Ghosting around lights?

[Hopefulmi]

Hi,

I am really frightened about this so any similar stories would be much appreciated!
I recently had an eye test then a repeat because my glasses weren't quite right, plus my eyes have been examined by an opthamologist. They look totally healthy and the optic nerves were good. I do have an astigmatism and possibly a slight one in my left eye too.
Anyway, I don't have double vision or ghosting with normal things bit when I look at things like the sky digital menu, lights, etc they ghost and when I drive at night, somethings the signs ghost a lot or even look double until I get fairly close.
The optician told me to do the pinhole test and of it clears up with that, then it is usually a refraction error rather than disease and for me, with the pinhole, it does clear but now I am terrified I have a brain tumour, even though it is only lights and not normal objects:weep:

Naomi

[Schtopper]

then it is usually a refraction error rather than disease and for me, with the pinhole, it does clearpinhole test rules out brain tumor

The reason it works is because with a refractive error (atigmatism, dry eyes, etc) the light gets scattered instead of being perfectly focused. This usually leads to blurry vision and that's what most commonly people see when they need glasses.

In other cases the refractive error causes the light to focus on two different parts of the retina, the central focal point and a 2nd point slightly off. We see this as a slight ghosting of the orriginal image.

Refractive errors such as these are caused by defects in the eye itself, in the lens, or the cornea. Mild ghosting as you are describing is often more pronounced when in low light conditions (night, or a low lit room) when looking at something in high contrast. A perfect example would be in a room at night with no light on looking at a TV or monitor with white text on a black background, the text will often have a ghost above or below.

The reason is that in low light conditions the pupil is dialated to allow more light into the eye, this dialation exposes more light to the lens, so any imperfection that could be on the outer edge of the lens causes a ghosting effect. In high light situations the pupil is constricted and the light does not hit these imperfect areas.

This is confirmed by doing the pinhole test which artifically simulates a constricted pupil and only allows a very specific area of light through onto the lens. If the pinhole results in a nice crisp image then the problem is occular in nature, that is a problem with the structure of the eye.

If the double vision, or ghosting, was caused by an issue with the brain or the optic nerve itself focusing the light coming in using a pinhole card would have no effect.

Relax and be happy in the knowledge that you have a slight degree of refractive error left over due to a not entirely perfect glasses prescription, a more detailed test by an opthalmoglogist would probably yield a more accurate prescription for this problem.


If it helps I too see ghosting when looking at the sky menu, or when looking at the menu on my playstation at night in a dark room, it is worse when i'm tired.

[giantfan]

I get the same thing, whenever there is a big contrast in items I'm looking at. Eg bright lettering on a dark/black background. Eg walking the movie credits on TV really highlights it, but watching normal contrasting items, no problem.

As the above poster said, the pin hole test corrects it for me. So I don't stress it :)

BTW, I have/had astigmatisms in both eyes and also had lasik surgery :) Vision is perfect apart from the ghosting/halo effects.