The cornea (front of the eye) is not perfectly round, but has more of a curved shape. Objects may appear to have a shadow or ghosted image without glasses and/or contact lenses. Your distance vision and near vision are probably both affected.

It is common to have a combination of astigmatism and nearsightedness or farsightedness. If you wear soft contact lenses, the prescription probably has several numbers listed for the power. Example: -4.50 -1.25 x 180 soft contact lens power. If you wear gas permeable contact lenses, you probably have astigmatism.