When parents tell their kids to never look directly at the sun, information technology is not an old wives' tale. Staring at the sun can crusade damage, and it can happen speedily. There are varying degrees of damage that are possible.

If you experience eye impairment due to staring at the lord's day, there are symptoms that may develop. These symptoms range from balmy to serious, depending on the caste of damage the eyes experienced.

A solar eclipse is a unique event that may crusade impairment to the eyes. Information technology is important to understand what this event is and how it can hurt your eyes so you lot can take the correct preventative measures.

Staring at the dominicus is not the only fashion that dominicus damage can occur. The sun tin have diverse furnishings on the eyes, but at that place are things you lot can do to protect them. young woman staring at the sun

What Happens When Someone Stares at the Sun?

The optics are sensitive, so information technology makes it hard to wait at any bright light for long. People instinctively look away and blink because discomfort starts to occur.

As soon as someone looks at the sun, sunburn starts happening. The sunday produces visible, ultraviolet, and infrared light. The ultraviolet light is the nigh damaging to the eye's structures.

With overexposure to UV light, the corneal cells starting time to crevice and blister, much like a regular sunburn. The eyes can also feel gritty and excessive tearing tin occur. At this betoken, if someone continues to stare at the sun, they tin can develop solar retinopathy.

Solar retinopathy can be permanent. It occurs when overstimulated light-sensing retina cells get-go to release signaling chemicals. This alluvion of chemicals tin can cause tissue harm. While recovery does occur for some people, it is possible to experience permanent visual vigil deficits.

Permanent retinal impairment tin can occur when someone looks at the sunday for 100 seconds or less. This is nether ii minutes.

Ultimately, how long information technology takes for harm to occur depends on several factors, such every bit the dilation of the pupil and the sun's intensity on that specific mean solar day.

Symptoms of Staring at the Dominicus

The impairment that can occur as a result of staring at the sun (solar retinopathy) can crusade a variety of symptoms. Balmy cases may event in:

  • Discomfort when looking at bright lights.
  • Headache.
  • Watery eyes.
  • Eye soreness.

In more serious cases, symptoms might include:eyes shut tight

  • Blurry vision.
  • Trouble discerning shapes.
  • A blind spot in the middle of vision. In some cases, multiple blind spots occur.
  • Reduced color vision.
  • Distorted vision.
  • Permanent eye damage.

Solar Eclipse

A solar eclipse is not a common event, but when they happen, people are naturally curious and desire to feel it. The eclipse happens when the moon moves in between the earth and the sunday, blocking the sunday'due south low-cal from flooding the earth. This effect does not last long.

Retinal burns and eclipse blindness are possible if someone looks right at the lord's day during a solar eclipse. Doing so can crusade damage to retinal cells. This furnishings the information that is sent to the brain, resulting in distorted images.

The impairment that occurs can be permanent or temporary. For some people, the symptoms indicating damage do not occur for several days, then they have no thought that their eyes were affected by looking at the solar eclipse.

It is possible to experience distorted vision, a loss of central vision, and altered color vision. If someone notices any of these symptoms, they must see an eye physician immediately to get a workup. This volition determine the verbal condition present and its severity.

Other Means the Sun Tin can Damage the Eyes

There are more ways the sun tin can touch the eyes. For these furnishings to occur, someone does not need to look directly at the sun either. Unproblematic exposure and going outside without eye protection can contribute to a higher run a risk of the post-obit:

  • Macular degeneration: This is characterized by the macula component of the retina sustaining damage. There is no cure for this condition. In the most advanced stages of macular degeneration, vision loss is noticeable, and people have a hard time seeing.
  • Pterygia: This condition affects the sclera, simply it tin can also invade the eye's cornea. It is a type of growth that can cause a called-for or gritty awareness in the eye.
  • Cataracts: This occurs when the lens in the centre develops a cloudiness. As the cloudiness occurs, the eye's lens makes information technology impossible for the retina to receive a sharp epitome. Vision tin can appear blurry, and things can have on a brownish or xanthous hue.
  • Pinguecula: This is another type of growth, but it occurs on the conjunctiva. It is yellow in color. The affected area can be swollen or cherry; vision tin exist blurry; and the eyes may exist itchy, dry, or take a burning sensation.

Is Information technology Bad to Squint Instead of Wearing Spectacles?

couple both wearing sunglassesIn short, yeah: Staring at the sun even with a hard squint is bad because squinting does not protect against harmful UV rays. You lot however stand the aforementioned risk of the harmful furnishings of the sun rays.

The same goes for trying to protect yourself with sunglasses. No sunglass manufacturer has come up with a lens-edifice procedure that is 100-percent successful blocking out the sun'due south harmful UV rays.

In fact, trying to brim nature and squinting at the dominicus or wearing sunglasses while looking at it still exposes you to the UV rays, though it may not be apparent. Your retina does not have pain receptors, and you are at risk of developing solar keratitis or solar retinopathy.

You stand up the same risk with the naked eye or with sunglasses on when trying to lookout the sun during a solar eclipse. Considering the moon blocks nearly of the bright light from a solar eclipse, your protective reflex does non kick in, and yous betrayal yourself to severe heart damage.

Prevention Trumps Treatment with the Dominicus

Like another serious condition involving the sun, melanoma (pare cancer), prevention is better than treatment when it comes to your eyes and sunlight.

The obvious preventative mensurate is not to wait at the sun directly in any atmospheric condition and no affair what you are using for eye protection (a chapeau, sunglasses or shade). As for solar eclipses, at that place are several safe means you tin view them, including creating a pinhole projector and using solar eclipse glasses.

You should never spotter an eclipse using a telescope or binoculars considering they magnify the sunday's rays that crusade the well-nigh damage. In addition, don't think you can sidestep the issues by trying to await at the lord's day with your camera lens, sunglasses or your smart phone in a selfie mode.

As for everyday heart protection, try:

  • Wearing sunglasses all twelvemonth round when outside. Vesture a pair that come with the Skin Cancer Foundation seal of approval.
  • Wearing a baseball cap or a farmer'southward hat or some other head/neck comprehend. Look for items that have at least a three-inch brim to protect the meridian of your head and face. Such hats can block approximately half of all UV rays from your eyes.
  • Finding shade whenever possible, especially when the sun is most intense.

References

Ultraviolet Phototoxicity to the Retina. Eye and Contact Lens.

Solar Retinopathy. American Academy of Ophthalmology.

How Long Does It Accept Before Your Eyes Get Damaged When Looking at the Sun? Academy of California, Santa Barbara.

Ultraviolet (UV) Radiations and Your Eyes. All About Vision.

Solar Eclipse and Your Eyes. Prevent Blindness Foundation.

Will looking at the sun really make you bullheaded? (Oct 2017). Australian Academy of Scientific discipline.

Why Shouldn't Yous Stare at the Sun? (September 2018). Healthline.

The Sun & Your Optics. (June 2019). The Skin Cancer Foundation.

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