postural changes

In my first true 24-hour eye pressure monitoring period, where supine eye pressure measurements were taken, I found out that my eye pressure is much higher at night than expected. I also found out that my blood pressure is much lower. That's a bad combination of pressures for the health of the optic nerve.

If you are continuing to experience deterioration of your optic nerve in spite of having low eye pressure (such as normal tension glaucoma - also called low tension glaucoma), you may find this information very interesting. In fact, I think all glaucoma patients who have any progressing optic nerve damage should have their eye pressure monitored during the night (ideally while they sleep at home in familiar surroundings).

Someone made the following comment in regard to my statement that stress increases my eye pressure.

"I have to say I've had my pressures checked at the doctor's when I was extremely stressed out, only to get a low reading, and had the pressure checked when I was relaxed and gotten a high reading. Other times I've been tense and gotten a high reading and relaxed and gotten a low reading. But based on my experiences of having pressure checked in the doctor's office, I can't say for sure whether or not stress affects my IOP - not that reducing stress isn't a bad idea."

I found this data interesting. It hints that I sometimes have eye pressure changes related to postural changes. In the chart below, you'll see that my eye pressure went from 17 to 23 to 17 very quickly after I went from lying down to standing (and then sitting).

Probably the most interesting thing about today's data is the series of measurements behind the IOP value at 19:20 (7:20 PM) for my right eye.                                                                           &nbsp