Do I need reading glasses?

Signs you need reading glasses

• You hold your phone or a menu farther away to read it.
• Small print is blurred at the distance where you used to read.
• You need brighter light to read than you used to.
• Reading is harder in the evening or when you are tired.
• Your eyes ache or feel strained after close work.
• You get headaches after reading or sewing.
• It takes a moment to refocus when you look up from a book, or back down.
• You push your distance glasses up, or take them off, to see something close.

Two or three of these after the age of 40 point to presbyopia, the normal loss of close-up focus with age.

When do you need reading glasses?

Most people notice the change between 40 and 45. People who are farsighted often notice it earlier, and people who are slightly nearsighted often later, because they can take their glasses off to read. By 50 nearly everyone needs some help with small print.

A quick check

Hold a book at your normal reading distance in good light. If you have to move it away to make the words sharp, you would benefit from readers. To find out which strength, take the reading glasses test. It takes about two minutes.

When it is not just age

See an eye doctor rather than buying readers if:

• you are under 40;
• the change came on within days or weeks;
• distance vision is blurred as well;
• one eye is clearly worse than the other;
• you have eye pain, flashes, new floaters, halos around lights or double vision.

Even when readers solve the problem, eye doctors advise a full exam around 40, because several eye diseases start without symptoms.