Visual Stress Syndrome
Eye Care > Visual Stress Syndrome
What is Visual Stress?
Visual Stress is a perceptual processing condition that causes reading difficulties, headaches and visual problems from exposure to patterns in text, such as lines of text. Visual Stress is linked to dyslexia and similar visual learning difficulties. Sufferers experience print distortion and fatigue when reading.
Visual Stress is also known as Meares-Irlen syndrome, after the two researchers who first discovered the connection between white page glare and reading difficulties. The severity of these symptoms can vary from person to person, with approximately 20% of the population suffering to some degree.
Our specialist optometrists can help identify potential visual conditions including Visual Stress. Talk to us today about Visual Stress.
Research into Visual Stress
Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome is another name for Visual Stress. Yet despite the research and many names for this condition, there is no proven scientific explanation, though scientists agree that Visual Stress is visual-perceptual in nature as a result of a deficiency in one of the visual pathways. Because of this, Visual Stress cannot be corrected by prescription lenses, can occur in people with 20/20 vision and can be very hard to accurately detect.
Signs of Visual Stress in Children
Early identification of Visual Stress and treatment could save years of anxiety in children and prevent the loss of confidence and quality of learning that occurs in most cases where children struggle to read.
While visual stress has no scientific explanation, there are a number of generally agreed upon signs of Irlen Syndrome. While symptoms vary, sufferers of Visual Stress commonly experience headaches, eyestrain and experience words to jump or move on the page.
Visual Stress and Dyslexia
Dyslexia is a general term for disorders that involve difficulty in learning to read or interpret words, letters, and other symbols. It does not affect general intelligence, just the interpretation of data on a page. Due to the fact that 80% of our education is visual in nature, dyslexia is sometimes assumed to relate to intelligence. If Visual Stress is identified and colour is used to alleviative some of the symptoms then other learning difficulties such as dyslexia are easier to cope with.
Visual Stress is not dyslexia but is prevalent in dyslexic individuals. Even so, a significant percentage of children and adults who are not identified as being dyslexic still suffer with symptoms of Visual Stress.
Visual Stress Test
If you have any concerns surrounding your child and visual stress, start by having a go at this simple Visual Stress Test before getting in touch with a member of our team.
| Visual discomfort such as | YES | NO |
| Rubbing eyes a lot when reading | ||
| Blinking a lot | ||
| Experiencing eye strain | ||
| Headaches associated with reading or visual tasks | ||
| Print may look unusual | ||
| Text might move, vibrate or appear blurry | ||
| Words may fade or disappear | ||
| Text can have patterns or colours appear in it | ||
| Spots of light might appear on the page | ||
| Patterns and text may seem bright | ||
| Have difficult reading | ||
| Lose your place easily | ||
| Have limited concentration | ||
| Get tired when reading | ||
| Have difficulty when learning to read or write | ||
| Read slowly |
If you answered ‘YES’ to more than 3 questions, you are at risk of suffering with visual stress.
What Causes Visual Stress?
The Causes of Visual Stress
Visual stress refers to discomfort and print distortion brought about by pattern glare: certain repeating shapes, high contrasts and brightness. The most common form of this pattern glare is found when an individual is reading black text on a white background.
Pattern glare occurs in patterns that are unnatural, meaning our eyes and brain have to work harder than normal to interpret the image. One reason this occurs is due to over-excitement in the visual cortex (where the picture from the eyes are processed by the brain and given meaning). This over-activity can cause the visual symptoms of visual stress (e.g. the blurring of letters), and after a period of exposure to these symptoms is when physical symptoms can occur (e.g. headaches and eye tiredness); for some people this can be after 10-15 minutes, however for some it can be immediately.
Visual Stress is the most common term used in the UK, however it can also be known as Meares-Irlen Syndrome (named after the two researchers who first discovered the connection between white page “glare” and reading difficulties in the early 1980s), Visual Dyslexia, and Scotopic Sensitivity. However the latter is now considered by scientists to be a misnomer.
The reason visual stress occurs is not yet fully known, however there are some contributing factors that have been proven to cause an increase in symptoms of visual stress:
Physical Symptoms of Visual Stress
- Frequent headaches and migraines associated with reading or computer work.
- Eye strain.
- Tiredness working with text, which stops very shortly after reading or computer work stops.
- Nausea.
- Dizziness.
- Eye discomfort/pain.
Visual Symptoms of Visual Stress
Visual Stress typically causes the following distortions of print, although not all of the following will necessarily be experienced by one person:
- Movement of print (words appearing to “jump” or move on the page).
- Whole lines of text may appear to move..
- Blurring of print.
- Letters seeming to change size.
- Doubling of letters.
- Letters fading.
- Patterns appearing.
- Illusions of colour blobs moving across the page distracting the reader or obscuring the words.
- Swirling effects appear in the text.
- White “rivers” may seem to run down the page where the white background, as opposed to the black text, has become the dominant image perceived.
Examples of Visual Symptoms:
Effects of Visual Stress Symptoms
How the symptoms of Visual Stress can effect an individual
- Experience difficulty looking at a computer screen.
- Be unusually sensitive to bright lights, especially fluorescent lighting.
- Have difficulty judging heights or distances, which sometimes causes problems with stairs and/or escalators.
- Find driving at night particularly stressful, sometimes experiencing a fragmentation of reflected light.
- Develop headaches and migraines when reading.
While reading and writing sufferers may
- Suffer fatigue quickly when working with text.
- Skip words or lines when reading.
- Experience increased difficulty in concentration after an initial period of about 10 minutes.
- Move their head or body position, or move closer to or further away from the page/Computer Screen.
- Read slowly and haltingly.
- Have difficulty comprehending information.
- Track with their finger.
- Yawn while reading.
- Frequently rub their eyes.
Treatment Options
Overlays
Overlays are a good tool to initially investigate if colour might help mitigate symptoms but are not usually a long-term solution. Overlays are not as convenient as spectacles as they are not suitable for computer or white board work and the range of colours is limited.
Next steps
If after 3 months the Cerium coloured overlay is still providing benefit, it is recommended that you visit a Cerium specialist eye care practitioner for an assessment using the Intuitive Colorimeter™. This allows a much wider exploration of colour space to ensure that you are benefiting from the most precise tint to achieve optimal results.
The precision tint will be provided in spectacle or contact lenses, and will include a Cerium Certificate of Authenticity.
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