Comments on: right eye red left eye blue

Question: right eye red left eye blue

Infernarl — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 02:53:11 -0800

When I open only my right eye things are tinted red. When I open only my left eye they are tinted blue. Is this normal?

Is this a symptom of anything or is it just normal variation? I've had it for a long time. If it is normal, do other people see other colors? The effect is a lot like making a photo "warm" or "cool" in photoshop.

Maybe I shouldn't have used 3d glasses as sunglasses when I was a kid.

By: panic

panic — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:30:12 -0800

This happens to me when I have one eye open for a few minutes, then open the other. The world looks bluer to the previously-closed eye than to the already-open eye. Eventually they equalize, though.

By: Cat Pie Hurts

Cat Pie Hurts — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:35:52 -0800

Was the light on one side of your head brighter the other? It happens to me, especially if I'm using my computer in the dark.

By: nomis

nomis — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 03:53:14 -0800

I get a similar thing: everything looks a bit more yellow through my left eye than my right (I agree, it's "warmer"). Unlike previous posters it's always like that for me, not the result of recent uneven lighting.

I always assumed this was one of those little asymmetries that people have.

By: fake

fake — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:39:57 -0800

I study human vision. I recall this being mentioned in one of my introductory texts as a normal individual difference. but I can't find the reference. Perhaps someone else will step in with a link.

By: vodkaboots

vodkaboots — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 04:41:19 -0800

I have the exact same thing and I've wondered if it's normal as well. But it's been like that all my life and never bothered me.

By: Infernarl

Infernarl — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:01:12 -0800

It's good to hear that other people have some variation of this. It happenes regardless of lighting conditions. My eyes are blue. but that probably doesn't matter.

By: dowcrag

dowcrag — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 05:49:24 -0800

I get it too!

By: JJ86

JJ86 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 06:07:21 -0800

If it's an extreme difference, then that's not normal. If it's slight, then that's normal.

By: TheOtherGuy

TheOtherGuy — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:01:52 -0800

i thought it was just me :)

I first noticed it when i was a kid going to sleep, while looking at my purple pillow.. it looked blue in one eye and pinkish in the other.

By: birdlips

birdlips — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:11:33 -0800

Great Post! I have noticed this on myself since I was a young kid. I never thought to ask if anyone else experienced it.

By: yoyoceramic

yoyoceramic — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:15:55 -0800

I agree, great post. Usually when I am in the shade on a sunny day and I alternate the blinking of my eyelids, I see a warmer red in my right eye and a green in my left eye.

By: owtytrof

owtytrof — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:37:42 -0800

I experience this exactly as described by Infernarl. I asked my wife about it once, and she has the same effect as well. I've never been particularly concerned or worried about it, though.

It's most obvious when looking at a blank white wall.

By: toastchee

toastchee — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 07:46:12 -0800

Me too.

By: claudius

claudius — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:01:50 -0800

I went to an ophthalmologist when I was a kid about something unrelated, and mentioned that my eyes say different 'tints', blue and yellow (or cool and warm) and she said it was due to the lenses being slightly different in each. Though now that I think about it, I don't see how a geometric difference is going to cause this.

By: Wild_Eep

Wild_Eep — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:08:19 -0800

This must come in handy for looking at 3-D posters. I'm jealous.

By: Solomon

Solomon — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:19:46 -0800

I see more red in one eye, and more green in the other. I always figured that everyone's eyes were like that, what with 3D glasses and all.

By: weapons-grade pandemonium

weapons-grade pandemonium — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:20:38 -0800

Cool. I've never noticed this before, but the same thing happens to me. A geometric difference could cause this, claudius, because different frequencies (colors) focus at different distances. Differences in the shape of your left and right lens would cause different colors to focus on each retina. Chromatic aberration.

By: Ponderance

Ponderance — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:33:12 -0800

Yay for normality! One eye is warmer than the other here too.

By: jenkinsEar

jenkinsEar — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:09:43 -0800

Is this a recent change, or just something that you've always had and just recently wondered about?

Significant, sudden changes in color perception in your eye could be a symptom of something nasty (eg, glaucoma damaging some of the ol' rods and cones), and you'd want to see an eye doc quickly.

By: limited slip

limited slip — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:23:09 -0800

Me too, thanks bringing this up.

One eye is usually warmer in color than the other, I always thought it had something to with blood flow while laying on one side or another. Asked my eye doctor about this once and he said it was no big deal.

By: Freaky

Freaky — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:25:52 -0800

See! I'm not that Freaky!.

Funny how everyone's mentioned their right as being warmer; anyone out there where it's their left?

By: rhapsodie

rhapsodie — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 09:37:54 -0800

I get this too, but only when I'm lying on my side. I wondered about it for the longest time until I realized the red-seeing eye was always the one on the bottom: if I was lying on my right side, my right eye saw red. I then assumed it had to do with blood flow.

Or what limited slip said.

By: mimo

mimo — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:10:14 -0800

In grad school, I noted a similar perception and asked one of my professors--a renowned vision researcher--why this was so. He told me it wasn't possible. Um...okay.

Therefore, my completely baseless hypothesis has always been varying distributions of color cones in the retinas of the two eyes. The bloodflow theory sounds promising too, except that I also get the effect while sitting up.

By: Ynoxas

Ynoxas — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:22:34 -0800

Same here, Right eye is "warmer". I'm also right handed, if that matters.

I am going to make a totally baseless guess that this may have something to do with eye dominance. My eye doctor has mentioned eye dominance before, but at this moment I can't remember if I am right or left eye dominant. Hmm.

I'm thinking this has more to do with perception than actual eye organ differences.

By: elisabethjw

elisabethjw — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:22:57 -0800

Oh, I've always had that. It always amused me while out driving to close one eye and look like I'm driving through Mars... close the other and it's the ocean. Never thought to concern myself about it -- just assumed (like Solomon) that it was the reason why 3D glasses had different colors.

By: ikkyu2

ikkyu2 — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 10:28:56 -0800

"Red desaturation" - which is what neurologists call it when one eye sees red less well than the other eye - is a nonspecific sign of optic nerve damage. In practice, we use it to diagnose optic neuritis. Sometimes it never recovers.

It's very difficult to acquire proof of hypotheses about sensory variance. There is no way to tell whether someone is really experiencing less red in one eye or whether they are just convincing themselves that they are.

By: TheSecretDecoderRing

TheSecretDecoderRing — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 13:26:39 -0800

Color seems even in both eyes for me indoors, but I started noticing an obvious color shift when I'd be outside in the bright sun, with one closed. In particular, the gray of the sidewalk would be warmer or cooler depending on which eye was open. I always wondered about it too but never got around to looking it up.

I have really lousy eyesight without contacts, and have floaters, so I hope that scary-sounding "red desaturation" deal doesn't apply also. I guess I'll have to ask. This thread was fine and dandy until that response!

By: hyperfascinated

hyperfascinated — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 15:18:37 -0800

I was about to suggest that it's genetic, as I asked your brother and he says he has it too, but if everybody in this thread has it, then it must be more common than I imagined.

For the record, I do not have it! The world looks exactly the same through one, the other, and both eyes! Maybe this is the reason I haven't ever been capable of seeing those Magic Eye images.

By: number9dream

number9dream — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 16:26:00 -0800

My left eye is warmer. I'm right-handed.

By: Orinda

Orinda — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 18:48:24 -0800

I get this too. It's especially pronounced when I'm under one of those purple-tinted light bulbs that are supposed to mimic natural light better than the typical incandescents. I think I usually see more red in the left eye and more green in the right: port and starboard. But I remember noticing once that the colors had reversed positions, so I could believe the hypothesis that the tinting changes in response to blood flow or something like that.

By: Savannah

Savannah — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 19:22:55 -0800

Yep, me, too. One eye sees the world in "warm" tones, the other in "cool" tones. So one eye sees more reds, oranges, yellows, and the other, more blues, greens, and greys. As far as I've heard, it's completely normal. (I asked my ophthalmologist about it once.)

I also have terrible eyesight and floaters, for what it's worth.

By: wherever, whatever

wherever, whatever — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 20:47:09 -0800

I only notice this when I'm looking through the viewfinder of my camera and change eyes.

By: Acacia

Acacia — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 03:22:09 -0800

Red in the left and green in the right, here. I always figures it was my port and starboard running lights ;)

By: tula

tula — Sat, 21 Jun 2008 12:18:22 -0800

Right warmer. I noticed this when I was a little kid staring at the beige interior of my mom's Ford Galaxie. I thought I had a sort of super power sight, and I've hung onto the idea that I have the color-perception equivalent of perfect pitch.

By: tomble

tomble — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 22:03:41 -0800

I have this, and I used to attribute it to an event that happened as a kid.

On school camp, and the proud owner of a small flash camera, I became curious as to the effect that flashing my eye would have. I put the flash against my eye and pressed the shutter release. At the last second, I chickened out and shut my eyelid. It made little difference. I was instantly blind in that eye, and for fear of getting in trouble I told nobody. Within probably half an hour I could differentiate light and dark, then an hour or so later I had colour back. I wouldn't recommend it, but it was interesting.

By: CitrusFreak12

CitrusFreak12 — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 22:02:14 -0800

I have the same thing! I've noticed it ever since I was little. I think, given the response, it's pretty normal.