Do you have to hold your reading work further and further away from yourself to be able to read the letters and do your arms always seem to be too short? Do the letters dance before your eyes or does the daily newspaper gradually turn into a misty haze? If you are over forty years old, the cause is probably presbyopia, or age-related farsightedness, a decreased flexibility of the eye lens that is a natural process as we age.

What is happening?

Presbyopia is the scientific name for presbyopia (previously: presbyopia) and occurs after the age of forty. Focusing the eyes at short distances, i.e. within 30 cm, becomes increasingly difficult. In near vision, the eye lens can no longer get light rays onto the retina because the elasticity of the tissues decreases. Actually, this happens everywhere in the body as the years go by, including in the eye. The lens hardens and enlarges, but the flexibility gradually disappears.

Symptoms of presbyopia

The first symptom will be that reading books and magazines in relatively dim light becomes difficult. Reading something pleasantly in bed in the evening will be given up over time because the image up close becomes increasingly blurry. As presbyopia progresses, the phenomenon of ‘too short arms’ occurs because you automatically sit further and further away from the reading work in order to be able to read it. You hold the newspaper at an increasing distance from your eyes, with the difficulty that the image becomes much clearer, but the letters also become smaller. Studying a map, reading packaging in the supermarket, threading a needle, filling out a form, even signing your own signature… everything becomes problematic. Fatigue, loss of concentration and headaches can also occur. However, when seeing at greater distances the situation is unchanged. Street signs, movies… these are no problem.

Daylight

Reading in full sunlight will be easy for years to come because, in addition to reading distance, the amount of light is also a factor that determines how sharp you can see. In a lot of light, the shrinking pupil acts like a shrinking aperture and this leads to extra depth of field, in the same way as a photo camera works. So you will tend to use extra lights everywhere to get this advantage.

Corrections

The eyes are deteriorating step by step because the natural lens of the eye is less and less able to adapt and become convex in order to be able to perceive well at close range. A starting person in their forties will soon need a correction of +1, at the age of 50-55 the eyes will no longer be able to accommodate at all and a person in their sixties will already have an average adjustment of +3. Both eyes do not have to be equally affected by their deterioration. After the age of 65, the situation no longer worsens.

If there is already myopia or farsightedness

Someone who is nearsighted and already wears glasses (with -/- correction) will notice that he has to take off his glasses to be able to read properly. The symptoms only occur later because the farsighted person’s distance point is closer. However, with the eventual additional presbyopia, he will not find himself in a situation where no glasses are needed at all, because the reduction in the adaptability of the eyes occurs independently of any pre-existing eye abnormalities.The nearsighted person will be eligible for glasses with multifocal lenses , so that there is a solution for both problems. In the past, the reading part of the glasses was usually a separate visible window at the bottom of the lens, which was very annoying because the eyes had to ‘adjust’ themselves separately again and again. But today, strength almost always progresses gradually from top to bottom. Varilux has thus gone from a brand name to a household name for these so-called multifocal spectacle lenses. Someone who is farsighted will also need reading glasses due to presbyopia, but this is very difficult in practice. Glasses with combined lenses also offer a solution here.

Reading glasses

Someone who has always been glasses-free will have to deal with reading glasses, with strengths varying from +1 to +3 . An optician can measure exactly how strong the glasses need to be, but as the condition worsens with age, repeated checks will be necessary. You can also experiment with reading glasses that are available everywhere. They actually function as a magnifying glass. Some people have reading glasses everywhere in the house because they are easily lost and have to be put on and taken off again and again.

What strength reading glasses do you need?

Please note: The strengths below are averages.Are you…

• 42 years? 0.50
• 45 years? 1.00
• 46 years? 1.25
• 47 years? 1.50
• 48 years? 1.75
• 50 years? 2.00
• 52 years? 2.25
• 56 years? 2.25
• 60 years? 2.50
• 75 years? 2.75

If you also have glasses to see well at a distance, the above prescriptions must be deducted from the distance prescription. For example, if you have -/- 3.00 glasses and you are 45 years old, you will need -/- 2.00 glasses for reading. This is also called the reading addition, or the strength of the reading part. If you do not need glasses for distance vision, i.e. only glasses for reading, you can buy +1.50 glasses at the age of 47.

Reading glasses and contact lenses?

If presbyopia occurs while you are already wearing contact lenses, you do not have to rely solely on reading glasses. There are multifocal hard and soft contact lenses, but because the lens sits directly on the eye, this is not always a good solution. Therefore, it can take a lot of time before a result is satisfactory. In any case, multifocal contact lenses have the advantage that they do not distort the image. If you never had glasses and would prefer contact lenses instead of reading glasses, that is now also possible. There is then no power in the distance portion of the lenses.Presbyopia cannot be cured with surgery, but research is in full swing.“Middle age is when you finally get your head together and your body starts falling apart.”