Short sighted glasses wearers - I have a question.

[Psychicpineapple]

If you are short sighted and wear your glasses most of the time do you take them off to read?
My prescription is -3 5 and I have an astigmatism. My near vision has always been excellent.
I usually leave my glasses on all day but I take them off if I'm reading a book.
Lately though I feel like I need to take my glasses off to read small print on labels etc. Once my glasses are off I can still read tiny print.
I'm due at the optician soon so I'll ask there but I'm just wondering do other people have this issue? Is it age related- I'm 48.

If your short sightedness is bad you might be paying the extra for thinned down lenses?

Most expensive sets in Asda are the designer range £110 a pair. Downsides are a much smaller range and having to wait up to 10 days for them to be made up. They also only thin them to the level they need to be for the frames, you do have to pay extra if you want them super thinned. I like the plastic full frames though so don't need super thinned, if you want the metal thin or rimless frames you may need to stump up the extra £70 or so.

Near identical to me OP.

I'm -3 ish with astigmatism.

Used to be able to read with or without my glasses. Now can only read without. I'm 49 and it's been worsening for a couple of years.

Eventually I may get varifocals but friends seem to struggle with them so I am delaying whilst I have an approach which works just fine (i.e. removing my specs to read).

My friend taking off her glasses to thread a needle. It seemed really strange.

I can't operate without my specs. Varifocals and a separate pair for computer distance.

I just tested taking my glasses off to read… nope. I have to hold things far too close to my nose for that to be practical. 🤣 I have c.-6 prescription though, with added astigmatism fun.

I’m in my early 40s though and I’m starting to find that my, previously excellent, close vision is no longer so good. I have to hold things further away sometimes (with corrected vision). But taking my glasses off means I have to hold them up to my nose.

I have a mole like future I think.

Once you hit 40-ish your near vision deteriorates, hence needing to take off your glasses for reading labels etc. Apparently it declines and then stabilises, so it doesn’t continue to deteriorate after a certain point.
You might find you need varifocals eventually.
I have always been very shortsighted (-6) but my close vision has definitely got worse since I was 40, and I have to take off my glasses to thread a needle /read small print these days.

It’s age related.

You are -3.50 shortsighted without your glasses so your distance is blurred but near vision is good.

When you put your glasses on you are effectively 0.00 (your eyesight is corrected) and therefore no longer shortsighted, so your distance is good and your near is blurred.

It won’t have always been like this though. Previously you would have been able to see close up even in your glasses. Because you are now 40+ you have become presbyopic (the lens inside your eye is losing its flexibility and can now longer flex as it did to allow you to read things close up so easily).

So you are having to take your glasses off to become -3.50 shortsighted again to allow you to read close up!

Hope that makes sense…

I've worn glasses since I was 12 (short sight -2.5).
Now I'm 50, and take my glasses off for anything near - to read / pluck eyebrows/ look at my phone etc. I've twin toddlers, and prefer to take off my glasses when I'm up close to them.

I wore contact lenses from 16 to about 46. (Very short sighted). The menopause made my eyes drier (never had a problem before dailies came in) and then I needed reading glasses over the top. Combination of dry eyes and forgetting readers pushed me down the varifocal route.

My prescription is about -7.5 in both eyes so milk bottle bottom territory and I have astigmatism. I'm on my fourth pair of varifocals. When I started the makenof lens was state of the art; it suits me so I stuck with it. There are better ones but they are more expensive. The first pair was about £800; the last £675 ish. Pay 150 to 170 for frames (they are on my face so I want them to be nice). Try to get three years out of them and usually do.

So I think the cost of varifocals is falling, but my orescription in complex and I need a lot of thinning.

I often wonder how people on low incomes manage.

It's an age thing. I've worn glasses since I was six and didn't need to do that until I hit my mid-40s. I now have varifocals and so can leave my glasses on all the time again and read in them.

Thanks everyone. I honestly had no idea that the distance lenses had an effect on my near sight.
Without my glasses I can still see tiny things close up so hopefully won't need varifocals for a while yet.

Thanks for the Asda tip. I’ve put off buying varifocals due to the cost but may reconsider now

I noticed my near vision was getting worse about 6 months ago (age 46) . Have worn glasses since I was 7 and suddenly struggled to read a book with them on.
I got 2 pairs of varifocals for £180 from Asda which I thought was a pretty good price

Thanks for the Asda info - I will definitely try that. From memory both quotes I had were in the middle of the varifocal range (so not the super fancy ones) and without any thinning but I have high hopes now for Asda and it says they take pre existing prescriptions so that's a win too. I'm used to paying around £200 for glasses every couple of years but £500 seems way too much.

I think @RosesAndHellebores and I have the same eyes! I could've written her post.

I have great vision up close, but it's not comfortable to read without my varifocals. I take them off for very small print, for threading needles and any very close work.

I'm 29....so maybe not the sample you're looking for. But -1.75 and -2.5.

I wear contacts most days from very recently. But at least when I wore glasses, I'd take them off for book reading (so 1/2 hour session as opposed to a quick menu) and when concentrating heavily on the computer they tend to come off and the monitor dragged forward (probably terrible for my eyes)

Monitors tend to sit in my intermediate vision though, so I tend to have glasses on but the text small at 80% or so.

I'm -4 with astigmatism, and I'm 40. I don't take mine off to read (yet!) Althought when I had my pupils dilated for eye screening recently, I could read my phone without my glasses on (first time ever)

-12 with astigmatism here and I have to wear glasses for reading. I’m in my 40s.

-12 here, mid 50s. I can still read most things perfectly well with my single vision glasses but I do quite frequently pop them off to see things super close up, threading a needle is a good example, or reading tiny print on a label. I can read my phone without them by holding it just in front of my nose but can't read books as I would have to move them from left to right to keep the print close enough. I have thought about lens replacement surgery but would hate to lose my super close vision.

I wear contacts most of the time and very occasionally need -1 reading glasses over those but we are talking less than once a month for example reading a menu in a dark corner of a pub. I am definitely getting gradual change though, I have to sit further back from the mirror to do make-up (in contacts, can't do it without them) than I used to.

I'm a -8.5 with astigmatism and presbyopia. Legally blind without correction. No, I can't read a book or a label at a 'normal reading distance' without reading lenses in my glasses or readers over my contacts.

However, my extreme near vision is excellent! I can read tiny print, thread a needle, or count the eyelashes on a flea as long as they're no more than 3 inches from my face and I use one eye. Drives DH crazy as we're the same age and he can't do that.

Yes, age related. Varifocals might help.

-6.5 here, worn glasses since childhood. Mid 50s now
I can read my phone at arms length with my 'seeing' glasses but have needed my reading glasses (varififocals) for proper reading for last couple of years. I find that despite the promises, my distance vision isn't as good in my varifocals.
If I need to read tiny writing, like @AcrossthePond55 I peer over/under my glasses and close one eye.

I may be the wrong person to ask, as I have astigmatism in both eyes and a -8.5 prescription, so with my level of short sightedness I wouldn’t even be able to see the book unless it was right under my nose!

DH is slightly short sighted and wears glasses/lenses though - he needed another pair of reading glasses in his early 40s as his near vision went too. It’s really common to need readers in your 40s according to my optician friend! And he couldn’t stand varifocals so he went for two pairs.

Definitely an age thing. I'm 53 and currently have varifocals (sometime have to take those off to read small print, depending on the light and size of print), and contact lenses and reading glasses which I wear if I'm wearing my lenses. Honest to god, it's driving me mad. I could cope with being short sighted, but now this weird combination of long and short sightedness is really irritating me.

I can see how that could get irritating. I'm already annoyed by the switching of glasses and prescription sunglasses. Adding another pair to the mix would be too much.