Mr. Chan (M/55 yo) has perfect vision at far, complains that his near vision is not that good even with his current reading glasses now.
During the whole MCO, he just pulled reading material further away as he can still manage to figure it out and at times, he used his old not-updated reading glasses that is put at home.
Now that he is back at work, he uses his updated reading glass and realises that his near vision is not as great as before when he does his habitual job at work. Reading power has increased 0.25 in order to get the sharpness that he wants.
Fast increment of near power (or rabun dekat or “lao hua”) in a short period of time is the result of over stressing your eyes:
You have a lot of near work recently &/or You are not wearing your glasses
Your eyes need this amount of power to see near clearly, and you do not wear your reading glasses, your eyes will need to work extra hard to help you to see near. When your eye muscles over work, when they always OT(OverTime), ‘they’ will complain.. your eye muscles said: “by right I can work with minimal effort.. now you want me to work extra hard!” When eye muscles are overstressed continuously, now when you wear your glasses, the already fatigued muscles would now want stronger power to see near for you.
Eyes are very smart, they help you to see clearly just by using the least effort from them! If we continue to make them over work, in return they will give you a good head massage – that is headache!
For a quick glance, such as seeing price tags, food menu.. if you still can figure it out by pulling your reading print further, then it’s okay, you can go without your reading glasses.
For near tasks ie using the computer, gadgets, paperworks that require you to be looking at them continuously, you will need to wear your reading glasses.
Your muscles can exert his strength to help see near briefly. But, if you force them to work for longer time, they can cause you headache.
Lets wear your reading glasses to see comfortably at near, and when your eyes are relaxed, you will find that you have stable increment of your near power.
Alternatively, if you find wearing & keeping your reading glasses a hassle, you may use multifocal lenses that enable you from seeing far to seeing near clearly just like our natural vision.
Im wearing multifocal lenses, Mama Chaw is a long-time multifocal wearer, my neighbour Mr Chia has just started wearing multifocal lenses and loving it.. how about you?