It is likely that whenever you feel sleepy but have to stay up, you turn towards a cup of coffee as the ultimate solution. Caffeine is one of the most popular stimulants around the world, and for good reason: it gives you a kick and you get the energy and alertness you need to get stuff done. However, caffeine has varied effects on different parts of your body. Caffeine can also affect your eyesight and if you are unaware of the impact, you might end up facing numerous issues with your eye health. Therefore, it is crucial that you know how caffeine affects your eyesight.
Before moving on to the specifics, it is important to clarify one thing. Caffeine on its own is not harmful. If you have a cup of coffee a day, it won’t cause you any problems. However, if you consume it beyond a moderate level, it starts posing a risk to your health. Therefore, the issues mentioned below are only for people who consume too much caffeine on a regular basis.
Common Effects
- Caffeine consumption directly impacts your blood sugar levels. The blood sugar can go up or down, depending on your system and the amount of caffeine you have consumed. As you might know, fluctuations in blood sugar can cause blurred vision. As a result of this, you might be unable to see clearly and be inclined to keep rubbing your eyes.
- Overdosing on caffeine will lead you to seeing flashes of light in your eyes, even though they don’t exist. This is common when someone consumes over a 1,000 mg of caffeine in a day. This means that if you drink up to 8 cups of coffee a day, you will experience light flashing in front of your eyes. This can cause confusion and disorientation, making your eyes weaker against bright lights.
- The risk of exfoliation glaucoma, which is one of the foremost causes of blindness, is higher among people who drink more than 3 cups of coffee on a daily basis. A report has suggested that this is limited to coffee and not any other source of caffeine. Hence, if you stop drinking coffee but keep drinking colas, which also contain soda, the risk of blindness would be considerably lower, though it is suggested that you don’t consume too much soda.
As you can see, there are a number of eyesight related issues which you might experience if you consume excess caffeine. That being said, the incidence of these problems is relatively rare, which is why one or two cups of coffee a day won’t cause you any harm. The key to ensuring that caffeine does not impair your eyesight is having your eyes checked right away if you experience blurred vision or light flashes. This way, your eye doctor will be able to advise you regarding your caffeine consumption and whether it is causing the problems you are experiencing.
