Eye-opening pictures shine light on symptoms of astigmatism

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Published April 1, 2019 1:48 p.m. ET
Updated April 1, 2019 6:44 p.m. ET
Twitter account Unusual Facts shared a split-screen picture of a nighttime street scene, with this picture supposed to represent how people with astigmatism see.

A tweet has been shared more than 22,000 times which claims to compare how people with and without the eye condition astigmatism see the world at night.

Astigmatism is a problem with focusing light accurately onto the retina, due to an irregular curvature of the cornea or abnormalities in the lens of the eye.

Twitter account Unusual Facts, which claims to present ‘the most weird and horrific facts on the internet,’ tweeted a split-screen picture of a nighttime street scene, with the picture on the left supposed to represent how people with astigmatism see.

“Astigmatism is when the cornea is slightly curved rather than completely round,” Unusual Facts tweeted last week.

“With astigmatism, light focuses on several points of the retina rather just one point.”

The image on the left shows blur and lens flare from the lights of cars and traffic lights, while the scene on the right does not.

The tweet has been shared more than 22,000 times and seen by more than 54,000 people.

Some Twitter users questioned whether the photos were an accurate representation of the condition.

“Could the first picture be capturing the curvature in the front windshield rather than a biological defect?” user CallMeConnor asked.

“I've seen this light streaking effect whenever my wipers are running, and the aligned trail of water alters the headlights in front of me.”

But other Twitter users were quick to support the picture as a representation of astigmatism.

“This explains why a friend of mine doesn't understand when I tell him ‘lens flare’ is real life,” Julie Blackwood tweeted.

“He doesn't see what I see every day. Mind blown.”

CTVNews.ca reached out to the Canadian Association of Optometrists for its take.

“How you see things when you have an astigmatism depends on your axis of astigmatism and the amount of your astigmatism,” Dr. Kirsten North, policy consultant for the CAO told CTVNews.ca.

“Some people may ‘see double’ but others will see streaking or blurry images.”

Astigmatism can be treated with glasses, contact lenses or laser eye surgery and people not born with the condition can develop it later in life.

How people see with the condition varies very much, with near or far-sightedness also playing a factor, North told CTVNews.ca.

With astigmatism the lens is egg-shaped and depending on whether it lies on the flat end or at an angle, it “will make someone see very differently,” Dr. North said.

“Whether you’re near or far sighted will make a difference, there’s so many variables,” she said.

Research in the U.S. found 36 per cent of those over 20 years of age suffered from astigmatism. 

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