Understanding the Connection Between Hypermobility and Vision
- Ines Illipse
- Oct 20
- 4 min read
Updated: Nov 6
Living in a flexible body can feel like both a gift and a daily negotiation. Your joints may move freely, but your muscles work constantly to keep you steady. While most people notice hypermobility’s effects on movement, pain, or fatigue, there’s another part of the body quietly influenced by the same connective-tissue story — your eyes.
If you experience blurry vision, eye strain, light sensitivity, or trouble focusing, you’re not imagining it. Research shows that people with Hypermobility Spectrum Disorders (HSD) and Ehlers-Danlos syndromes (EDS) — especially hypermobile EDS (hEDS) — are more likely to experience a range of eye and vision issues. Understanding why helps you care for your sight and your whole self more compassionately.
Why Hypermobility Affects Your Eyes
The hidden link between your joints and your vision is connective tissue. This collagen-based "scaffolding" provides structure to every part of your body, from your ligaments to the delicate tissues of your eyes.
In hypermobility, this scaffolding is more fragile and elastic. This means the structures that shape, support, and protect your eyes can be thinner, looser, and more easily strained, leading to a host of visual symptoms.
Common Eye and Vision Changes in Hypermobility
Lax tissue can affect the tiny Meibomian glands in your eyelids, disrupting the oily layer of your tears and causing them to evaporate too quickly. This is often worsened by autonomic dysfunction (like POTS), which can alter tear production and blink rate.
Gentle support: Use preservative-free drops, apply warm compresses, blink fully, and hydrate.
These are direct results of tissue laxity:
Floppy Eyelid Syndrome involves a rubbery upper eyelid that can easily evert during sleep, causing irritation and redness.
Conjunctivochalasis is loose, wrinkled conjunctiva (the clear eye surface tissue) that can cause a foreign body sensation and blurred vision.
When the eye's shape is less stable due to fragile collagen, it can stretch more easily, leading to nearsightedness (myopia) or an irregular corneal curve (astigmatism). Your prescription may change more frequently, making regular check-ups essential.
Some of the most impactful visual issues in hypermobility stem from how the two eyes work together.
Convergence insufficiency: Difficulty turning both eyes inward when reading or focusing close-up.
Binocular Vision Dysfunction (BVD): When the eyes are slightly misaligned — even subtly — the brain must constantly work to merge two images into one.
This overcompensation can cause headaches, dizziness, anxiety, eye strain, and trouble concentrating. Many people are told they have “attention issues” or “motion sensitivity” before realizing their eyes simply aren’t teaming correctly.
Gentle support: Ask your optometrist about a binocular vision assessment or neuro-optometric rehabilitation therapy (e.g., using prisms, vision therapy exercises). For more detail, explore our separate blog: Understanding Binocular Vision Dysfunction in Hypermobility and Neurodiversity.
Bright light or screen glare can feel painful or overwhelming, reflecting both neurological sensitivity (common in neurodivergent people) and corneal or iris differences from connective-tissue changes.
Less frequently, people with EDS may experience:
Blue sclera: Thinner scleral tissue shows a bluish hue.
Corneal thinning or steepening: Risk for keratoconus.
Retinal tears or detachment: Rare but serious.
⚠️ Seek urgent care if you see flashes, new floaters, or a shadow over your vision.
Because EDS often overlaps with dysautonomia, migraine, and Chiari malformation, visual symptoms may include:
Visual aura or flashing lights before migraines.
Dizziness or blurred vision when standing (POTS-related).
Visual overstimulation in busy environments.
These aren’t “just anxiety.” They’re part of the body’s complex regulation between the eyes, nervous system, and connective tissue.
Neurodiversity and Vision: When Eyes and the Brain Speak the Same Language
Many people with hypermobility also identify as neurodivergent — autistic, ADHD, dyslexic, or otherwise. The overlap isn’t coincidental. Connective-tissue differences influence not just muscles and joints, but also how sensory information travels through the nervous system.
Visual instability — especially from BVD, convergence issues, or eye fatigue — can mimic or amplify ADHD-like traits, such as:
Trouble sustaining attention when reading or on screens.
Skipping lines or losing your place.
Avoiding eye contact (due to strain, not social disinterest).
Feeling restless, distracted, or overstimulated in visually busy environments.
When visual input is unstable, the brain is forced to work harder to interpret the world — leaving fewer resources for focus, regulation, and calm. Recognizing this connection can shift the conversation from “what’s wrong with my attention” to “how can I support my visual system?”
The Deeper Connection: Brain, Breath, and Vision
Vision is a full-body process. Your eyes constantly coordinate with your neck, spine, vestibular system, and breath. When proprioception (body awareness) is reduced, as it often is in hypermobility, the brain receives less accurate feedback about where you are in space. That uncertainty can affect balance, posture, and even the tiny eye muscles that keep the visual world steady.
The result? Visual fatigue, dizziness, and tension that feed into each other. At ParaMotion, we view this as an integrated system: when your eyes are under stress, your whole nervous system feels it.
Whole-Body Ways to Support Your Eyes
To care for your eyes, consider these holistic approaches:
Nutrition: Omega-3s, vitamin C, zinc, protein, and hydration all support healthy collagen and tear quality.
Movement: Gentle, integrative movement — especially head, neck, and gaze coordination — improves blood flow and proprioception.
Massage: Massage the temples, jaw, and base of the skull to ease muscle strain that affects eye comfort.
Protection: Wear 100% UV-blocking sunglasses; thinner ocular tissues are more sensitive to light.
Relaxation: Breathing practices, body scans, or short sensory breaks can calm the autonomic system and reduce overload.
Communication: Tell your eye doctor about your HSD/hEDS diagnosis. People with EDS may have unique healing or surgical considerations — discuss these openly before procedures.
A Gentle Closing Thought
Living with hypermobility and EDS often means feeling like your body — or your vision — behaves unpredictably. It’s okay to find that frustrating or disorienting.
Your eyes aren’t broken. They’re part of a body that adapts creatively, even when that adaptation feels like a struggle. Understanding these connections allows you to work with your body — not against it — and to bring more clarity (literally and figuratively) to your world.
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