STUCK!: Astigmatism - starburst - double vision!

Astigmatism & Cylinder
#1

HI everyone.

My cylinder correction is really bothering my and I am frustrated about what to do next. I am stuck!!
I can see 20/15 with my normalized during the day, but at night I have a bit starburst around streetlights etc. I have reduced my first -0.50 astigmatism in my previous normalized, so that is where the starburst comes from I think. This current normalized is an equal sphere drop. I am stuck as to what to do. I barely have active focus opportunities during the day, but I also don’t want to skip over the astigmatism too quickly and be stuck with it later on.

What are your experiences with astigmatism? Did improving your sphere also help for the astigmatism? I checked with a test lens kit and a next drop of -0.25 sphere would give me A LOT of starburst at night. Now it is a bit, but noticeable. I also have some ghost images.

#2

Hi Eve, astigmatism is pretty much my only problem (with my eyes, anyway). To me, a change of 0.5 CYL sounds like a lot. If I were you and the astigmatism was noticeable and annoying I would either leave it alone and work on the SPH or drop it 0.25 CYL at a time until you get used to it. One thing at a time.

#3

Yes -0.50 drop in cylinder sounds like a lot. Maybe I just read it wrong somewhere, but that is what I thought you should do with a cylinder drop: drop the cylinder with 0.50 and INCREASE the sphere with 0.25 at the same time. So I dropped 0.50 but put 0.25 sphere back in to compensate. But maybe I am wrong and I should have just dropped 0.25 while putting 0.25 sphere back?

#4

You did the cyl to sph conversion correctly. And actually you didn’t drop from the correction just converted. One would say it should have been a relatively easy change for your eyes…
You mention you have a test lens kit, so what would be a starburst free correction, have you checked that? Is it the old correction that would feel better? In this case you may be too much used to the astigmatism correction… Is it a different correction? Then it may be that your eyes are still adjusting trying to get used to the new cyl…
Do you only have it around street lamps? Or texts, signs and astigmatism wheels, too? If it’s only around street lamps and moon, those are always the last to clear up…

#5

Well, with the test lens kit, that is were it gets confusing. I assume the test kit lenses are not anti glare, but that should not matter for starburst etc right? Because if I up the sphere with 0.25 in the test lens kit, I get MORE starburst. So that is quite confusing.

I mostly have the starburst around street lamps and the. moon. Text, signs etc I do not notice it really. I’m not sure how I should check the astigmatism wheel for starburst. I don’t see any.

#6

Do you see the starburst around lamps symmetrical or unevenly “shooting stronger” in one or more angles?

If it’s like the left side of the pic you are most probably still working/ struggling with the cyl drop. If it’s like the right side it may be just the contrast of lights.
If it is about even around the centre like a halo and if you are in the low diopters you could look at the lights without glasses to exclude it’s glare from your glasses.
If it’s only a halo around street lamps but otherwise your vision is clear enough and OK in the evening indoors and while driving at night or walking outdoors in the dark, I’d say you could try dropping “equal 0.25 SPH only” from both eyes. There may not be a big difference first but maybe that changes in a week or two as your eyes also get a bit of blur challenge.
One thing that often helps me with the last bit within a drop is relaxing the eyes. Instead of trying to AF or sharpen just relaxing. Taking a deep breath, holding it for a few secs and blowing out longer while relaxing or “softening” the eyes. For me it typically means a slightly bit more blur first but then the eyes realign and the image becomes clearer.

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#7

It is like the left side of the picture, and different angles for both eyes, but not as bad as in the picture. So still from the cyl drop then I guess. What I noticed also, which was pretty weird: when I look at a street lamp through the side of my glasses, suddenly a weird halo appears, but when I look directly at it, it’s gone again.

I was thinking about dropping equal sphere for both eyes. I’m a bit scared though, as I think it will contribute to seeing a lot more starburst at night. But maybe when I improve again it will also help for the cylinder?

Thanks for the info and tips :smile:

#8

Without correction I get something like this: Car-headlights-on-winter-road---starbursts-around-lights
Since mine is nice and round I don’t put it down to astigmatism, just myopia. The closer my correction I am wearing is to my full correction the smaller it gets. When my myopia was higher, if I took off my glasses I actually saw something that resembled a firework, the starburst would break up, sort of like pixels. Something like these but with the heavy light center like the first one: firework
I don’t see that anymore though, now it much more like the first one.