Healthy Eyes, Healthy You

As people grow older, they often notice that it becomes more difficult to read and focus on things that are up close. This is a very common problem, and thankfully, one that optometrists have developed products to improve upon. If you're going through this and haven't seen an optometrist, it's likely time to change that. Here's what you should know about the options available to you, as well as why this is happening to your vision.

1. Why It Happens

The eye is made up of multiple parts, including a lens on the surface of the eye. Think of this as your own natural contact lens. When you're young, this lens is flexible and is designed so that you can look at things up close and far away. You may notice a slight delay when you look up from something right in front of you to something far away. This is the lens accommodating your needs as the focus of your eyes changes.

However, when you get older, this lens starts to stiffen. It's a natural part of the aging process, but it can make it much more difficult to view things up close.

2. Get Bifocals

One common solution for this problem is bifocal lenses for your glasses. Bifocal lenses are essentially split in half. The lower half of the lens is designed to accommodate your vision for looking at things close-up. The upper part of the lens is for looking at things further away. Since most people peer downwards when looking at something they're holding, this makes perfect sense. However, improvements have also been made upon this technology over the years, and trifocal lenses now exist as well. These put in three ranges of vision instead of two, which may be a better fit for you. Your optometrist can walk you through the options and give you a sample of each so you can get an idea of what you like the most.

3. Try Different Lenses

Another option is to put two different kinds of lenses into your glasses. For example, you could have your left glasses lens designed for looking at things far away, while the right lens would be looking at stuff up close.

This doesn't mean that you'll have to close one eye in order to focus, though. Instead, the lenses take advantage of the way the two eyes work together. Each of your eyes receives a slightly different image anyway, but the brain combines them together to create one seamless image. With two different lenses in your glasses, this allows at least one eye to always be able to focus on what you're looking at, providing you with a clear image.

Contact an optometrist today if you're looking for ways to handle farsightedness.