Have you ever wondered, what does alcohol do to your eyes after a night of drinking?
Alcohol affects more than just your liver and your brain. It may also have significant impacts on your eyes and harm your eyesight. Many people will say they have red eyes, dry eyes, or blurry vision after consuming alcohol. However, this is often just the short term effects of alcohol.
Over time, excessive alcohol use can lead to lasting eye damage and even vision loss.
Chronic alcohol abuse can harm your vision and your eyes potentially even permanently. Therefore, it is important to learn more about how alcohol is related to your eyes.
If you’re dealing with social drinking, alcohol abuse, or long-term drinking alcohol, your eyes reflect your body’s overall health.
At CT Addiction Medicine, we provide evidence-based treatment options, medical detox and counseling to help you if you’re able to overcome alcohol abuse and misuse.
How Alcohol Affects Your Eyes
Alcohol consumption causes your brain to slow down communication with your eyes. This will impact your ability to focus, judge distance, and respond to light.
You will also have slower dilation of the pupils resulting in more difficulty seeing while drinking and especially at night.
Long-term alcohol consumption will disrupt the absorption of vitamins that impact the optic nerve leading to several ocular disorders and optic nerve damage.
Short-Term Effects
When you consume alcohol, your central nervous system slows down. This impacts the muscles that control eye movement and coordination. Some short-term effects include:
Blurry or double vision
Slower pupil reactions
Sensitivity to light
Red or bloodshot eyes
Decreased peripheral vision
Even moderate drinking can temporarily alter how your eyes perceive colors and light. These effects usually go away as the alcohol leaves your system—but frequent episodes can cause cumulative damage.
Long-Term Effects
Prolonged drinking alcohol can damage the optic nerve, leading to a condition known as optic neuropathy. This may cause permanent vision loss. Other long-term impacts include:
- Chronic dry eyes
- Vitamin deficiency (especially Vitamin B1 and B12)
- Increased risk of cataracts
- Nerve damage in the retina
- Reduced night vision
Blurry Vision and Focus Problems
Blurry vision is one of the first effects of alcohol on your eyes. Alcohol affects the signals you receive from your eyes to your brain, and how you focus with your eyes.
When your brain slows down, your eyes will become uncoordinated – resulting in double vision or difficulty visually tracking moving objects. These effects can make it very unsafe to operate a vehicle or machinery.
If you have continued changes in your vision, even after you have stopped drinking, this may indicate a potentially serious amount of eye or nerve damage, to warrant medical follow-up.
How Alcohol Impacts Eye Function
To understand what does alcohol do to your eyes, it helps to look at the science behind it.
| Eye Function | How Alcohol Affects It |
| Pupil Dilation | Slows response to light, making it hard to adjust in dark environments. |
| Eye Movement | Causes uncoordinated movement and double vision. |
| Tear Production | Reduces moisture, causing dryness and irritation. |
| Blood Vessels | Expands blood vessels, leading to redness and puffiness. |
| Optic Nerve | Chronic drinking damages nerves, reducing vision clarity. |
Why Do Your Eyes Get Red After Drinking?
Red or bloodshot eyes are one of the most visible signs of alcohol use. This happens because alcohol dilates the blood vessels on the surface of your eyes.
The more alcohol you drink, the more your blood vessels expand, causing that classic “red-eye” effect. Over time, frequent drinking alcohol can make these vessels permanently enlarged, leading to chronic redness and irritation.
Tips to Reduce Redness:
- Stay hydrated while drinking.
- Use lubricating eye drops.
- Avoid rubbing your eyes.
- Limit alcohol intake.
What Does Rubbing Alcohol Do to Your Eyes?
It’s important not to confuse rubbing alcohol with drinking alcohol. It can cause severe irritation, burns, and vision damage.
If rubbing alcohol gets into your eyes:
- Rinse your eyes immediately with clean water for at least 15 minutes.
- Remove contact lenses if possible.
- Seek medical help right away.
Alcohol Deficiency and Nutritional Impact
Chronic alcohol consumption reduces your body’s ability to absorb vital essential for maintaining healthy vision.
Vitamin A deficiency can cause night blindness, while Vitamin B1 deficiency leads to optic neuropathy.
This ultimately contributes to why people with alcohol-use disorder often have poor vision or become blind from their drink.
Eating a balanced diet, taking supplements, and drinking plenty of water will help protect your eyesight but the best way to remedy this issue is to minimize or completely stop drinking alcohol.
Preventing Alcohol-Related Eye Damage
Even if you drink occasionally, protecting your eye health should be a priority.
Steps You Can Take:
- Drink in moderation or avoid alcohol entirely.
- Eat foods rich in Vitamins A, C, and B-complex.
- Stay hydrated to reduce dryness and redness.
- Avoid smoking, which compounds eye damage.
- Schedule regular eye exams.
These symptoms might indicate damage caused by drinking alcohol or other underlying eye diseases.
Conclusion
So, alcohol affects nearly all of your visual system. From delaying your focus to entirely damaging the optic nerve.
If you drink infrequently, you may experience some redness or dryness, but if you are an alcoholic, you could experience blindness, cataracts, or long-term vision decline.
Your eyes are the windows to your health, and alcohol diminishes that window over time.
Protecting your vision means you will need to stop drinking, or if you are an alcohol abuser, controlling your alcohol abuse and making better choices today.
At CT, Addiction Medicine, we work to help people recover from alcohol dependence through a combination of medical detox, therapeutic support, and long-term recovery plan with follow up monitoring.
FAQs
Q:Why do your eyes get red in the alcohol consumption process?
Eyes appear red from drinking alcohol because it dilates the interior blood vessels in your eyes which make them more pronounced.
Q:Can alcohol make you see double?
Yes, too much alcohol abuse can slow down coordination of the eye muscles so that you will see double.
Q:Can alcohol cause irreversible eye damage?
Yes. Long term drinking alcohol can damage the optic nerve causing irreversible vision loss.