Ocular hypertension has no obvious signs such as eye pain or red eyes. The only way to tell if you have high eye pressure is to have a comprehensive eye exam by an optometrist or ophthalmologist. During a comprehensive eye exam, your eye doctor will measure your IOP with an instrument called a tonometer.
The eye pain can be severe, and may cause headache, and even nausea or vomiting. In an acute angle-closure glaucoma attack, the eye pressure rises rapidly, causing pain, and also causes the cornea to become cloudy, thus patients also notice their vision has decreased.
This pressure will often be due to simple headaches or sinus conditions, which are easy to deal with and unlikely to cause complications. However, pressure behind the eyes may be a symptom of a more serious condition, such as optic neuritis or Graves' disease. In these cases, seek further treatment.
When we are severely stressed and anxious, high levels of adrenaline in the body can cause pressure on the eyes, resulting in blurred vision. People with long-term anxiety can suffer from eye strain throughout the day on a regular basis. Anxiety causes the body to become highly sensitised to any slight movement.
With the eye's drainage channel completely blocked, eye pressure skyrockets in a very short amount of time. This spike often leads to intense, sudden pain in the eye that can even cause vomiting. The pain can further spread to the head, causing intermittent headaches.
Place the tips of both index fingers on the closed upper eyelid. Keeping both fingertips in contact with the upper eyelid, apply gentle pressure through the closed eyelid, first gently pressing on the eye with the right index finger, then with the left, and then with the right again (Figure 1). Repeat on the other eye.
People with glaucoma were also more likely to fall asleep quickly (in nine or fewer minutes) or take longer (30 minutes or more) to fall asleep. There was also a connection between glaucoma and pronounced daytime sleepiness.
Being older than age 40 is a risk factor for both ocular hypertension and primary open-angle glaucoma. Elevated eye pressure in a young person is a cause for concern. A young person has a longer time to be exposed to high pressures over a lifetime and a greater likelihood of optic nerve damage.
A sinus infection ('sinusitis') is caused when your sinus cavity becomes infected with either a bacterial or viral infection. These infections often lead to swelling of the sinuses, which can result in added pressure to the face, including behind the eyes.
Whether you develop glaucoma depends on the amount of pressure your optic nerve can handle — and this amount is different for each person. For most people, eye pressure above 21 is higher than normal. Getting regular dilated eye exams can help your eye doctor figure out what level of eye pressure is normal for you.
“Pressure is highest typically in the morning, when you're just waking up, and lowest in the afternoon,” says Johnson. “So if you have a 4:00 pm. appointment at the doctor's office, that particular pressure may be the lowest pressure you'll have that day.”
You'll feel pressure in the upper region of your face, especially behind your eyes and around your cheekbones. Additional symptoms of sinusitis may include: Fever.
Drinking a quart of water in less than five minutes has been shown to increase intraocular pressure; instead, advise your patients to drink small amounts of water often to stay hydrated.
Rainbow-colored halos around lights. Low vision, blurred vision, narrowed vision (tunnel vision) or blind spots. Nausea and vomiting. Red eyes.
Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that can cause vision loss and blindness by damaging a nerve in the back of your eye called the optic nerve. The symptoms can start so slowly that you may not notice them.
But did you also know it can affect your eyes? Your eyes undergo changes such as increased intraocular pressure (IOP) when you're stressed or anxious, whether for a short time or on a regular basis.
Doctors know that increased blood pressure results in increased eye pressure, possibly because high blood pressure increases the amount of fluid the eye produces and/or affects the eye's drainage system.
They observed a mean IOP increase of 1.0 mm Hg (right eye, P =. 003) and 1.1 mm Hg (left eye, P =. 004) when comparing IOP measurements obtained during the DTC and immediately after TSST.
You can't cure ocular hypertension, but your provider can treat and monitor the condition. People who have ocular hypertension may be at a higher risk for developing glaucoma, but not everyone who has ocular hypertension will automatically develop glaucoma.
Measuring Eye Pressure
Normal eye pressure ranges from 12-21 mm Hg, and eye pressure of greater than 21 mm Hg is considered higher than normal.