Astigmatism* is only a particular version of short or long sight.
If you have some, and just about everyone does if measured accurately enough, though it's usually not enough to put into an Rx, it affects your vision at every distance, not just at one range, which can happen with a straightforward "spherical" Rx.
That's why your glasses can be useful for distance *and* near.
It doesn't mean you have to wear them alll the time, unless you like the better vision or reduced fatigue, in which case there's no reason why you shouldn't.
It doesn't mean your eyes are irregular.
(there's a category, "irregular astigmatism" to cover the rarer cases where that occurs, and glasses don't much help, there.)
If you were short-sighted, and looked at a black dot on a white screen in the distance, you'd see a round blur.
The dot will have stretched, gone out of focus, in every direction.
If you had only short-sighted astigmatism, and looked at a black dot on a white screen in the distance, you'd see a line.
The dot will have stretched, gone out of focus, in only one direction. The line could run in any direction.
This gives the three numbers needed for an eye's Rx.
The first number is the amount needed to get that round blur into focus in at least one direction.
If everything is now in focus, there is no astigmatism.
The second number is the extra amount that needs to be added or subtracted to get the second direction in focus,
(at 90 degrees to the first.) The third number is, in degrees, the direction in which to apply this. It's only a direction so 170 is not "worse" than 10.
*Strictly not "an astigmatism". It's a quantity, like milk, rather than a discrete item or object like an apple.
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