Eye Health More Eye Issues & Safety How Alcohol Affects Your Eyes By Troy Bedinghaus, OD Troy Bedinghaus, OD LinkedIn Troy L. Bedinghaus, OD, board-certified optometric physician, owns Lakewood Family Eye Care in Florida. He is an active member of the American Optometric Association. Learn about our editorial process Updated on July 26, 2020 Medically reviewed by Bryan M. Wolynski, OD Medically reviewed by Bryan M. Wolynski, OD on July 22, 2020 LinkedIn Bryan Wolynski, OD, is a board-certified community optometrist who has been in the eye care field for over 30 years. He works in private practice in New York City. Learn about our Medical Review Board Print Although light consumption of alcohol probably won't cause any health problems, drinking alcohol excessively can have harmful effects on your body, including your eyes. Heavy drinking of alcohol may cause problems with your vision and overall eye health including the following conditions. Moyo Studio / Getty Images Decreased Visual Performance Your overall visual performance may be altered since drinking heavily impairs brain function. You may have blurred vision or double vision due to weakened eye muscle coordination. You may also experience delayed reactions while driving. Slow Pupil Reactions Alcohol tends to affect the speed at which your iris constricts and dilates. A driver that has been drinking alcohol cannot adapt as quickly to oncoming headlights. Decreased Peripheral Vision Drinking alcohol may decrease the sensitivity of your peripheral vision. This may give you the effect or perception of having tunnel vision. Decreased Contrast Sensitivity Drinking too much alcohol can alter your contrast sensitivity, or how precise you can discern between shades of gray. Driving in rain or fog will be much more dangerous. Optic Neuropathy Also referred to as tobacco-alcohol amblyopia, people who drink or smoke in excess can develop optic neuropathy though it is rare. You might develop a painless loss of vision, decreased peripheral vision, or reduced color vision. Even though studies have shown the vision loss to be a result of a nutritional deficiency, some professionals believe that the condition develops because of toxic effects of alcohol and tobacco. Optic neuropathy can also develop as a result of methanol poisoning. Methanol is used in some hand sanitizers instead of ethyl alcohol. In some cases, people who abuse alcohol may resort of other forms of alcohol such as methanol. Frequent Migraines Alcohol has been shown to be a trigger for severe migraine headaches in some people. You may experience a temporary, but debilitating visual aura before the onset of the headache. The visual aura may appear as blind spots, graying of vision or zig-zag patterns of light. The Health Risks of Heavy Drinking Was this page helpful? Thanks for your feedback! Sign up for our Health Tip of the Day newsletter, and receive daily tips that will help you live your healthiest life. Sign Up You're in! Thank you, {{form.email}}, for signing up. There was an error. Please try again. What are your concerns? Other Inaccurate Hard to Understand Submit Article Sources Verywell Health uses only high-quality sources, including peer-reviewed studies, to support the facts within our articles. Read our editorial process to learn more about how we fact-check and keep our content accurate, reliable, and trustworthy. Kunchulia M, Pilz KS, Herzog MH. How alcohol intake affects visual temporal processing. Vision Res. 2012;66:11-6. doi:10.1016/j.visres.2012.06.010 Castro JJ, Pozo AM, Rubiño M, Anera RG, Jiménez del barco L. Retinal-image quality and night-vision performance after alcohol consumption. J Ophthalmol. 2014;2014:704823. doi:10.1155/2014/704823 Bayless SJ, Harvey AJ. Testing alcohol myopia theory: examining the effects of alcohol intoxication on simultaneous central and peripheral attention. Perception. 2017;46(1):90-99. doi:10.1177/0301006616672221 Timney B, Ferreira M, Matson S. A signal detection analysis of the effects of alcohol on visual contrast sensitivity Perception. 2016;45(12):1358-1374. doi:10.1177/0301006616658306 Joseph S, Al-ali S, Tripathi A. Tobacco-alcohol optic neuropathy. Is complete recovery possible? Oman J Ophthalmol. 2014;7(1):50. doi:10.4103/0974-620X.127948 U.S. Food and Drug Administration. FDA updates on hand sanitizers consumers should not use. Updated October 9, 2020. Rockett FC, De oliveira VR, Castro K, Chaves ML, Perla Ada S, Perry ID. Dietary aspects of migraine trigger factors. Nutr Rev. 2012;70(6):337-56. doi:10.1111/j.1753-4887.2012.00468.x Additional Reading Alexander, Larry J, OD. Primary Care of the Posterior Segment, Third Edition. Mcgraw-Hill, 2002.