Age related reading difficulties (presbyopia)

Age related focusing issues, with difficulty focusing up close, is known as presbyopia (pronounced prez-bye-oh-pia).

Typical symptoms are:

• Things up close start to appear blurry. For example, your phone or a book. Eventually, also at a typical distance for computer use
• Tiredness and eyestrain
• Starting to hold things further away in order to see them clearly
• Needing better lighting in order to see clearly up close
• Avoidance of close up work
• Sometimes a headache may form with close up work
• Slower comprehension rate with reading and close up work

This starts in most at around the age of 40, and happens because the lens and the muscles controlling the lens start to lose the ability to change focus. They become fixed for clear vision only at a distance, making it harder to focus on close objects.

But I’ve heard that if I wear glasses to fix my eyesight, it might get worse faster?

It's a common misconception that wearing glasses can make your eyesight worse. This is simply untrue. It may be a commonly held belief because, after enjoying clearer vision with glasses, it's easy to find that your eyesight without them seems worse than you might remember.

In fact, if you give your eyes the correct prescription, you’re more likely to reduce the eyestrain and blurriness. In some studies, this is shown to encourage your eyesight to stay more stable as a result. So if you experience any change in your eyesight, it’s best to come in early, even if it’s just to check and get reassurance that things are ok.