Eyes hurt after watching the eclipse? What it means and when to see a doctor

Sore eyes or a damaged retina?

Sore eyes and a damaged retina feel completely different. The retina, the thin layer at the back of the eye that turns light into signals, has no pain nerves. When strong sunlight damages it, you feel no pain from the retina itself. What you notice is a change in your vision. Sore eyes and retinal damage can still happen together, so judge by how you see, not by how your eyes feel.

Soreness comes from the front of the eye. Hours of looking up, squinting into bright light, wind and dry air all leave the eyes gritty, watery or tired. The feeling is unpleasant but usually harmless, and it fades after a night’s sleep.

Warning signs as listed by the American Academy of Ophthalmology.

When symptoms appear

According to the American Academy of Ophthalmology, people with sun damage usually notice the first changes in their vision four to six hours after the exposure, and some only after twelve hours. Check your vision that evening, and again the next morning.

On the afternoon of the North American eclipse of 8 April 2024, the search “my eyes hurt” spiked in Google Trends across the United States, mostly in states under the path of totality. A group of doctors later analysed the spike in the journal Eye. Pain is not a typical sign of sun damage, so many of those searches probably came from sore, tired eyes, but the authors saw the spike as a warning that some people had looked at the Sun without protection.

A two-minute check at home

Eye doctors use a simple chart called an Amsler grid to spot problems in the centre of vision, the area the Sun damages. You can use the grid below on your phone or print it.

The grid is a quick screen, not a diagnosis. A normal result with ongoing symptoms still deserves a proper check.

When to see a doctor, and how quickly

See an eye doctor if anything about your vision has changed since the eclipse: a blur that does not clear when you blink, a spot that follows wherever you look, distortion or faded colours. Book an appointment for the same day or the next day with an optometrist or an ophthalmologist, or go to an eye emergency service if that is how care is arranged where you live.

Sore eyes with completely normal vision do not need an urgent visit. Severe pain, a very red eye, or pain that makes it hard to open the eye needs care the same day, whatever the cause. If ordinary discomfort is still there after two days, or if it gets worse, have them checked anyway, since it may come from something unrelated to the eclipse.

What the eye doctor will check

After testing your vision, the doctor usually widens your pupils with drops and looks at the centre of the retina, the macula. Early damage can be hard to see this way, so many clinics also take an OCT scan, a quick and painless picture that shows the layers of the retina in cross-section.

The scans can be strikingly precise. In 2017, doctors at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai examined a 26-year-old woman who had watched the August eclipse in the United States. Her retina showed damage in the shape of a crescent, matching the crescent Sun she had looked at. The doctors published the case in JAMA Ophthalmology and described the damage as permanent.

Treatment and recovery

No treatment can repair sun damage to the retina, according to the American Academy of Ophthalmology. Doctors follow the eye over several visits to see how it heals. Many people recover over three to six months. Some are left with a small blind spot or slight distortion that does not go away.

The British experience after the eclipse of 11 August 1999 is reassuring. A study published in Eye in 2001 collected 70 reported cases of eye damage across the United Kingdom. Half of the patients saw an eye doctor within two days, and the average age was about 30. None of the reported cases still had vision loss or symptoms at six months. Most of them were mild, and permanent damage does happen: the American Academy of Ophthalmology notes that some people keep a small blind spot.

What helps with sore eyes

For ordinary soreness after a long day outdoors, simple measures are enough:

• Rest your eyes and take a break from screens for the evening.
• Use lubricating eye drops from a pharmacy if your eyes feel dry or gritty.
• Lay a cool, damp cloth over closed eyes for a few minutes.
• Avoid rubbing your eyes, and sleep.

None of these help with damage to the retina, and none of them are a reason to wait if your vision has changed.

Children

Children and young adults make up a large share of eclipse eye injuries, and young children often cannot describe what is wrong. Ask them to look at a picture or a line of text with each eye in turn, and watch for squinting, rubbing, holding things unusually close or complaining that something looks blurry. If you are unsure, take them to an eye doctor; the check is quick and painless.

Before the next eclipse

Almost all eclipse eye injuries come from looking at the partial phases without proper protection. The next total eclipse is on 2 August 2027, across southern Spain, North Africa and Arabia, and the ring of fire on 6 February 2027 needs glasses from start to finish too. Our eye safety guide explains which glasses are safe, how to check them and the only moment you can take them off.