absolutely normal. You’ll get used to it in a few days. Your brain will learn to interpret things better really soon. This is especially true if this is your first pair of glasses. Your brains going “WTF is going on?! Am I poisoned? Quick, vomit!” but once you’ve changed prescriptions more than a few times over your life, your brain’s like “What, this little trick again? Fine, I’ll change.” and you’re all better sooner.

Clearly (heh), it means the power of the magnification. He was saying your prescription was too strong, you see (heh again).

No, I don’t think so. (Unless you’re an optometrist, in which case…tell me more.) His flippy lens would have everything in focus fine, but then he’d switch to the “more power” one, which made the black lines of the Snell chart look bolder. Not more in focus or larger, but bolded like bold text. It was weird. And, in the short term, I liked it, because it felt “easier”, but he warned me that if they were left like that, my eyes would ache by the end of the day. And, judging from the glasses he had made from me compared to the older, more “powerful” ones, he was right.

In fact, he even said the “prescription” was the same with both flippy lenses, just the “power” was different.

Sometimes optometrists can simply get it wrong. I got a pair of glasses about 15 years ago that were wonky as hell. I got them at a mall store and could hardly navigate my way out of the place - this was after being told by the optometrist that this was normal and I’d adjust in time. Days went by and nothing ever changed.

I went back and the guy reexamined me and said my prescription was correct. I told him that I’d never before had glasses that were so far off and that any other time I’d bought glasses they were fine as soon as I put them on. He got lippy with me and asked if I wanted a lesson in optics. I said no and told him that what I really wanted was a pair of glasses that made my vision better, not worse.

At that point he suggested that perhaps I’d be happier with another eye doctor. I told him there was no question about that and that I’d be happy to go elsewhere provided he’d refund the money he’d charged me, which he refused to do.

So I went to another eye doc who said the previous guy had way over-corrected for astigmatism and wrote me a new prescription. I got lenses made from that prescription and as soon as I put them on it was like “Ahhhh…now I can breathe”. Everything was perfect.

I called the first guy and read my new prescription to him and told him what the second guy said about his having over-corrected for astigmatism and he still refused to refund his fee. Then, funnily enough I got a call from him a couple of days later where he admitted he had been wrong and asked for an address to mail my refund to. He was contrite but his voice had an edge that suggested to me a higher-up in his company had gotten wind of the episode and forced him to make it right for PR purposes.

So yeah, optometrists can get it wrong

Optical power is a measure of how well a lens converges or diverges light.

That doesn’t make a lot of sense, since the optical power of the lenses will be specified by components of the prescription.

Thanks for the link, Colibri. As it happens, we’re taking my daughter to see him next week, so I’ll see if I can get him to clarify his use of the words.

In any case, the point remains: sometimes optometrists differ in their evaluations and professional opinions of what will work best. And that doesn’t even take the truly incompetent ones into account!

QFT. See one of my old threads:
My new glasses are trying to kill me

Here’s my assumption: He was saying that your previous eye doctor went “too negative” - nearsighted people tend to (when sitting in the chair reading the chart) love the super-sharp correction that very strong minus lenses can provide. This is the first number on the prescription, and you’d be getting larger numbers with a minus in front of them. Nice, crisp, maybe bolder, what’s not to love?

Except that a skilled and patient optometrist will make sure that you can actually read more letters than before with those larger minus lenses. That’s not always the case - you might be saying “oh, I like that one better” but it turns out you really can’t read anything extra. But what you can read looks sharper/clearer!

What’s the problem with a big minus lens just giving more apparent crispness to your vision? Eye strain. You aren’t looking through the test lenses for all that long, and you’re focusing hard on reading that chart. Put “too-minused” glasses on and suddenly your glasses don’t feel like they’re right. Your eyes get tired.

I don’t know what he meant by same prescription/power/etc., but that’s my best guess at what happened, at least.

…and don’t even get me started on how hard they were to swallow!

I’ve had glasses before that were clearly… wrong. I took them back to the grinder and said that they must have my prescription wrong, but they claimed to test them and say that they were correct. I called my optometrist, and they confirmed the prescription. I ultimately just gave up and wore them, but I’m still sure that something was incorrect. I normally wear contacts, so these are just my backup glasses, and I’d spent all the effort I was willing to on trying to fix the problem. I got over feeling disoriented after a few days, although there’s still something… off about them.

What type of lenses did you get? I’ve been wearing fairly strong glasses for decades now, and my last pair of new lenses gave me a wicked nauseous headache like you’re describing - it turns out I can’t tolerate the chromatic aberration from Featherwate type lenses. I had to get them remade with just regular plastic lenses with an anti-scratch coating. If those had been my first pair of glasses, I wouldn’t have known that new lenses have a day or two break-in period, but it shouldn’t be as extreme as throwing up or migraines.

Timely thread. I’ve been having a similar problem, but haven’t gotten around to posting about it.

My history: Been wearing glasses since I was 7 years old. I’m very nearsighted with a touch of astigmatism. My prescription changes every year or two (for the worse, natch), so I’m well used to the temporary “ten feet tall” phenomenon of new lenses. This recent problem was Not It.

Spring 2009: I order new frames with my then-current prescription. All is hunky-dory.

September 2009: I have my regular eye exam. Dr. M tells me that my prescription has changed slightly, but I’m OK to continue with my current lenses because the change is minimal. I keep the old lenses.

Two weeks ago: I decide to bring an old pair of frames out of retirement, so I take them in and order new lenses with my new prescription as of September 2009.

One week ago: My glasses are ready. I go in to try them on. They are fine except for a small distortion in the right lens. The rest of the lens is fine except for that one tiny “blip.” I report this, and the technicians say they will order a new lens. (They keep my frames and the lenses.)

This past Tuesday: My glasses are ready. I go in to try them on. Left lens is still fine, as it’s the same one from last week. The right lens is WHAT THE BLOODY HELL THIS IS NOT MY PRESCRIPTION!!! I close my right eye: perfect. I close my left eye: The entire field is about half as blurry as if I were not wearing glasses at all, which is pretty damned blurry.

I complain. (Politely.)

The technicians shuffle some papers, then attempt to tell me that this is my new, correct prescription from September, and because I’m currently in my old prescription from the preceding spring, I just need to wear these lenses for a few days to “get used to them.”

I bite my tongue in half and express a politer version of “What the fuck are you talking about?” I’ve been wearing glasses (and “getting used to” new lenses) for nearly 40 years, and this is not something I’m going to “get used to.” This lens is WRONG, and I’m not walking out of here wearing it, much less getting behind the wheel of a car.

They insist.

So do I. The doctor told me my prescription had changed only slightly. This is not “slightly.” If this was my correct prescription last September, then I need to get to the emergency room, because either my eye is about to pop out of my head, or I have a major brain tumor. This lens and my right eye were not made for each other.

They concede that they could order a new right lens in my “old” prescription, the one I’m wearing right now, but their demeanor clearly shows that they think I’m a nutbar. The other option is to get me back into the exam chair.

I accept the offer of a new-old lens, and mention that I will definitely discuss this with Dr. M during my regular exam this fall, because This. Is. Just. Not. Right.

I came home and told the sordid tale to Mr. S and my mother, who was visiting. She mentioned that our old eye doc, Dr. T (who fitted me with my first pair of glasses in 1973, and whom I quit seeing only when he retired about 10 years ago) always said that you shouldn’t have to “get used to” a new pair of lenses. The “ten-feet-tall” thing, I will buy. That’s a slightly odd sensation, but at least everything is clear. “These are someone else’s glasses” – not on your Nelly, no way, nohow.

So now I’m waiting for my new-old lens. Third time the charm, I hope.

It’s not me, right? It’s them, right? Right?

My last pair of glasses had a horrible spherical abberation that split the colors on the edges, which gave me headaches. And I even got used to that, although my new glasses are much better.

I often get a bit of dizziness/nausea when I get a new pair of glasses.
I find it’s worst if I put them on for the first time at the end of the day.
Since I usually get new glasses in the evening, that means I won’t wear them until the next morning.

So try this…
When you get up, put on your new glasses first thing.
You may well still have a bit of reaction, but hopefully it will be less.

huh, every time my eye doctor asks me is this one better or this one? I’m always answering according to which view looks sharper/clearer.

and yes, my glasses make my eyes tired so I almost never wear them.

the things you learn here.