I’m in my late 40s, and have only recently begun using glasses for certain situations. Having had very good eyesight until now, I find myself untrained in how to deal with needing them, planning for when I need them and having them available.
Here are my (heh) specs:
Slight astigmatism for which I have distance lenses. I only use them for driving at night and some computer work.
My near vision has recently deteriorated to where I need reading glasses. Again, more necessary at night than in good lighting (is that common?)
I have the distance lenses, a pair of bifocals with the same distance prescription with reading on the bottom.
I wear non-prescription sunglasses for day driving and most other outdoor activities.
So I don’t need to wear glasses all the time. I don’t like the bifocals, and mostly just use them as reading glasses. Should I wear my sunglasses and have the bifocals on a lanyard? That seems awkward. Should I get prescription sunglasses? If so, what kind? Is there such a thing as reading / sunglasses? Bifocal sunglasses?
You folks who have worn glasses all your life, how do you do it? It all seems so complicated and confining.
I don’t wear mine at home except when I’m watching TV. I am fortunate in that I don’t need reading glasses. I can read just fine with my naked eye. I do need them when I drive, so I just keep them on when I’m out of the house. I wear a pair of clip on sunglasses, which I usually leave on, then flip them up when I go indoors.
I wear progressive lenses. I put them on my face in the morning and take them off for bed and showering. Wipe clean with microfiber cloth as needed. Also, progressive lens sunglasses as needed, simply swap frames in and out of the same case. There’s nothing complicated about it.
I’m constantly frustrated with friends who have to take glasses on and off their noses depending on what we’re doing. I want to show them something on my phone and they have to make this production out of fishing reading glasses out of wherever they’re kept at that moment. Pocket? Purse? Table next to the menu? Gah! Just put the dumb things on your dumb face and leave them there!
You’re frustrated that you have friends with impaired vision which is a inconvenience to you? Okay. I only need glasses to read and work on the computer. That requires a bifocal. They are useless and even dangerous to wear if I am not doing either of those things. You want me to buy an expensive pair of progressive lenses in which the majority of the lens is non-corrective because you’re annoyed with my impairment? Heh. It’s okay, though. I’m pretty sure I don’t want to see anything on your phone.
Yeah, SeaDragonTattoo basically has it for us lifelong glasses-wearers. When you wake up, you reach for them, and make sure they are on your face so you can find your way to the bathroom. You place them on the sink counter while you shower so that you can grab them as soon as you step out. If you go outside into the sun during the day, you switch them out for prescription sunglasses, which you carry with you at all times. When you go back inside, you switch back to regular glasses (this is the one part of the operation that sometimes bugs me – if I’m running errands, I can switch my glasses out a dozen times in an hour or two). When you go to bed, you take them off just before you switch off the light. You never have to wonder where they are, they are on your face.
Until this year, both of my pairs were prescription lenses for nearsightedness. Now my regular glasses are progressives, but I have not yet switched out my sunglasses.
You really need to ask the question of people who started using reading glasses later in life. For lifers, they’re pretty much always there. In the old days, I used to say that for me wearing glasses was like most people wearing their watch, but people don’t even wear watches anymore.
I should mention that any type of prescription lenses you need: progressive, distance, bifocal, etc. will be available as sunglasses.
Maybe I’ve got an odd-shaped face, but progressives don’t work for me. The reading zone is so far down the lens, that, to read a book, I have to crick my neck way back, actually tilting my who head up and back, and then rolling my eyes way down to look through the window.
They don’t make the windows high enough in the glasses lenses for me!
(Looking straight ahead, I’m looking through the very topmost section of my glasses. I think my nose is too low…)
(bolded) No. It would be nice, though, if said friends didn’t have to make this big production out of it. It’s always when we’re out, and it’s at times one would be normally using their corrective eyewear. It’s just the couple people I’m thinking about (love ya, but dangit), who never seem to know where on their person said eyewear may be at any given time. So there’s this whole to-do of searching pockets, checking bag, patting oneself down for pockets again, oh it’s in the bag but missed it the first time… Then done with the menu, away go the glasses and back to conversation, then something comes up that needs googling (or I have pics from an event or whatever else) and when I have it on the phone (or they have something on their phone), well, where were those glasses again! Repeat production. Gah!
I just ask that they have it together. Like I have a hard case my sunglasses live in, in the same pocket inside my bag all the time. No fishing, no production trying to locate it whenever I need it.
First of all, you can get any kind of prescription lens as a sunglass lens. Just tell the optician that and you’ll see the selection of tints available. For best sun protection, you’d want #3 grey, green, or brown. I usually go with grey. I suppose you could ask for a #3 plus a #1 for even darker. I don’t know if they can do that.
My current glasses came with a magnetic clip on. And the case they came in contain a removable smaller case for the clip on. So, it’s not much trouble for me if I go inside some place when it’s bright outside to slip the clip on into my shirt pocket. When I was driving, I’d leave the full blown sunglasses in a case clipped to the sun visor. Generally, I leave the clip on in my car.
I put them on my face and I leave them there. It’s not a fool proof system - mostly because I’m such a damn fool - but it works, most days.
I have trifocals. They suit me. They take some getting used to but I love them now. Unfortunately, no one else can tell you if you’ll like them or not.
I do have prescription sunglasses, but I don’t wear them often. They’re just one strength. They’re ok. I don’t like the glasses that adjust to brightness. I want to decide if my sunglasses will be on or not.
I have those. I discovered they don’t work for driving. My car windows filter out UV light, so they don’t darken. I was better off not paying the extra for the tint.
That’s not anything to do with the shape of your face. That’s improperly fit spectacles. There are several things that could be responsible, including horizontal position of optical centers, vertical placement of OCs, tilt of the frame, lens power, add power, rotation of lenses in frame, plus a number of less obvious problems involving either the lenses or the frame fit. Except for problems involving lens power, they can be avoided or fixed by a competent optician.
Drivewear lenses
They work inside a car.
I have cycling glasses with these lenses and they work great.
Downside is they are polarized so there is a permanent base tint. No night driving with these.
I didn’t have to wear glasses until I was 18 but since then I’ve had to wear them 24/7 (ok not when asleep but sometimes!)
I tried prescription sunglasses at first but my prescription changed every year for many years so within a year my expensive sunglasses were worthless!
Then I tried the clip-ons but they look kind of silly and as soon as I got a differently-shaped frame, well the clip-ons were worthless.
I went without sunglasses for many many years. One day I was in my doctor’s office and they had a display of these Cocoonswhich fit over your glasses and don’t look stupid at all*. I bought them a long while ago, several prescriptions and frame sizes ago, and they still are valid and work as sunglasses for me!
So, I suggest a solution like this (I think there are several other brands that do the same thing) for sunglasses instead of prescription. Especially if you are in the early staged of glasses wearing, I bet your prescription will change. Might as well plan ahead!
*Looking around their site, some of them do look stupid. But the basic black frame ones I got really just look normal.
I wear mono-vision contact lenses. My right lens is for distance and my left lens is for up close. I’ve worn them for about 15 years. I love them. It took a couple weeks for my brain to adjust to them and I was told not to squint to compensate for one or the other. Many people never adjust to them and so they aren’t right for everyone. Your eye doc can probably give you a trial pair if it’s something you are interested in.
My current set of glasses in Transitions, and I love them. The glasses I have been getting lately don’t have the magnetic clip-on, and I don’t feel like carrying a separate pair of prescription sunglasses around with me. These adjust automatically, and are great for driving. The only downside is that things are dark for a second when I go from outside to in, but that is worth it by far.
I’m a put glasses on when I wake up and take them off when I go to bed kind of guy.
My last glasses had that feature. I tended to forget about it, and not even notice it. So I didn’t notice that I was wearing sunglasses during my beach wedding, until I saw the pictures and thought “What kind of d-bag wears sunglasses to a wedding?” My current pair do not have that feature.
Yes, very common. One might say normal for people needing readers.
Well… I currently use bifocals (actually, progressives) which work really really well for me, personally. There’s a lot of “whatever works for you” involved in these questions. They’re not for everyone, though, so if you don’t like them you don’t like them.
For a couple of years I had distance glasses and close-up glasses (for some reason eye docs were really, really reluctant for me to try bifocals). I found swapping back and forth annoying after awhile. The progressives I can just slap on my face and not worry about it.
For you - well, some people really like the lanyard approach. That seems to work well for people who are taking them one and off frequently. If you’re the sort who habitually carries a purse or bag around all the time then keep them in there. If you normally use your glasses only for very specific things, like computer work, keep them next to your computer. The important thing is to be consistent about where you keep them otherwise you’ll be losing them all the time.
Yes, you can get any lens you want in sunglasses. Or you can get clip ons (which I can’t use because my lenses are too thick) or sunglasses that fit over your prescription lenses (see links lower down). If 99% of the time you use your sunglasses you’re driving your car maybe you want to keep them in the car (I recommend either the glove box or you can buy a clip to hang them on the window visor).
Given that my uncorrected vision is largely blurs of color and motion NOT having glasses impairs my safe movement. For me, glasses are liberating but clearly YMMV. For me, forgetting to put on my glasses is a bit like a lower limb amputee forgetting to put on his leg - I will definitely notice as soon as I try to go anywhere. But that’s why I like one multi-purpose pair I can slap on and forget about - having to swap different pairs out is annoying to me. If you don’t need yours all the time I can see where you might find them confining in a sense.
As I said, you have to find what works for you. So try different things.
Solar Shield is another brand that does the same thing. As an additional upside, I found that when engaged in outdoor activities they did a decent job of protecting my expensive prescription glasses so I wound up with a lot fewer scratches on the clear lenses.