In an eyeglass prescription, second column Cylinder (CYL) - indicates the amount of lens power for astigmatism. The number in the cylinder column may be preceded with a minus sign (for the correction of nearsighted astigmatism) or a plus sign (for farsighted astigmatism). Cylinder power always follows sphere power in an eyeglass prescription.
There are three primary types of astigmatism:
- Myopic astigmatism. One or both principal meridians of the eye are nearsighted. (If both meridians are nearsighted, they are myopic in differing degree.)
- Hyperopic astigmatism. One or both principal meridians are farsighted. (If both are farsighted, they are hyperopic in differing degree.)
- Mixed astigmatism. One prinicipal meridian is nearsighted, and the other is farsighted.