If you are new to progressive lenses, you would probably find that you put yourself in a rather uncomfortable situation. Your visions are changing when you roll your eyes, which is kinda weird and makes you dizzy. It could take up to 2 weeks to get used to these lenses, but if you really want to make them useful as soon as possible so as to not miss your holidays or family dinners, here are 5 tips for you.

Tip 1: Ensure a Proper Fit

Getting your glasses professionally fit and adjusted for you is significant. Progressive lenses have a very specific spot you need to look through, otherwise you may experience not only blurred vision but more distortions everywhere you look.

If your glasses don’t sit straight or your vision feels off, get them adjusted by a professional optician right away.

Tip 2: Wear the Glasses - As Much As Possible

This may look like non-sense, but you really need to wear the glasses as often as possible.

When you first put on a pair of progressive glasses, you’re gonna see these distortions and your field of view is gonna be narrower like you’re swimming. This unpleasant thing could last a few days and it’s gonna even take longer if you happen to be someone with a high prescription or you’ve never worn glasses ever before in your whole life.

But our brain is smarter and stronger than you might have imagined. When getting used to these lenses, some people may experience a sudden moment when they get way more comfortable while the day before they are still struggling with the distortion problems.

The longer you put them on, the faster this transition period would be since your brain have more time to process with the adaption.

And if you have an older pair of glasses that don’t make you feel sick, try not to switch back and forth between them. This won’t be helpful to get your brain adapted with the new ones.

Tip 3: Use Them the Right Way

The biggest problem with progressive lenses is that you have to use your eyes differently than you’ve ever used them when wearing glasses before.

Step 1: Look Straight

If you can’t find the proper use all by your eyes, try get your nose involved too. This means having your nose pointed at whatever you are trying to focus on and look at it.

That’s because progressive lenses have distortion zones off to the sides, and if you see things through these areas, it’s gonna feel super blurry and weird.

So always make sure to keep your eyes right in the middle. If you want to look at your computer screen, point your nose at it. The same with your books, your bills, your notes, your medication, your phone - basically everything.

Step 2: Pick the Right Zone

After facing directly at the object you’re going to look at, the next thing is to determine which part of the lens you need to look through according to the distance between you and the object.

If you are looking at something in the distance, the top of the lens would give you a clear vision.

But for something up close, the bottom of the lens should do the work.

This means if you are looking at them with your head down as you normally do, you would be looking through the top portion of the lens which should be your distance looking, therefore leads to unclear vision.

So what you need to do is to look down through the lens and keep your head still. If you cannot find that spot at your early attempts, you can even tilt your neck up a little bit to find it.

As for those in the intermediate distance like your computer, try move your head up and down to find that sweet spot - it should be in the middle of your lens.

Extra tip: Walking on Stairs

For some situations where you’re going to make quick and dynamic movements with secure footings like waking up and down stairs or getting in and out of a car, there’s an extra tip.

As we all know, the different portion of the lens would give you different visions, so for a dynamic situation, it would cause different visual effect on the same object, meaning you can’t judge the proper spot easily.

So the best thing to do is to take it slow and try to point your nose toward the ground and look through the top portion of the lens to avoid the distortion and uncertain distance.

Tip 4: Keep Your Glasses Clean

ALWAYS make sure your glasses are clean. If you are already going through a hard time with the adaption process, a pair of unclear glasses would only make things worse.

To clear your glasses properly, you can apply spray cleaner on them, and wipe them out with microfiber lens cloth.

If you don’t have proper spray cleaner, dish soap would do the same and even better sometimes. But remember not to use anything that says “for sensitive skin” or has some sort of lotion in it since they’re gonna get stuck on the lenses and smear it even more.

Tip 5: Optimize for Computer Use

Progressive lenses should work for viewing the computer screen and anything intermediate, especially better than bifocal lenses do.

But if you’re someone who’s having difficulties finding the sweet spot in your glasses and you work with computers most of your day, it may lead to neck and shoulder problems. To solve this, a dedicated computer glasses or maybe an office based progressive lens may be helpful.

Final Thoughts

Adjusting to progressive lenses takes time, but it doesn’t have to be a struggle. Be patient, wear them often, and follow these 5 tips—you’ll be amazed at how quickly your brain adapts.

We’re Lakoh, your progressive lens expert. Need more help?

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