Yesterday I took a bold step into certified late middle age and acquired my first pair of varifocals. I am still getting used to them.
Previously a normal lens sufficed, in my case for short sight, which means for the last five decades I've needed glasses for watching TV, driving and generally getting about. The first slight indication something was changing was on my 48th birthday, squinting slightly to read the reservation details on a dimly-lit Eurostar train heading to Paris. My first significant issues with reading were during lockdown when going to the optician wasn't an option so I found a workaround, and only now have I finally bitten the bullet and gone for proper lenses.
When you're young nobody warns you that one day your eyesight will decline due to the decreased elasticity of your eyeballs, gradually making long distance vision trickier. The effects can be eased by wearing reading glasses but if you already have a prescription then switching spectacles soon gets tiring. The solution used to be bifocals, split-lensed glasses with your normal strength up top and a separate narrower lens underneath optimised for reading. Varifocals are a cleverer solution whereby the two prescriptions merge into one single lens, thus less conspicuous and less clunky, but also much more expensive making this my dearest purchase since I last bought a new phone.
It's really hard to imagine quite what varifocals will be like until you've splashed out and got your hands on a bespoke pair. I had to base my decisions on which type to buy based on a few scrappy diagrams on my optician's table, unsure if anything they were trying to upsell was really worth having. In the end I plumped for a better lens rather than flashier frames, hoping that was wise, and only yesterday did I finally put them on and discover how varifocals look. A tad blurry in places, it turns out.
If you imagine a spectacle lens divided into a 3×3 grid numbered top to bottom, then sections 1, 2, 3 and 5 are optimised for long distance, 7, 8 and 9 for reading, and 4 and 6 are blurrier because there has to be a bend somewhere. The more you pay, the broader section 5 is. That means you see long distance if you look ahead, much clearer text if you look down and less clarity to either side unless you turn your head. I'm basing this on 12 hours of wear and also on my specific prescription, so apologies if this isn't always the case.
I tested my new glasses while walking through Whitechapel Market and was slightly unnerved to see a shimmer rather than clarity in certain directions. I tested my glasses on the Elizabeth line and discovered I can read a book much more easily than before, even if I'm not looking through the lower strip. I tested my new glasses along the Euston Road and found my surroundings look sharper if I tip my head slightly lower than I'm used to. I tested my new glasses on Thameslink and found people-watching much harder because side-eye no longer works. I tested my new glasses on the steps at Hendon station, having been told stairs might now be an issue, but everything seemed fine. And I tested my new glasses on the top deck of a bus in Harrow and can still read numberplates in the distance, which is obviously the crucial thing.
Where things are currently hardest to reconcile is at home. I don't mind the carpet looking fuzzy as I walk around and I'll get used to the clock under the TV being less sharp than the picture above. The main issue seems to be my laptop because my normal eye position isn't what my glasses were designed for. Text on the screen is crystal clear if I tilt my head up slightly to the optimum angle, but in future I reckon I'm going to have to adjust my usual posture, lower my laptop or raise my chair. Alternatively I could revert to the reading glasses I was using previously but that feels like a waste of hundreds of pounds so I'll try to adapt instead.
The best thing is being able to read easily again, and the worst is a nagging blur that follows my eyes around. It's very early days so I still have much to learn about my complex compartmentalised choppier vision. But overnight I've become one of those old people who wears varifocals, and I hope you'll never notice.
