Wearing glasses with motion sickness?

January 7, 2023 5:50 AM

I have an unusual tendency to get motion sick very easily. After having good vision most of my life, I am now old enough to need reading glasses. Switching between wearing the glasses and not wearing them makes me nauseous. What options should I consider?

I am an outlier in how easily I get motion sick. People find it hard to believe, but here are examples: I will throw up on every commercial plane flight I take if I don't take Dramamine ahead of time. Rollercoasters are out of the question (I threw up the couple times I tried). I've thrown up on merry-go-rounds. Even downhill skiing will make me sick without drugs. My inner ear is just not up to the task.

I didn't need glasses in the past, but now I'm old enough that I'm losing my ability to change focus and I need reading glasses; I might also benefit from more distant focus glasses for computer work and conversation. But I can't figure out how to minimize the nausea I get from wearing the glasses. The visual changes from putting them on and off sends me reeling. Alternatively I have tried to keep them on even when I'm looking farther away (to decrease the on/off switches), but seeing things all blurry when I look around the room also is nauseating.

I'd appreciate suggestions if you have experience with this or if there are any studies about weirdos like me. I wonder if bifocals (or something) would help because then I wouldn't be taking the glasses on and off all the time? Or maybe that would make it worse because the switches in how things look would happen every time I shift my gaze? Is there some kind of Eye Doctor For Difficult People medical specialty I should know about? Halp.

posted by medusa to Health & Fitness (11 answers total)

Have you thought about wearing glasses all the time? Varifocals with zero correction for distance might work better for you.
posted by DarlingBri at 5:56 AM on January 7, 2023 [7 favorites]

I recently started using multifocal contact lenses and although they aren't perfect for extremely close-up tasks they feel extremely natural to me when I switch back and forth between close-up and distance vision - similar to the way normally focusing my eyes does. My prescription has distance correction, but you can also get them with no distance correction (basically what DarlingBri suggests above but in contact lens form).

Also, though, have you ever sought treatment for the motion sickness? There are therapies (like physical therapy and/or vision therapy) that can help some people reduce the amount of motion sickness they experience and/or help build up tolerance to motion sickness. I don't think they're a slam dunk and I doubt you're ever going to want to go on roller coasters, but you might be able to get to where wearing glasses doesn't bother you.

(And my aunt also gets seasick downhill skiing!)
posted by mskyle at 6:07 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Problems with motion sickness and adjusting to glasses can indicate a disregulated vestibular system

Ask me how I know 🙂
posted by Zumbador at 6:25 AM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

I wonder if bifocals (or something) would help because then I wouldn't be taking the glasses on and off all the time

I do think wearing them consistently could help, since it would give your brain a chance to get used to one way of looking at things rather than constantly recalibrating. There may still be an adjustment period*, though.

I'm also prone to motion sickness (almost as bad as you), and if I've been wearing my contacts daily for more than a week or so, switching to my glasses will make me feel a bit nauseated until I readjust to the contrast between front(clear) and peripheral vision (which is blurry). For me the internal recalibration doesn't take too long: I really notice it at first, but it fades away by lunch. I've been wearing glasses since middle school, so I'd assume you could take a few days the first time you get set up. Changing prescriptions can make me feel a bit wonky too, but only for a little bit.

You may have already tried this, but when taking the glasses on/off, do you close your eyes? I'm thinking if you sit down, feet flat on ground and really tune in to feeling physically stable with your eyes closed, then take off/put on glasses and slowly open your eyes, you may be able to help you brain to focus on the consistent and stable proprioceptive input and not the change in visual input.

*People used to glasses without motion sickness can find bifocals tricky to get used to, just from a "how to see things clearly" stand point. So there's that learning curve too.
posted by ghost phoneme at 6:33 AM on January 7, 2023

I have quite poor vision. I feel sick when I switch between contacts and glasses, or if I switch between glasses and more wrap around glasses for sports. All glasses have some degree of distortion from the lens that your brain learns to ignore, so I assume it's the change that my brain finds disorienting.

In your situation I would likely want a progressive type bifocal that I could wear all the time. There are some special types of lens which are designed to minimize distortion and are created specifically for you based on where the frame of the glass is sitting on your face. The one I am familiar with is made by Carl Zeiss and I have very good vision with them. The downside is that these lenses are very expensive and it would be terrible to find out they didn't work for you.
posted by ice-cream forever at 6:58 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

Response by poster: I do have vestibular disorders including vestibular migraines. Treatment hasn't made a huge change. The most helpful answers here will address the glasses issue specifically, thanks.
posted by medusa at 9:19 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

This is so simple I'm guessing you already tried it and it didn't work but in case you don't think of it - have you tried closing your eyes before you put them on or off, keeping them closed while you switch and then when you feel like your eyes have reset to the dark, open them again. I think the brain would consider it normal to have to switcch between eyes open and eyes closed and that might be less disconcerting than the sudden change of vision while you are looking at things.
posted by metahawk at 10:46 AM on January 7, 2023 [3 favorites]

Seconding multifocal contacts! I never needed vision correction until readers in my mid-40s. My job as an OR nurse makes it impossible for me to use reading glasses the way they’re intended—when I’m scrubbed in and sterile I can’t touch them to take them on and off as needed. I tried bifocals and glasses with progressive lenses for a full month each and was never able to tolerate either—like you, I get motion sick easily and I felt like puking whenever I had them on.

Multifocal contacts don’t feel like that at all! I’ve never once felt nauseated or dizzy while wearing them. I put them in and I can just… see, at all distances, without trouble.

My understanding is that they’re best for people whose distance correction is very small (for example, mine is +0.5 in one eye and +1.25 in the other), so it sounds like you might be a good candidate! I love mine. They’re expensive but they’re worth every dime.
posted by jesourie at 10:48 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

My basis for responding - I have motion sickness issues almost as bad as yours. I also get migraines.

My difference - I have had bad vision most of my life (nearsighted), and now bad distance vision also with aging, so I have always worn glasses all the time, which I tolerate well to wearing all the time, but only after a "breaking in" period each time my prescription changes (it usually takes 2 weeks to adjust).

Based on my experience with glasses, I'm going to vote with the people recommending that you wear glasses all the time, something like Varifocals with zero correction or only minor distance correction to start. ice-cream forever's comments are very on point, and also jesourie. If you can tolerate them (they are not for my eyes) then Multifocal contacts may also work.

I currently have progressive type bifocals I wear all the time. It takes me about 2 weeks to adjust to a prescription change, and I sometimes get some queasiness if the change is bigger. I did not get my eyes checked for a while during Covid so when I got the new prescription it was a bigger adjustment than usual - a reminder for me to keep on top of things in the future.
posted by gudrun at 10:52 AM on January 7, 2023

Look into Binocular Vision Dysfunction. This is also a glasses response, because they may give you a special glasses rx if you see a specialist (I have not been able to see a specialist, but spoke with one.) Otherwise, I find the shape of my glasses and lenses matter for me. They need to be wide enough to cover my broad vision, flat enough that they don't cause the fisheye effect, and I get thinner lenses even though I have a low RX. Therefore, if you get all-the-time glasses or bifocals or whatever, look into the shape/thickness of the lenses as a factor too. (ETA, history of visual issues, vestibular problems, and vestibular migraines and a ton of testing.)
posted by Crystalinne at 11:35 AM on January 7, 2023 [1 favorite]

I wear progressive glasses. I got a pair of bifocals to wear occasionally and had to give up on them, as they gave me a headache and nausea almost immediately. I think going with progressives would be much easier on you.
posted by The corpse in the library at 8:37 PM on January 7, 2023