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Hmm. I am 67 and require no corrective lenses. Two years ago, at my last exam, the doctor said I was “the one percent of the one percent of people” my age that do not require glasses. All of my siblings and both of my parents wore glasses.

Most of my professional life has been spent staring at screens, usually in darkened rooms, so I have no idea why my sight is still good.



I've worn glasses since I was 6. At least 3 times my glasses have saved me from eye injury.


Us four eyes are wearing safety goggles all the time. I would probably prefer perfect vision instead but blindness avoided is a blessing.


I am not unhappy with wearing glasses all the time. Sure it meant I stink at baseball, tennis, etc., as the ball trajectory is warped by my lenses, but I don't care about that.


Hmm, I wore strong corrective glasses full time as a kid and was good at ball sports. Same for my siblings.


I have astigmatism, meaning my eyes are egg-shaped. This means the glasses are shaped so that the view is "correct" only if my eyes face forward. If I look to the right or the left, the view is warped.

Normally, the brain adapts to the warping, and it also means (as I didn't notice before the doc told me) that I have a tendency to turn my head rather than turn my eyes.

But with the "warp" constantly changing, the brain cannot adapt to it and it calculates the wrong trajectory for a flying object.

Hence my utter failure at hitting baseballs and tennis balls.

The doc opened by saying "you must be bad at baseball!", guessing correctly, and then explained all this to me. He also said I must suffer from severe headaches because of it, and accused me of lying about it when I denied it(!).

Contact lenses solve the problem by moving with your eye, but I tried them and didn't like the nuisance of contacts. (This is not an issue if you have only near or far sightedness.) I could get Lasik eye surgery, but I don't even want to take a small risk of damaging my eyes.


Makes sense, we just had myopia.


Interesting that you didn't get age related presbyopia and needed reading glasses as a result.

It's one of the more annoying things about getting older, if you didn't need glasses before sometime in your 40's.


Left to their own devices (i.e. without external lens adjustments), one aging eye can specialize in closeup and the other in distance. This will lead to monocular vision that is functional for both distance and closeup. This separation can be assisted by corrective lens.

Vision therapy: https://raygottlieb.com/presbyopia

Expensive progressive glasses have neurological impact, not just optical. Better to use separate distance and reading glasses which manipulate only optics, and provide the brain with a physical signal of "mode" change.


I don’t need or use reading glasses. I have tried some +1.0 readers but they quickly cause me vertigo.




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