AIBU to think this can't happen to everyone in their mid 40's?! Surely?

I've had bionic vision my whole life and at 49 I can't even read a menu!!

I've got reading glasses but totally forget I need them until I go out and try and read anyting!

I have needed glasses (or contact lenses, but I have dry eyes, so no longer) since I was fifteen. Sight changes as you get older. I am now somewhat long-sighted and need an adjustment to my prescription. Why are you so upset, anyway? I wasn't upset at 15, just amazed that suddenly I could see the world as it was rather than slightly foggy.
All glasses cannot possibly look awful.

Maybe it’s because if two eyes are too many dioptres apart that the images sent to the brain by the optic nerve become too disparate for the brain to match up so you get double vision? Having one eye + and one eye - means the gap between them is bigger than usual as most of us have both eyes + or -?

I’ve always had terrible eyesysince I was a child. My mum used to to pick horrible frames and add tints to the god awful thick lenses. You can imagine how dreadful these looked.
Got contacts on my teens and and now up to 12 and 10.5 prescriptions. Even they aren’t good for screen work.
And yes, too old for laser now I can afford it 😩

My optician said similar. Something about hardening of the lens caused naturally by aging?

I had great eyesight but have a (low) prescription for glasses now. I can read without them easily but after a while my eyes feel strained and I can tell they are getting worse 😭

I'm 44.

Yes very common and I think my opticians at the time was quite gleeful when he said it . Although I know people who just get the cheap supermarket glasses as reading glasses .
Had been short sighted for years . Was brillant getting contact lenses . When I became long sighted too , I tried the varifocal contact lenses , but didn't get on with them .
Have given up wearing lenses and got varifocal glasses .To top it all last time I got a sight test the optician asked if I did a lot of computer work which I did and I also now have a second pair of glasses for that too !

Research replacement lens surgery, artificial lens implants. I had worn glasses all my life (very short sighted in left eye) and my husband had been wearing reading glasses and then variafocals for 10 years. On retirement 8 years ago we both had very early signs of cataracts forming which would eventually require lens replacement surgery. We decided not to wait for this and had tri focal lens implants put in both eyes, an easy and quick day procedure. No glasses since and no problems. It’s expensive but we’re probably well on the way to recouping costs by not having to fork out for specs.

I'm 66 and l still just have reading glasses. I didn't get them until l was 50+.
I have weird eyesight, though. So l'm told, anyway.
One eye longsighted, one eye shortsighted, and astigmatism.
They've never got my prescription right first time. Sometimes takes two or thee tries. And this is with more than one optician.
The last time l was told (and l couldn't believe this) "I can't improve your 'worse' eye any more" (and believe me, my prescription is not very strong, I'm typing this without my glasses on - how on earth do they manage people with very poor eyesight?) "but l can reduce the focus on your 'good' eye to balance them up."
I just need the 'worse' eye improved so l can read. The other one, l can manage with it. .

The optician said this to my husband when he was 44 and that it happens to everybody, and he was now middle-aged. Needless to say H was unimpressed because he still felt young! He's 17 years older than me but I expect when I get to that age I will need glasses.

I’m short sighted and have worn glasses since secondary school.
However, I don’t need reading glasses. I have to take my glasses off to read. I am posting this message with my glasses sitting on the top of my head. Ask me to thread a needle and I can do it.
I am 60 years old.
So yes, not everyone needs reading glasses.

Death?

It hasn't happened to me. My eyesight is 20/20 but I can't lie, as soon as I turned 50 my eyesight noticeably got worse. I don't need reading glasses. I don't need glasses to drive. But I'm not far off not have the sight to read a number plate at the max distance and my driving sight at night isn't as good as it was. It's ageing. Very normal.

I got laser eye surgery at 40, and every professional I saw during the process looked me up and down, and said "what age are you? Do you realise if we correct your distance vision you will still need reading glasses within 5 years?". I was fine with that though - having cheap pairs of reading glasses in every handbag seems much less onerous than wearing them all the time.

Thank you to the lovely posters telling me to get checked to be safe. I did when it happened in my left eye 4 yrs ago, actually went to A&E as it was Sunday morning and my optician has always warned me I'm at risk of detaching etc and any new visual disturbance needs checking asap. They were happy it wasn't anything serious but referred me to the eye clinic for the following day. Scans and different drops and checking my eyeballs from every angle and it's an age thing🙄. Basically eyeball is letting light in the side/behind because of changing shape (or something) . I don't notice in the left now but the right started about 6 months ago

I'm short sighted -2.0

I can read fine without my contacts in but can't with them in. I tried reading glasses over the top of my contacts but that didn't work.

So, my solution is to take a photo of what I can't read and enlarge the print! 😁

I had lazer eye surgery about 10 years ago ( i was very very short sighted and had worn glasses/contact lenses since i was 8 (im now mid 40's).

Lazer eye surgery was the best thing i ever did. To be able to see in the shower, waking up and seeing etc.

However 6 months ago i started to need reading glasses. It is a massive shock (it shouldn't be i was warned), to not be able to just pick up my phone or book and just be able to read. And the thing is it seems to be getting worse every week.

Getting old is rubbish! Ha ha
But then i remind myself that old age is something that is denied to many and i am grateful that i get to experience it (even if there are loads of in inconveniences).

I'm 45, I'm about -5 and have worn glasses since I was 7. I can still read all the font sizes on the card they give you at the opticians.

The idea of holding things further away to read them is a totally alien concept to me as yet.

-5 distance prescription and reading was fine with my lenses or glasses until my late 50s. Now can read without lenses (that’s my clearest reading scenario) or wear varifocal lenses/glasses. I can get by with one normal lens but am not happy driving like that. Varifocal lenses are so expensive though, am thinking about surgery of some sort. I have varifocal glasses but don’t love wearing glasses when out.

Yes, I accept that at an unusually high prescription a short sighted person would find it difficult read without glasses, but I’m trying to make a general point about how shortsightedness and presbyopia work.

If you are -16DS then yes, in theory you would need to hold something at about 6cm away from your eye to see it, which would present its own challenges as your eyes wouldn’t be able to both see it at the same time, so I fully accept this is not an option for you.

I'm coming up 50 and don't need reading glasses op

A similar prescription to yours but although I still wear contacts full time I can see far better for reading without them in. My optician said he was impressed but apparently if you are shortsighted it evens out a bit in middle age.

Similar to others absolutely perfect vision then went to an optometrist as they say to get everything checked at 45. Got the mildest script there was and its been a downhil slide from then on. Maybe its a big con by optometrists 😂
Also, with the glasses , I was worried about how they looked but I get a compliment on them from almost anyone that spends more than a few minutes with me. The brand is "The Elusive Miss Lou". HTH

Presbyopia does happen to everyone.

I always said I wouldn’t consider varifocals until my age began with a 6 - but I am just about to give in at 57. It would have been a lot sooner if it wasn’t for the facility to take a photo on my phone and zoom in - useful for menus, instructions, ingredients labels etc. It’s mainly in the car I struggle now, I need my normal distance glasses for driving but can’t see the sat nav properly unless I take them off.

You mean most. It’s not all of us. Not for the most severely short sighted.

46 and my prescription that has been stable for 15+ years has had to be adjusted due to this.
I was commenting to a friend in many ways I am not upset at all about aging, I feel happier and more confident in myself than ever, if only it wasn't for the deteriorating eyesight and aches and pains 😭