Many Headaches Caused By Eyes' Need Of Glasses

( Originally Published 1936 )

Most of us use our eyes from twelve to fifteen hours every day, and when anyone is bothered with a chronic headache, certainly the first thing that should be thought of is a proper examination of the eyes to see that they are adjusted to meet the demands of this much work.

Many people do not like to wear glasses, and because of the fear that this may be found necessary, they frequently conceal important facts about the history of their headaches from their doctors.

Although headaches from the eyes usually are bilateral, on both sides of the head, sometimes they are unilateral owing to differences in the accommodation of the two eyes. Occasionally headaches may precede or call attention to so severe a disturbance as glaucoma, but most of them are due to simple errors of refraction—astigmatism, which can be corrected by proper glasses. These headaches are naturally evening headaches, coming on after the period of strain upon the eyes.

Curiously enough, a number of tests which have been made concerning the relative strain of different occupations and pastimes have shown that the moving pictures do not impose very much of a strain on the eyes, not nearly as much as reading or other close work. In the old days of the flickers the silver screen might have caused some headaches of ocular origin, but with improved technique this is no longer true.