Short-sightedness and computer screens

[AI1694]

I’m short-sighted and current prescription is -2.75 L & -0.75 R. This has fluctuated slightly over the past few opticians visits.

I only wear my glasses when driving. Don’t really watch much TV but my job involves sitting in front of a computer for most of the working day and I also spend a lot of time on my phone. Should I be wearing them at work? I guess the question is does screen use make myopia worse?

Anyway, I do feel my sight is getting worse so expecting a stronger prescription when going to the opticians in a few months time.

[Fonzey]

Your left prescription seems in the realms of general usage rather than just occasional wearing. I guess your right eye is compensating a fair bit!

I'm only 1.75 in each though with added astigmatism, not sure how much difference that makes but I wouldn't really enjoy myself much if I was mooching about without glasses or contacts tbh.

[AI1694]

Yeah I’ve never really worn them much since being diagnosed with myopia years ago. But I’m fairly sure these past few years of heavy computer use is making it worse. Then again, I have read that you shouldn’t wear your distance glasses for close up stuff?

[ST565NP]

OP, if you can use your glasses when in front of the PC screen, then do it. Nothing good will come out of squinting to see everything clearly.
On the other hand, if you have a headache after using the glasses, then you have a wrong prescription. Check your prescription with a competent doctor and then use glasses accordingly to the doctor's advice.

[millen]

Best consult our optician (if they're any good) on pros and cons, but meanwhile I suggest no harm in trying with/without specs for different tasks and working out what is most comfortable. I was given to understand the brain is quite good at filtering out a fuzzy image from one eye if the other is clear. For people of presbyopic age I thought it's not uncommon for contact lenses to be set up to give best distance vision in one eye (typically your 'dominant' eye - that which you would use for rifle-shooting, say) and somewhat nearer vision in the other.

It's a very long time since my prescription was only -2.75! Now it's -5.5 which actually is fine for the phone screen unaided but a struggle for laptop/pc screens and hopeless for anything further than that. So -2.75 strikes me as potentially OK for screen work unaided, if the other eye doesn't distract you. I expect the -0.75 eye unaided might be OK for much general inside stuff (TV etc) and outside stuff unless you're struggling to read street names, sign posts, train times etc (and again, if the weaker eye isn't distracting you and the astigmatism isn't a problem).

Decades ago there was a common belief that wearing specs when you don't really need to causes the focusing muscles to deteriorate as they don't work so hard - but I suspect that's now consigned to the old-wives-tales bin along with many other myths!

[AI1694]

@millen - thanks for the informative response.

The opticians at my Specsavers just carry out the eye test and prescribe the required glasses and that’s that. I’ll try and get some answers when I go but not expecting much.

Looking at the figures I find it odd how my sight has got worse then improved slightly. It’s easy to get fixated on these kind of things, like now I’m trying to limit time screen use in the hope of not making it worse!

[Dr Jekyll]

With age it will eventually become easier to read the screen without the glasses rather than with.