# My far sight has spontaneously improved! **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [June 26, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531 "2015-06-26T14:13:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 2:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/1 "2015-06-26T14:13:25Z")
I’ve been slightly nearsighted pretty much all my life. When I started driving I got a prescription for glasses that I only wore when driving, because I see well enough otherwise and wearing the glasses all the time messed with my close-up vision. I just needed the glasses to read road signs and to see better driving at night. my prescription hasn’t changed in 30+ years, and I have a pair of glasses I keep in my car that are about that old. Now that I’m 50, my close-up vision has gotten much worse, as it naturally does, so I have several pairs of reading glasses I keep throughout the house and at work. But just yesterday, I was driving home from work, wearing my driving glasses as usual, when I noticed things didn’t seem all that sharp. I figured my long-distance prescription finally worsened, but when I removed the glasses, my vision was actually _ **sharper** _– I could definitely read license plates and signs better without my glasses. I don’t know how much my vision improved but I definitely felt like I could see well enough to drive without the glasses. Googling the issue, I found it’s a fairly common, natural thing to happen to certain people who have mild, stable nearsightedness from a young age, as they get older. It’s called “Presbyopia”. I even found this SD thread from a few years back: [http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-533686.html](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/archive/index.php/t-533686.html) I also found this scary link that said it’s a hardening of the lenses which is a precursor to “frank cataracts”. A physician says “enjoy your improved vision while it lasts, before you need cataract surgery!” Great, thanks. Hopefully I have garden-variety Presbyopia and not this: [http://www.geteyesmart.org/eyesmart/ask/questions/distance-vision-improving-with-age.cfm](http://www.geteyesmart.org/eyesmart/ask/questions/distance-vision-improving-with-age.cfm) Yeah, I know I should see an eye doc just to get things checked out. Will make an appt. soon. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 2:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/2 "2015-06-26T14:26:29Z")
Every silver lining has it’s cloud. ☹ ---
**Author:** ![Canadjun](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/76d3ee/32.png) [@Canadjun](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Canadjun)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 2:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/3 "2015-06-26T14:43:04Z")
Apparently my **near** -sightedness has improved. Had my eyes checked two days ago and they are reducing the strength of the near part of my prescription (I use continuous bifocals). I guess either extreme can change for the better! ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 3:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/4 "2015-06-26T15:54:25Z")
At 50, glaucoma and its related issues start to come into play, even for those who never reach a point where it needs to be treated. I’d hazard a guess that your internal eyeball pressure is up a tad, pushing things into a better shape for distance vision. (Me, I have slight signs of what might be early retinal degeneration like that caused by glaucoma - and it scares the living hell out of me, but it’s been stable for a long, long time - while having rather low eyeball pressure. My opthamologist is very jolly at having a patient who is in the tiny, narrow window where very slight pressure reduction might be helpful… and as no pharmaceutical can be assured of having such a slight effect, I am an center-target candidate for… weed. Anyway, point being that I know far too much about slight pressure variations in eyeball juice being a critical issue to vision. Even that slight softening might reduce my visual acuity in ways that are difficult to correct… but I guess another puff or two and I won’t care? Not there yet. May not get there, Great Maker willing.) ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/5 "2015-06-26T18:25:23Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > At 50, glaucoma and its related issues start to come into play, even for those who never reach a point where it needs to be treated. > > I’d hazard a guess that your internal eyeball pressure is up a tad, pushing things into a better shape for distance vision. > > … Great- I have to be concerned about cataracts AND glaucoma? :eek: ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/6 "2015-06-26T18:28:43Z")
> [@solost](#): > > Great- I have to be concerned… Yes - the universal “yes.” You’re 50. :smack: ---
**Author:** ![solost](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/solost/32/11776_2.png) [@solost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/solost)\ **Post date:** [June 26, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/my-far-sight-has-spontaneously-improved/723531/7 "2015-06-26T23:54:28Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > Yes - the universal “yes.” You’re 50. :smack: Damn you for your plain speaking common sense, man! 🙂 Anyways, made an appointment with my GP to get an eye doc referral. Stupid HMOs-- wish I could just look up an eye doc on my own, but I have to go through my GP, and that appt. alone is 3 weeks out. Probably won’t get to see an eye doc till the end of the summer.