I just got a new pair of progressive lens glasses and it is so freaking weird. Has anyone ever? I don’t wear prescription glasses. The eye doctor told me my far vision is still mostly 20/20. But I do need glasses to read/use the computer.
So the problem comes with either A) wearing your reading glasses on the end of your nose or B) always taking them off to talk to people or see stuff far away (like in a meeting, to see the presentation). I find myself constantly swapping my glasses off of my face or just ignoring my phone because it’s too hard to make out the incoming messages, etc.
So this is the problem progressive lens try to solve. It’s got three different power lenses baked into a single lens. You look down to read, up to see faces, some sweet spot in the middle for the computer. But the downside is my normal vision is distorted with these things on. It feels like I have to look straight ahead or everything turns swimmy and strange. It’s sort of vertigo inducing. On the upside, the other day I was able to actually look up a friend’s contact information on the street at night without having to rummage for reading glasses. Ordinarily I would have just passed on something like this because it would have been too much bother.
I am not sure if I will keep them. The convenience is outweighed by the degradation to my (already degraded) vision. To read a big screen PC, I have to move my head from side to side to keep the sweet spot on the lens focused on the target text – meanwhile the other text is sort of swimming about.
The peripheral distortion is horrible when you start wearing progressives. This is something your brain will edit out eventually. It drove me nuts when I started, and now I have to deliberately look through the “bad” parts of the lens to see it. The amount of visual post-processing your brain does on what you see is considerable, but you have to wear the glasses regularly for some time to adapt. A month at least, I’d say.
Unfortunately, the corrected zones are somewhat hourglass shaped. The top and bottom zones are corrected for the full width of the glasses, but the mid-band is kind of narrow. Digitally surfaced lenses help in this regard, they’re computer-ground lenses which improve the width of the corrected zones. TechVue is the trademark Sears uses for digital surfacing, this promotional image helps illustrate the problem:
I added the color bands to illustrate my experience with them - there are at least 4 zones of correction. I can read fine print with the red zones that I can’t read in the yellow.
These work for most tasks, but when the target surface is very large, it’s bigger than any one corrected zone. Particularly the tiny mid-band. Which is why I ordered some computer glasses, single-correction lenses optimized for mid to near work. They’re loads better for staring at two 24" monitors, and they’re OK if not ideal for reading. I bought mine from Zenni for about $40.
I now have three pairs of glasses. Single-distance wrap around lenses for driving, which you don’t need because your distance vision is fine, the single-distance glasses that sit in front of my computer, and the progressive glasses for everything else. Truth be told, I can drive just fine with the progressive glasses, it’s only computer work where they’re genuinely a problem. I just like the “I’m not wearing glasses” feeling I get from wearing the driving glasses, they have much better peripheral vision than the progressives.
My experience has been similar, if maybe not so pronounced. Having had crap distance vision for decades, my optometrist switched me to progressive lenses last year to address my now-also-degrading near vision. Not happy with them at all: I hate losing the clarity on the periphery, and I still haven’t adjusted to how the lenses transition to the “reading field” at the bottom.
Next time, straightforward bifocals, lines be damned.
I have been wearing progressives for several years now. But the first pair I got I took back and just had them make me a pair of regular lenses. But with this pair I had the lower part lowered on the lens and they were easier to get used to. My next pair i will probably go to the traditional spot for the transition as I am used to them now.
The reading field doesn’t bother me - I find that I automatically look down when I’m reading or doing other close work. I just found the distortion distracting initially.
I’ve read that some people never do adjust to progressives. I think that you have to wear them most of the time if you are going to have any hope of adjusting. That initial experience can turn you off so much you don’t spend the time with them.
I have worn glasses since I was a kid. Progressives have their place depending on your job. I am a software trainer and do not want to switch between three different pairs. But when I am home on the computer I use a dedicated computer prescription if I have to read I just look below my glasses or take them off.
If reading a book I use my progressives or no glasses at all; the kindle has helped tremendously with reading since it is light to hold and I can adjust the size of the font as needed.
I think an ebooks solution is a better cost alternative then a second pair of dedicated reading glasses and is actually more comfortable.
Wow, thanks guys. I am so glad I posted. Gus, I like your solution of dedicated computer glasses for large screens. Does it hurt your ability to adapt to the progressives by using a lens that’s not progressive in addition to the progressives? Hope that makes sense.
I hope I’ll adjust to these lens, if not with this pair then perhaps a future pair. The vertigo isn’t as bad as it was on the first day, but occasionally I find it frustrating to see certain things. I have to keep reminding myself to look straight at what I want to see. I keep cleaning my glasses and then remembering: ah, no. That’s just how they are. :(
Is the difference between progressives and bifocals just the line on the lens that tells people: this is an old guy?
Pretty much my experience, although I’ve limited the single-distance wrap around for driving to sun glasses. I’m fine driving with the progressives when sun glasses aren’t needed. But I found the single distance computer glasses essential. It got to be really tiring to hold my head in position for that narrow band.
I think adapting is just a matter of how much time you put into wearing the progressives. I know that my eyes continued to adjust after I started wearing the computer glasses regularly, but I think it would have been a problem if I wasn’t wearing the progressives for a couple of hours each day as well.
On bifocals (or trifocals) vs. progressives, it’s not just aesthetic. Progressives give you a continuous range of focal lengths, rather than just 2 or 3. They also don’t have that distracting line on the glasses, which is like having a hair permanently stuck to your lenses, and it’s easier for your brain to pretend your glasses have a single field. The drawback is primarily the fact that the corrected bands are narrower. Bifocals can have wider corrected reading zones because they’re not trying to create a smooth glass surface.
Boy, I hope not. No, as I understand it, to get the invisible transition between the different prescriptions the whole “progressive” lens is somewhat warped. That’s why there’s a “sweet spot” in the middle of the field of view, and oddball shit happening around the periphery.
With traditional bifocals, the two distinctly implemented prescriptions results in a lens that does each field more uniformly, albeit with a visible line marking the boundary between the two.
I started wearing progressives about two weeks ago, and I’ve pretty much gotten used to the warped periphery. However, I’m still finding I prop the glasses up on my head out of habit instead of looking down when using the cellphone, reading small text, etc.
I am that way as well with mine, but i think I am due for some stronger lenses. But I have no insurance coverage for glasses anymore so i have been putting it off.
I wear progressives instead of standard bifocals. This is my second pair as my ability to focus degrades with age. The warping is odd at first, but my brain adapted after a couple of weeks of wearing them. I have a pair of prescription regular non-bifocal/non-progressive sunglasses and find it weird wearing them as I don’t wear them often.
I experienced some of that peripheral distortion when I first got single vision lenses for my mild myopia. It took around two weeks for my brain to handle the necessary compensation, so was not too bad. Progressives probably take a little more getting used to, but your brain is pretty clever about correcting stuff like that.
Psychologist George M. Stratton conducted, in the 1890s, experiments in which he tested the theory of perceptual adaptation. In one experiment, he wore a reversing glasses for 21½ hours over three days, with no change in his vision. After removing the glasses, “normal vision was restored instantaneously and without any disturbance in the natural appearance or position of objects.”
On a later experiment, Stratton wore the glasses for eight whole days. By day four, the images seen through the instrument were still upside down. However, on day five, images appeared upright until he concentrated on them; then they became inverted again. By having to concentrate on his vision to turn it upside down again, especially when he knew images were hitting his retinas in the opposite orientation as normal, Stratton deduced his brain had reprocessed his vision and adapted to the changes in vision.
I needed glasses for the first time about two years ago. I am in my 50s, and the eye Dr could not process that I had never done this before, and how hard it was to adapt to glasses in general, and progressives in particular.
I traded them in on 3 separate pairs in a week. The lack of peripheral vision actually made me a danger on the road…
Not sure if this is helpful information or not, but here’s my experience…
I’ve worn glasses (or contacts) most of my life. About 3 years ago I went in and mentioned to the doc that my eyes were having a hard time moving from looking at far stuff to near stuff, so he put in progressives. They warned me up front that I’d need 3 or 4 days to get over the initial adjustment, but the trick was to keep wearing them, and that held pretty true. I was mainly adjusted to them after a few days.
When I went in 2 years later they updated my prescription, and then wanted something like $500 (not counting frames) for basically the same lenses, just with an updated prescription. I told them politely I’d think about it, got a copy of my prescription, then walked out never to return. I ordered some progressives online (can’t remember where) for something like $100 total. I don’t know if they just got the prescription wrong, or the zones in the lenses were just bad compared to my old ones, but I could not adjust to them. The distortion in the peripherals was terrible, and I ended up returning them and going back to my old glasses.
Around the same time, I noticed it was far easier, when looking at close up stuff, for me to see clearly without my glasses, so I got in the habit of doing that instead of looking through the bottom of lenses. When I thought about this, I wondered if I really needed progressives at all. So last year when I went to get my eyes checked at a new doc, he mentioned that he keeps two pairs of single vision glasses. One set was for reading, the other for distance. He also mentioned my prescription had not really changed from my original pair of progressives (which made me feel great about not going back to the original doc). Rather than trying to steer me into a more expensive set of progressives, he said I could try keeping two sets of single vision glasses instead.
I haven’t gotten around to ordering them yet (I detest shopping for new frames, and so I also end up procrastinating on replacing my glasses), but that’s the route I’m going. I spend most of my time staring at the computer anyway, and I think having a wider field of view while working will help me some with back and neck issues I’ve had over the last year. Reading that others have gone that route as well makes me feel better about that decision.
Yeah, from what I’ve read, you don’t want to buy progressives online. The lenses are a lot more complex than single-distance prescriptions, which the online places can do fairly easily. There are some online vendors who won’t sell you progressives unless you come into their office for measurements, because precise location of the pupil is even more important than with regular glasses. That’s why I used Sears for mine - they weren’t online, they were relatively inexpensive if not as cheap as Zenni, they offered digital surfacing, and they had a no questions asked refund policy if you don’t like the glasses.
Glasses are one item that the manufacturer really is a large factor. Especially if your eyes are messed up with an astigmatism etc. I asked my doctor what are the best companies for lenses and to even write it down in the prescription. When I but cheaper lenses I can really see the difference.
Very important it is an excellent habit that one regularly looks away from the computer screen to allow your eyes to readjust. Especially if your prescription works well but after time things get blurry trying resting your eyes by looking at something further away for a few minutes.
Our eyes need a break just like our back muscles do from sitting to long.
I got progressives a few months ago. My adaptation time was pretty quick. Only time I switch to my single distance glasses is when I play sports such as racketball. My brain cannot compensate for the edge distortion on a fast moving ball, and I miss anything more difficult than the most basic shots.
