We would love to age gracefully, won’t we? Ageing reflects a life-long pursuit of wisdom and knowledge with those grey hair speaking out of hard work and daily labour put together to make a life. But those wisdomful eyes might come with a cost. As change in vision is one of the earliest signs of ageing and old people are much more vulnerable to various eye diseases and problems

These eye problems are nothing but the part and parcel of ageing. Hence, let’s not live in denial and accept the cos and pros of our ageing like a boss. Here are some of the changes that occur when a person age,

1. Eyes feel dry as the amount of eye fluid decreases.

2. Discoloration of lens color (becomes yellowish), leading to a change in the way colors are perceived.

3. Pupil reacts slower to light change.

4. Lens become denser, thus, seeing in dark becomes more and more difficult.

5. Focusing on close objects becomes tough as lens stiffens.

These changes are easily detectable if observed closely and they may contribute to the occurrence of the following eye issues,

1. Presbyopia:
   As the lens start to stiffen, most people during their 40’s notice that seeing objects closer than 2 feet becomes difficult. In normal conditions, a lens changes its size to focus on closer objects, but it’s hard for a stiffer lens to adjust, hence everyone ends up using magnifying glasses for reading. 

2. Need brighter light:
   With age, lens becomes denser and less transparent. Hence, it’s difficult for the eyes to see in dim light as lesser light can pass through those dense lens. Moreover, even the retina which is responsible for sensing light becomes less sensitive. So for reading and working on minute things more light is required. Generally, a 60-year old requires thrice the amount of light that a 20-year old requires.

3. Color perception changes:
   Yellowing of lens is one reason of why colors are perceived differently. As the colors look less bright to yellow lens and even detecting the contrast between two colors may get tougher. For example, blue might appear as grey and letters written in blue on grey background might appear to be washed out.

4. Problems faced in a dark room
   The pupil reacts slower to lights. A pupil usually widens and narrows to let more light in and a slow-reacting pupil might disable old people to see in dark or they can be temporarily blinded in the brightly lit rooms.

5. Occurrence of floaters:
   Floaters are tiny black specks that move across the field of vision of old people. These are nothing but bits of normal fluids that have solidified as a result of ageing. Until they increase in size and number, they aren’t a cause of concern.

Apart from these major changes, there are many more changes like sinking of eyes due to lesser fat around the eyes, appearance of grey-white ring on the surface of the eye, lower eyelid may move away from the eyeball etc become evident in old age.

Hence, one should not freak out but be prepared to accept all of these changes wisely. Because, the maturity of understanding the needs of ageing body is in real sense ageing gracefully.