this post was submitted on 29 Jun 2024
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No Stupid Questions

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It would be nice to have a pair of glasses I could use to tune out and blur my surroundings or what I watch but I'm not sure exactly if its a thing...

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[–] owenfromcanada@lemmy.world 24 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Do you... do you have eyelids?

You should have eyelids.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 6 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago)

Haha "u got me"

Nah, blurring is subjectively a different experience that I think has its place, certainly for me

[–] remotelove@lemmy.ca 21 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (1 children)

Seriously though, blurred glasses seems like a recipe for a nasty headache. You would probably be better off with nothing, like eye covers for sleeping.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 4 points 4 months ago

Ah, the original glacier glasses

[–] lemmefixdat4u@lemmy.world 10 points 4 months ago (1 children)

A pair of off-the-shelf reading glasses will make everything other than what's right in front of your face blurry. But please don't use them to blur distant things you actually will be looking at for long stretches. Your eyes will still try to focus on those blurry distant objects, and that will cause ocular muscle strain. If you did it for a few years, you could cause permanent changes to the shape of your eyeball. Then you will really need glasses.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 5 points 4 months ago

Oh shit, thats right :) Wow, I forgot that they are like magnifying glasses and magnifying glasses blur non close range.

Thanks, that might be it or the drunk goggles

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 8 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You really don't care about your eyesight do you... this will absolutely wreck your eyes.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Its not for chronic use, just for relaxing and zoning out for a little bit, like open eyed meditation

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago (2 children)

Still absolutely terrible for any length of time.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 3 points 4 months ago* (last edited 4 months ago) (3 children)

I'm curious if that would be different for simulated blurriness, like if you watch a blurry video, would that be a different story? I feel like that would be different because its not impairing the objective signal or functioning of your normal vision

Like if you have blurry vision, and you don't wear vision-correcting glasses, does that set off an inevitable downward spiral of degradation of your vision?

Why is worse than closing your eyes, probably super dumb question but might as well iron out my understanding of this while we're here πŸ™

[–] gila@lemm.ee 5 points 4 months ago (1 children)

It is different for simulated blurriness, because simulated blurriness can't be modulated by your ocular muscles, so they won't reflexively strain to focus.

You couldn't really achieve that effect by actually putting any kind of lens in front of your eyes though. That is not a simulation of blurriness, it is actual blurriness.

The primary way it would be bad for your eyesight is by inducing eye strain, itself a primary cause of blurred vision. It's a reflex of the subconscious brain - either your eyes will be constantly trying to focus, which strains them, or you're consciously unfocusing them, which also strain them.

If you had eye strain causing blurry vision naturally and didn't correct it with glasses, likely there'd be no downward spiral unless you have some other condition causing that. It'd potentially cause other issues like headaches or spasms though

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 2 points 4 months ago

It is different for simulated blurriness, because simulated blurriness can't be modulated by your ocular muscles, so they won't reflexively strain to focus.

You couldn't really achieve that effect by actually putting any kind of lens in front of your eyes though. That is not a simulation of blurriness, it is actual blurriness.

This is the correct answer. It's like using an image with depth to work your depth perception: it won't work because you can't transition between each layer to bring them into focus. Seamen who stay in submarines for extended periods are prohibited from driving for quite a while when they get back on land because a submarine is too small of an enclosed space and your depth perception crumbles over time when it's not being used.

Turning your world into a blur will basically cause your eyes to try and hyper focus at all times, unable to do so. This will lead to massive eye strain but also a ton of headaches and other ailments. It is the opposite of relaxation for your body.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Just a guess, but I think if your eyes try to focus on something and it improves the image clarity (e.g. using glasses that don't fit your eyes), then it'll keep trying and end up causing problems. If attempts at focusing have no effect (e.g. looking at blurry images), then it'll stop trying and your eyes can properly relax.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Whats the timeframe tho. For reasons I dont want to throw out there haha I can sort of prove this is nominally inaccurate in my case on the assumption that the time spent in blur is brief.

[–] KairuByte@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 4 months ago

Looking directly at the sun for short periods of time doesn’t immediately cause problems, but years down the line you will start to notice a section of your vision start to become like a void, no color, no light, just a lack of sight.

Just because you don’t notice an immediate effect doesn’t mean you’re not causing harm. The human body is a wonder of redundancy, and having ways of compensating in the short term. But eventually those compensations start to fade.

[–] ultratiem@lemmy.ca 0 points 4 months ago

Like if you have blurry vision, and you don't wear vision-correcting glasses, does that set off an inevitable downward spiral of degradation of your vision?

Not really. It depends on how bad. But not having good eyesight which leads to blurry vision isn't a blanket condition, in that, your entire world isn't just a blur. You can focus on some things (far sighted vs near sighted) and even if you can't see well close-up, you can still force your eyes in some circumstances to produce better vision if you put in effort. It's like trying to lift a bag that's too heavy for you. You may not be able to get it above your head, but maybe you can lift it off the floor if you try hard enough.

What causes an inevitable degradation is more to do with age and how our bodies just fail over time. Headaches and other ailments associated with poor vision are the number one cause for most people to see an optometrist. Your eyes can only handle so much load before it takes a toll. Which should be the red flag for you and your "blurry" glasses.

Closing your eyes is the most ideal because it cuts off sensory information, which saves energy (your sensory and motor cortex are spared or operate with less resources). It's like lying still vs running a marathon. It requires a lot of energy for your brain to continually process info. And humans are visual creatures. We take vision above all else. If it looks like a duck, but sounds like a sheep and smells like bread, it's still a duck to us. Which tells you just how much of our brain is carved out for that sense.

Baggage checkers at airports that sit behind the x-ray machine usually lose sharpness after about 30m (which means they can allow potentially dangerous objects onto aircrafts). Attention is super expensive and if you call on someone's total, undivided attention, that can only be maintained for so long before the brain sort of checks out.

And not it's not a dumb question.

gila@lemm.see answered your question below regarding simulated blurriness and I added a bit to it if you want to read more.

[–] scarilog@lemmy.world 0 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You seem to be stating "absolutely terrible" with no attempt at explaining the underlying mechanism which would cause using blurred glasses to "wreck your eyes".

[–] Ephera@lemmy.ml 7 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Glasses with wrong strength should focus the incoming light wrongly and therefore effectively blur things.

If you can, I'd recommend trying out someone else's glasses. It can give people headaches when their vision is blurry, because they'll try to focus their eyes really hard.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 1 points 4 months ago (1 children)

Right but i can't have their glasses and I doubt the insurance company would take too kindly to my endgame here lol

[–] Hamartiogonic@sopuli.xyz 5 points 4 months ago

You know what happens to the glasses that used to work, but no longer do because your eyes have changed? People archive them to the bedroom drawer just in case someone like you might one day show up. Ask anyone who wears glasses for an old pair they haven’t worn in the last decade. Usually, you get to choose from several options.

BTW, the headache thing is real, but you’ll learn that soon enough.

[–] ramjambamalam@lemmy.ca 5 points 4 months ago

You mentioned open eye meditation... My mind jumps to kaleidoscopes at the mention of that.

[–] Thavron@lemmy.ca 4 points 4 months ago (1 children)

You could buy cheap plastic ones and scuff them up with high grit sandpaper, diffusing the Lenses.

[–] cheese_greater@lemmy.world 2 points 4 months ago

The cost wouldn't be an issue haha, but thanks for thoughtfulness

[–] evranch@lemmy.ca 3 points 4 months ago

Used to do this to my shooting glasses, just put Scotch tape on my non-dominant eye so I could leave it open while shooting open sights.

I'm "wrong eyed" so my brain always tried to look down my gun with my left eye. The tape solved it. With practice I can now shoot well with regular glasses, though it's still more comfortable to use taped glasses.

Don't listen to the wrong prescription talk as it will hurt your eyes. Tape is cheap and safe.

[–] x4740N@lemm.ee 1 points 2 months ago

Allow your eyes to focus on a point and breathe in and out slowly

You'll get your whole mind to focus on something specific and the outside world will fade