Does everyone need reading glasses eventually?

[crane3]

Originally Posted by Mnementh

That's true, there was a study done many years ago (please don't ask me for a reference as it was in one of my text books while studying to become an Optician) about why there was almost zero incidences of myopia in the Inuit peoples, turns out that the vast majority of them (at the time not sure about now) were illiterate and therefore did not read as children. This was postulated at the time as a possible reason for the higher incidence of myopia among western civilisation. Of course it could just be genetics which weren't as well understood at the time

There are many possible causes of myopia, the most common being the eye being slightly too long for the focal length of the lens when at rest. It is thought that excessive near work when the eye is developing can cause a pre-existing tendency to near/short-sightedness to manifest as you quite rightly pointed out. What constitutes excessive however is up to debate and will probably never be able to be answered with any certainty

I knew it!! It's all the lawyers' fault with the tiny fine print. Even apple got into the act by using unchangeable tine system fonts that force lots of squinting...

[piperclassique]

I've been wearing glasses since age 45, initially just for reading, then with a fairly small distance correction. So I have used varifocals since age 48 or so. I have recently started wearing varifocal contacts with one eye biased towards distance vision, and the other biased to near vision, and I am very happy with the result.
I think if you decide to use varifocal glasses you need to get the best lenses available, and start while the correction needed is still fairly small. Of course, nothing will stop the glasses steaming up, getting dirty, or just plain falling off at a difficult moment...and the frames always seem to be just where you want to look.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

There are some people that have difficulty reading and concentrating on high contrast media. Try switching from black font on white background to either black font on sepia background, gray background or white font on black background.

Font settings as well have an impact on readability. You will read better on a serif font than a sans serif or a slab serif. I would suggest trying the Georgia font. Also the use of white spacing is important. Make sure that line spacing is 1.5 spaced or double spaced. Adjust the margins and font size until you have 10-15 words per line. Going less than or greater than that interval results in the line either feeling too short or too long.

And don't forget what pdurrant mentioned: brightness. Turn down the brightness so far that it appears not to have any backlight at all, while still being visible.

And I'd never pick a white font on a black background. I prefer to take a gray font on a black background, to reduce the contrast a bit (the white will burn in your eyes, compared to the black background...)

I can read from my tablet perfectly, even in the darkest environments without being blinded by it, by turning down the backlight as far as it can go and using a black background with a dark gray font colour. It doesn't even emit enough light to light my path from my bed to the door... (for that, I'd have to open my browser so I have a white background )

[theducks]

remember Amber (monochrome) CRT's
Those were easier to read on than the more common Green

[Tarana]

First, I know from personal experience that tablets are harder on the eyes than eink readers. When you have significant eye damage, you see the problem really fast.

There are ways to improve your eyesight that work. I used techniques from a paperbackbook called Do You Really Need Eyeglasses by Dr. Marilyn B Rosanes-Berrett. I eliminated my astigmatism and was able to go back to regular single vision lenses for a couple of years. My sister was able to significantly reduce her prescription while my other sister improved her vision enough over 6 months that she still hasn't needed to get bifocals (she's over 50 now, so time will tell). However, just like losing weight, it's something you have to do for a while every day always for it to work. It's not a miracle worker though - will not fix retinal damage or glaucoma, for instance, which is why I stopped the exercises.

The most basic exercise is to put your hands over your eyes and leave them there for as much as you can (I did this for an hour a day). The warmth from your hands affects the temperature of your eyes. I suppose it relaxes them or something which improves operation over time. My ophthalmologist was impressed how well it worked for astigmatism.