I tried progressive lenses once. It gave me wicked headaches and I felt like my eyeballs were ready to pop out. Everything was blurry at any level. At that time I decided if I ever need to carry 50 pairs of glasses over using progressives I’d rather do that.
Odd - I’ve got $160 progressives (w/ titanium frames) from Costco, which are an older lens design, and after the first few days getting used to them I’ve had no real complaints. Peripheral vision isn’t even noticeably blurry with these, which I suppose may be more my brain than the lenses themselves. It could also be due to my eyesight, which is a bit nearsighted and lots of astigmatism. I could see where the astigmatism correction might work fairly well on the peripheral part of the lens, where a large near- or far-sighted correction might not.
Of course the eye doc prepared me pretty well for the funhouse mirror shit I’d see until I got used to 'em, and also warned that I might NOT get used to them and would need to go with a different brand of lens, straight bifocals and / or multiple glasses. He told of a neighbor that had his first set of progressives and HATED 'em for a few weeks, then had something “click” and then thought they were the greatest invention ever. Luckily I didn’t take long to adapt.
I too got my first pair (yay middle-agedness) of glasses and got progressive lenses. After three months I am still getting used to them. Mine cause the illusion that my head is further from the ground and that gave me a bit of dizziness/vertigo. I hate reading in them, but l have grown to like them other wise.
I am (as of this last eye exam) “progressive lens qualified”, as it were.
But on the advice of my doctor and the technicians, I haven’t switched to them yet. I’m nearsighted, and so I can simply remove my glasses for fine detail, and the advice I received was “as long as you can get by without switching to progressives, do that”.
I can mostly get by with just removing my glasses. That is in fact why I went with a distance-only prescription at first. My problem is that my left eye has a -0.5 astigmatism (meaning a cylindrical error, not a regular spherical error) that is there at any distance. It was the blur in my left eye when watching TV that sent me back to the optometrist.
My wife’s optometrist told her about one option for those who just need correction for reading: basically wearing just one contact lens. Your brain apparently sorts it all out. Anyone try that?
When my close vision first started to go, I just used drug store readers for computers/reading. Now my distance is going as well, and I’ve got a dedicated pair of prescription glasses for distance and one optimized for computer distance. It works out fairly well because the distance glasses also allow me to see my phone (with a bit of effort), so when I’m away from the computer/ipad/book/whatever I just wear the distance ones.
When did I become such an old man?
I’ve read about going with monovision, but personally I value my depth perception too much. Also, right now I have a little bit of feeling for this since only my left eye is fuzzy at reading distances if I take my glasses off, and I don’t like it. Mostly my brain sorts it out but I’m also aware of it on some level.
My Dad got lens implants for cataracts, and they basically did that: he has one eye for distant vision and one for close vision. He does still wear glasses to balance them both out, but in a pinch, he can function without them (drive, etc).
Several years ago, probably when I was around 45, my near vision was starting to go. I couldn’t read the small print on things so I started using OTC reading glasses. Over the past year or so I noticed my distance vision wasn’t as clear as it used to be. I have a lot of trouble reading the digital clock on my microwave for instance, or reading street signs.
I recently got a pair of single vision glasses for distance and also progressive lenses. I can’t imagine that I can get used to the progressives. Mostly because of the narrow band of vision at mid range. I need to constantly move my head to see the computer screen. When I do that, the screen gets kinda trapezoidal.
My vision is actually good enough for the computer screen because it isn’t that close to my face, nor is it far enough so my astigmatism causes much problems. I just can’t see the trade offs for progressives being worth it to me with my current eyesight.
On the flip side, I love my distance glasses. I never realized how much detail I was missing on the tv screen. In one show, without my glasses a guy was wearing a gray shirt. With my glasses I could see the different textures in the fabric. I could see stars that I couldn’t before. It also seems colors are more vibrant because my blurriness kinda muted things.
I’ll try the progressives for a little while longer, but I just can’t image them working out well enough to keep.
Progressives suck for the computer for the reason you stated. I use progressives so that I don’t have to keep putting on my glasses to read my phone/laptop and then I don’t have to take them off to transition to face to face or seeing a presentation at a meeting. But if I have to do extended work on the computer, I use otc single lens. If you don’t need glasses to read the screen, good for you. Hold off as long as you can.
I did not like mine at first, and I’d say it was several weeks before I was happy with them…
Don’t usually use them for computer work though I admit :)
Hey, glad you guys bumped this, I totally missed it 3 years ago I guess. Anyway, I got progressive lenses maybe 2 years ago. Still weirds me out, because I catch myself doing the old man thing, tilting my head back to look at my computer monitor or read or whatever. I still freak people out with my distance vision, but then I’ve had pretty serious myopia plus astigmatism since I was young, got my first glasses at age 10. Anyway, I still wouldn’t say I’m totally adjusted, maybe I never will since I have to kind of consciously switch which half of the lens I want to look through depending on the distance of the object I want to see (clearly).
My eye doctor was pushing me for lasik and I just resist. Partly I guess it’s squeamishness, I don’t want to deal with blades or lasers in my eyes. Partly it’s inertia, like I said I’ve worn glasses since I was 10 and I guess I just don’t really mind all that much. But I’m also partly concerned that with my vision likely to deteriorate further over the course of my life, how long will the surgery really help me? Anyway, it’s mostly cowardice, were I to be totally honest.
I wanna see some gamer kid Google some game and have it bring up QT3 somehow and then poke around. As soon as he sees the reading glasses and blood pressure medication discussions he’ll realize where he is and back out of here like that guy that happened into the bathroom in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas.
Same. Glasses since 3rd grade. Contacts for a few years, but my eyes didn’t appreciate them. I still dislike the progressive lenses, but they only bother me about 5 percent of the time, so I live with them. If my near vision gets any worse, though, I’ll switch to two separate prescriptions.
I’d consider lasik, but eh, why bother? I just wear glasses. They’re part of my face.
I have progressive lenses but still remove them for extended reading sessions.
I’ve had progressives for a couple of years. The magnification is very weak, though, and I make use of it only rarely, when reading tiny print on packaging labels and the like.
I’ve got them as well. I found I subconsciously trained myself to tilt my head for whatever I needed. No issues with the computer or anything else.
That’s interesting, I haven’t heard of SMILE but I too have astigmatism. I’ll have to read up on that.
I have used progressives for years and eventually became used to them. However, about two years ago they no longer really work well on the computer so I also purchased a computer pair of prescription glasses which helped me tremendously.
The problem mainly is dry eyes and using a good tear drops formula (not he Visine one) also helps a lot.
I keep reading this topic as “Progressive lens detachment”, which just sounds awful.
Anyway, I don’t have progressives, but the ability of my ideas to adapt focus has dropped off a lot in the past couple of years (basically once I hit 40). So now I have to take my glasses off if anything gets too close (my wife is fond of shoving a cell phone about 10 inches from my face - look at this!).