alt Hacker NewsI'm nearly 49 now. Presbyopia (the loss of ability to close-focus) came on strongly for me at about 46. It was almost like an overnight change. I've also lost significant acuity in low light, but that seemed to come on more slowly.
I got my first bifocals last year. I got the "no line" variety and, so far, I hate them. The focal distances I need for reading, viewing my phone, and other close work are at the absolute bottom of the lens. Likewise, I find the top of bifocal area of the lens interfering with straight-ahead vision sometimes, too.
I'd like to try a set of bifocals with traditional discrete lenses to see if that improves my experience. I'd be curious to hear others' experiences.
re: light - I can definitely tell I have better acuity in bright settings when my irises are "stopped down" to a small pupil. I'm glad of my experience shooting manual focus / aperture cameras because it gives me a good intuition for what the optical instruments in my head are doing.
Edit: Oh, and the damned floater in my right eye. I've had it for 15+ years, and they're not increasing (so it's unlikely a symptom of retinal detachment). Reading on paper or a screen and, oddly, driving, always seems to bring it to the center of my vision. I flick my eye around randomly for a few seconds and it goes away for awhile. I haven't even broached the subject with my ophthalmologist because it's not too bad-- just annoying.
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Right in there now. On the plus side, I'm near sighted, so I don't need two sets of glasses, I can just take my glasses off.
Usually only happens when I'm tired. Bifocals are probably in my future though.
If I want to do circuit repairs, I have to do it in the morning though. Detail work is too hard on my eyes otherwise.
Optical engineer here. This is what they don't tell you about continuous/transition/progressive bifocals: optically they don't work. The lens design is an overconstrained optimization problem and the solutions they come up with end up compromising a lot on everything, to the point that it is practically useless.
Oh so much.
Progressives here. The very bottom irritates me to no end during the day. If I drive in the morning or walk around I feel absolutely horrible. Like I'm drunk.
Sure, if I need to read something really really close on my phone in the evening, when the eyes have gone tired it's kinda OK. I do need to focus on the bottom of the glasses.
But I still (after months) usually just look straight ahead (sometimes that "mid section" is not right for what I'm looking at) or I need to intentionally look down, in order to actually look through the top of my glasses.
I think the progressives are worse than getting two pairs, but I can't tell for sure yet, since this is the first time for me and I believed the optometrist who recommended progressives (from own experience, being a little older than myself).
I will have to try the other way soon I guess.
Like right now, evening, I can't read this screen on the bottom of the glasses. The laptop is too far away. To look through the top, I have to look down. Like "double chin territory".
At normal cell phone distance, I can't use the bottom part. It's sorta blurry. I need to try and find the middle. Which is the smallest sections (I don't have huge glasses. Maybe an inch top to bottom, which all the progression has to fit into.
I'm in my mid 40s and I'm now switching between three different pairs of glasses for different distances. Bifocals and progressive lenses wouldn't help given the things I need to focus on are usually directly in front of me. Changes have been happening rapidly.
I’ve had the same issues. Bifocals are definitely better, though I now have progressives for general around town or driving purposes because I was talked into them by the saleswoman. “Oh, they’re so much better now than they used to be”. Maybe, but they’re still not great. For reading, computer and other generally fixed focal length purposes I have different, single prescription glasses.
Like you but it began at 51 y/o. No glasses 'till 52 y/o.
We had good runs mate!
Same: presbyopia and I hate low-light now: it's just as you wrote: better acuity in bright settings. Either during day time or with proper lighting.
Still can read signs from the car (say while on the highway) before anyone else so there's that.
Can't really share any experience as I don't have a good understanding of glasses/focals.
look into occupational glasses
> I got my first bifocals last year. I got the "no line" variety and, so far, I hate them.
They are called progressives (or multi-focal – depending on whom you speak with).
Progressives come in a few «ranges»: near-range, mid-range and all-purpose. There are also «premium» options available, although I am not entirely sure how much different they actually are.
I have found that having two separate pairs of progressives (near-range for reading, laptop use and all-purpose for everything else) works the best. All of them can also be had as the transition variety and with different tint colours, thus obviating the need for a separate pair of shades.
In fact, when I first tried the near-range progressives some 5 years ago, it was an eye-opener in the almost literal sense of the word – the laptop screen flattened and became bigger despite obviously not changing its physical size. It was something that I had struggled with for a long time before the progressives entered mainstream. At high prescription numbers, the lenses for myopia start distorting the true shape of objects which creates mild to substantial visual discomfort, and near-range progressives fix that.
Another source of discomfort might be the suboptimal «Add» number on the script for progressives. This can be fixed by going to an optometrist clinic rather that a street optometrist (or find a reputable and good one first). If the «Add» is too small, the progressives will make little difference compared to conventional lenses, and, if it is too big, they will make it difficult to see in the distance.
Based on own subjective experience, I can't recommend the progressives enough, although a little bit of fine-tuning might be required (none in my case).
> I got my first bifocals last year. I got the "no line" variety and, so far, I hate them.
Same. I tried bifocals and they annoyed me to no end. Now it's muscle memory to move my glasses between my pocket and my face. I don't even notice I'm doing it.