drowsiness caused by alphagan

I had Phakic Implants put in about 6 months ago. Unfortunately due to my large pupils I suffered from extremely bad glare in all dim light situations. My doctor prescribed the eye drop Alphagan to shrink my pupils at night. The drops worked to diminish the glare but they make me extremely tired. About an hour after taking them I become so drowsy I find it hard to stay awake. My question is, is there anything I can do to combat the drowsiness?

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

If caffeine doesn't work you may need to talk to your Eye MD about stopping the medicine and trying something else. Occassionally very dilute pilocarpine works but often its a distant second to alphagan. You might also think about prescritpion glasses for night driving with anti-reflective coating and aspheric grinding.

JCH III MD

[kg17]

I found that the most effective option for reducing glare from my phakic implants (I just had them removed) was to use a specially made tinted soft contact lens that blocked most light from entering thru the iris and artifically narrowed my pupil.  I found this to work better than antireflective glasses or Alphagan-P drops.  I also had sharper vision overall.

[John C Hagan III, MD, FACS, FAAO]

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