Peripheral vision includes more than just the far periphery. In the far periphery, you can only see movement and light. But in the mid/near periphery, color and shape can also be ascertained. I guess it doesn’t matter as much in daily life, because as you say, you can just turn your head. But what about during sports? Or what about with driving, for example? I’d prefer to have as much information as possible as quickly as possible.
ETA: Oh, and if it matters, my vision is such in my bad eye that sometimes things fade into the background. I guess if they moved I could see them, but I haven’t really done much experimentation. I just know that the eye chart has a giant E on top that is a vague blob, and under that I can’t even really make out blobs. The black fades into the white, so that it all looks white to me.
I’m wearing RGP right now and I have been for about 6 years. If you don’t wear them for more than about 8 hours a day and you do the full nightly cleaning routine and let them soak overnight for a good 8 hours and have super clean hands when you put them in in the morning, it’s a pretty okay experience, in my experience. (Sometimes I go the whole weekend with my glasses and the contacts spend Saturday and Sunday just soaking in the conditioning solution. Oh, is Monday ever heaven, ocularly speaking, when that happens.)
They have to reshape your eyes so you may find that over time, it gets easier as your eye starts to match the contact.
Since I don’t get glasses with teeny-tiny lenses despite the fashion mavens saying it’s all the rage and cautions against how heavy they’ll be, my glasses actually cover most of my field of vision. I’m not looking through a tunnel. The notion I can’t see what’s to the left and right is a mistaken one.
Lest you think I’m self-deluded - I’ve handily passed all the FAA vision tests for piloting, which are pretty darn strict and include peripheral vision testing. The only thing I needed a waiver for was the colorblindness which is untreatable anyway.
I’ve been trying to convince myself my lack of clear vision is just 'cos my eyes are a bit tired
But I’m almost at the point where I’ll give in and go get a proper eye test.
My concern is that the optician is there as a salesman, and they will always come down on the side of “yes sir, you definately need glasses… have you seen our premium range?”.
I never needed any kind of glasses until the past couple of years, just for reading, so I’m one of those people. I became forgetful right about the time I started needing the reading glasses. When I try to wear them on cords they get crushed by kids and cats, and they otherwise fall off if I clip them to clothing. But now that I know how to squint through my fingers, I’m set!
I get weird looks by full-time eyeglass wearers whether I’m squinting or awkwardly putting on and taking off reading glasses during a conversation that involves intermittent reading. It’s not vanity, believe me. I can’t see you through my reading glasses, and I feel evil and queasy peering over them.
There’s a difference between people who reallly need glasses all day and those who started wearing them later in life and/or only need them for certain things.
I started wearing glasses at the age of 5 and I neeed them to do anything so I’m not going to have to take them off for anything and there’s no way I can leave the house without them.
If I started needing glasses as an adult for only certain things I can see forgetting them all the time. My friend started wearing glasses in her early 40’s for reading and driving and as much as she wants to have better vision it’s hard for her eyes and brain to adjust to the vision change.
Peripheral vision myth: that glasses wearers have no peripheral vision or have to have large lenses to have it. If you’re glasses fit properly you have pretty decent peripheral vision. The smaller lenses can fit closer to your eyes and are curved so looking out of the side is still looking through the lenses. There’s only a very small slice of vision missing and that’s so far over it makes my eyes hurt to go there. You can still see movement in that area and that’s all you need. No one reads or watches TV way over there.
RGP’s ick. I cannot get used to feeling the edge with every blink, annoys the hell out of me.
People whose eyes have started to get wrinkles around them look way younger with glasses on .
I only need them for reading fine print or for reading road signs at a long distance.
The issue is that they make me dizzy as all hell for about an hour after I put them on and once I get used to them for an hour after I take them off. I really don’t want to be driving around with vertigo.
The seventy-year-old who can read anything MAY have had cataract surgery. Modern cataract surgery replaces the cloudy natural lens of the eye with a CORRECTED artificial lens. Once the person has recovered from the surgery, he or she typically has no need of glasses for anything.
To zoid: the glasses that make you dizzy, are they no-line bifocal? My first pair of bifocals, my husband insisted I “needed” the no-line type. They drove me CRAZY. The way my eyeballs function, I was looking through the transitional band all the time. It not only made me dizzy, I got migraines.
My next pair of bifocals not only had the line, I found out about “executive” style bifocal, which is a horizontal line, giving a much greater area of the close-up lens. If you read a lot, do crafts, or use the computer, the executive style can be a God-send.
~VOW
At first I considered this a bit snarky, unneccessary kinda “Maxine”-y. At first.
Shortly after I turned 40 I started to notice I was having trouble reading small print unless I had really bright light on it. That got worse and worse until finally I picked up a book that had small, but not ridiculously so, type. Might have been the Bible or Lovecraft, I’m still not sure which it was. I couldn’t read it. I found this completely baffling because I could still make out individual leaves on a tree 20 miles away (possibly an exaggeration but my distance vision is a lot better than 20/20). Finally I went in and got some glasses–doc told me I was just getting old and my lenses were getting too hard to bend. So now I’ve got glasses I pretty much have to use if I’m doing detail work closer than a couple feet away. But I can still read that fine print book if it’s 10-12 feet away without any trouble. So:
OP: Part of the reason I delayed was because I somehow didn’t realize what the problem was–I just figured it was poor lighting. After I realized I was losing my close-vision, it still took me about a year because I simply didn’t have time to go to a doctor.
Eve: It was quite shocking indeed to turn around at work to talk to someone and see, in fine detail, every blackhead and facial hair on their face.
I felt like that for a long time (denial!) and it may actually be true, to a point. I got to 47 or 48 years old or so before I caved and bought my first pair of drug store “readers” and after that I became reliant on them very quickly; wear them for everything but driving.
But vision loss is almost inevitable…Now at 53 I simply cannot read without glasses. Got my first pair of prescription bifocals a few months ago and am astounded at how crisp and clear everything is. I really had no idea how blurry everything had become even with the (increasingly strong) readers because I’d just become used to things being mildly blurry.
I know someone who doesn’t wear prescription lenses 80% of the time, even though she needs them for driving, reading, and other detail-oriented activities. It’s bad enough that all the photos that she takes are mildly blurry because she’s adjusting it to her pre-corrected sense of “sharp”. It’s a little silly, and it used to really drive me nuts.
I can’t, however, relate to it at all, as I’ve had glasses since the third grade and can’t read large print (size 14 or greater) font in a book without correction, as I’m nearsighted enough that the book is too close to my nose to read by the time the print becomes clear.
Because I have approximately eleventy billion pairs of reading glasses, NONE of which ever seem to make it into my purse or with me to places like the doctor’s office, grocery store, etc. And I can still read most print okay if the light is good enough. But GRRRRR !! WHY must the font on the sku codes on fruit be -2 font?
The fact that I only need them for reading makes the forgetfulness part of bringing a pair with me worse. And no, I can’t wear them all of the time, I can’t see with them on, things are all fuzzy and dizzy-making. Sometimes I’m lucky enough that I’ve remembered to throw a pair in my purse, and I’ll actually have my purse with me, but I’ve found more and more, that I’d rather just stick my debit card and license, or metrocard in my jeans pocket and go.
Usually I’m squinting or asking someone to read the fine print because I end up at places where I didn’t know beforehand that I was going to need my reading glasses. Or places where most of the stuff I’m doing I don’t need my reading glasses for. Another reason is that with reading glasses, sometimes you’re just “between strengths”. Too strong and it makes you feel nauseated and it’s just too much, just right only works in the right lighting conditions, and too weak will only work in certain other conditions. FWIW, I can still read most normal book font in daylight or well-lit rooms, it’s just when the font size gets stingy that I have problems. So needing the reading glasses depends upon a lot more than merely “oh look here’s some print media”.
As for looking cool? No, I’m under no illusions that lack of reading glasses will help my looks any.
