Varifocals and Driving

[Reg Local]

I've worn glasses for most of my adult life - I'm short sighted, so my distance vision is poor.

Over the last couple of years, I've noticed that my "close up" vision is starting to deteriorate a bit. My optician told me this is perfectly normal and many people experience the same thing in their mid-40's. It's not really caused me any major issues - I just need to take my glasses off occasionally to read very small print.

I went for my biennial eye test a couple of weeks ago and found that my distance vision had deteriorated slightly (so I needed a new prescription anyway), and my reading-distance vision had become quite poor - worse than I thought anyway. The optician persuaded me that varifocals were the way to go - I ordered some new frames with their most expensive varifocal lens option.

I went to pick the new glasses up yesterday. Anyone who wears glasses will know it's usually quite nice getting a new pair of specs - everything you look at seems to have a new level of crispness and clarity, very much like when you see an ultra-HD telly for the first time.

I tried the varifocals in the shop and found them a little disorientating - the top of the lens deals with distance vision and the bottom of the lens deals with close vision. In addition, there is a sort of "Y" shaped section in the centre of each lens which gives some improvement to distance vision, but to the left and right of the Y, the lenses are tuned for closer vision.

OK, I thought - they'll take some getting used to, but glasses always do. I had a walk around town for half-an-hour or so and started to get used to the variations in clarity, depending on where I looked through the lenses. Right, I thought - time for a drive.

Driving in varifocals, however, was a whole new world of dreadful. I've always used (and taught) an observation technique called "scanning", which involves constantly moving your eyes around to make a visual "sweep" of the whole environment. My eyes are continuously flicking around, looking in the far distance, middle distance and near distance, together with the sides and the rear via the mirrors. Scanning ensures you use your eyes to best effect to spot hazards well in advance before they become a problem. It's not rocket science, but it's a key driving technique if you want to rise slightly above the usual driving habit of staring intently at the brake lights of the car in front.

Scanning in varifocals, however, is virtually impossible. Scan into the far distance and everything is clear. Move to the middle distance and it's still clear, but look towards the nearside and offside pavements and they're suddenly very blurred - I cannot make out any significant detail at all. Look in the side and centre mirrors and everything is blurred. It's better if I move my head so that I'm looking through the centre of the lens all the time, but moving your head, instead of your eyes for every scanning movement is just ridiculous - I looked like a nervous pigeon in a shooting competition.

I'll be wearing them around the house and at work over the next few days in an attempt to get more used to the lenses, but at the moment I'm convinced that driving in varifocals is bordering on dangerous & I cannot see myself (see what I did there!) ever wearing them for driving.

Has anyone else experienced the same problem? Has anyone adapted to them for driving? Do I just need to give it more time?

At the moment, I'm thinking of just taking them back and getting standard lenses.

[Reg Local]

Thanks for all your replies - I've been on PH for nearly 10 years and I'd never once looked in the health forum!

I'll give them a good go before deciding one way or the other, but consistent vision is so important to me when I'm driving, I think I'll struggle to adapt to them.

[Reg Local]

Well, I had the varifocals for a week and I wore them every day from first thing in the morning.

I got a little more used to the difference in focus across the different areas of the lenses, and I became a bit more competent at moving my head around to suit the glasses.

But - the lenses didn't give me the clarity of vision in the right parts of the lens. I could only achieve decent distance vision through the very top of the lens, but then when I looked in the rear-view mirror, it was completely blurred. The lower part of the lens didn't allow me to focus on the dashboard clearly (the badge on the steering wheel was crystal clear, but not the instruments) and the centre part of the lens - the bit you look through most of the time - wouldn't allow distance, close, or computer monitor vision. They have sort of a dead spot in the centre.

Worst of all, after an hour or so, I started getting headaches. I hardly ever suffer headaches, but every time I tried the new specs I'd start with a headache which got progressively worse as the day went on. Switching to my old glasses relieved the headache almost immediately so it was clear that the varifocals were the cause.

The glasses were from Specsavers (no idea of the lens make I'm afraid) and were their most expensive varifocal option with the anti-glare coating.

I've been back this afternoon and had a long chat with one of the opticians. He checked my prescription and noted that it was a particularly difficult drop in my reading vision to correct - minus 1.5 in one eye and plus 1.5 in the other - not sure exactly what that means, but he told me the eyes cancelled each other out and it was a difficult fault to correct with varifocals.

After adjusting the fit of the glasses and getting no improvement, we both agreed that I'd be better going back to single vision lenses for my short-sightedness. They were very easy to deal with and there was no hesitation in offering to replace the lenses. I even get a refund of the difference - £140, which I wasn't expecting.

So, although many people, including Mrs Local, have found varifocals to be a huge improvement and have adapted to them nicely, it seems they're just not for me at the moment. You live and learn.