COOL! wide range intermediate glasses

 

The Abra Effect - intermediate glasses for a wide range of distances.

 

First off, I am not a medical professional.  I stumbled onto this purely by luck but thought it very useful in facilitating my day to day functionality so I thought I should document it and pass it on.  Use at your own risk!  I've worn it for years now and I haven't noticed any issues so far.

 

I have never seen this effect documented on the web.  I am going to call it the Abra Effect.

 

I'll try to keep this short. I've been wearing glasses all my life. Of course when computers became common and I interacted with monitors I found that my glasses didn't work that well with the distance ~24 inches [for me].  Many years ago I inquired with my optometrist about glasses for the computer (intermediate glasses).  Which I wore for many years and it definitely helps to see the screen clearly.  At work it was common for me to wear them all the time.  I had a pair that was prescribed to me that I've worn for a couple of years and noticed that they not only helped me to read the computer screen BUT I could use all the time not noticing an issue with driving or blurring when looking at distances farther than the computer screen about 24 inches.  Only when I looked at stars did I see double images. I happen to have two sets, one for home and one for work. They worked great for the store, museum, driving or reading the computer. I could wear them all the time and see clearly. One of the GREAT features of this is I could drive and still read the phone clearly while driving.  Now that maps are on the phone a great help to navigating to destinations.  With my normal long distance prescription (Rx) I could see fine for driving but not the phone which was mounted about the distance of a computer for travel on my dash.  I accidentally smashed one pair and only had one set.  Using it all the time I really wanted to get another pair.  I went to an optometrist, there was a long wait for the optometrist I had used.  He gave me a prescription for the computer but upon getting the glasses with that prescription I immediately noticed my vision was blurred for distance beyond 24 inches.  I then scheduled with my previous optometrist in an attempt to get intermediate glasses that acted like the ones I had that work great for all normal distances - computer and beyond.  Well I received his prescription and had it filled and it had the same problem.  I could see fine at the computer but blurred longer distances.  Pissing off the optometrist I got the prescription for the glasses that work.  Pursuing this I learned a lot about glasses prescriptions. 

 

Computer glasses or intermediate glasses are achieved by changing the sphere (first number in your prescription) a certain amount to facilitate focusing on a particular distance.   It appears common to reduce it by 50% for computer glasses.   Below is a web site that will calculate lens strength for different distances: 12 to 48 inches distance.

 

UPDATE - Sorry the site was removed.  [BUMMER] 

 

This matches up with what the optometrist had prescribed me for computer glasses.  Great for reading the computer but beyond that blurred vision which is really bad at night with lights (double images).  Strangely I had a pair that worked great for a wide range of distances and was desperate to figure out why after wearing them for a couple of years and needing replacements.  What was the deal?   As stated for an intermediate Rx both eyes' sphere are correspondingly reduced for both eyes.   Cylinder and axis are not affected.

 

The Rx that worked turned out to work very well for a wide range of intermediate distances to infinity.  Actually I don't know who prescribed it to me.  It was totally different from the ones I was now receiving from multiple optometrists.  Not being prescribed by the optometrist I've been using for years now (I found this out investigating this).  As I said my investigation into why they worked pissed him off really and he got a bit upset.  I understand because he is prescribing glasses for a set distance.  One Rx for infinity and another Rx for the computer (24 inches).   I discovered that the glasses that worked sphere in one lens was my infinity Rx and the other lens was a computer or intermediate value Rx.  My right eye had an infinity Rx strength and the left an Rx strength for about ~32 inches (intermediate value).   My right eye has my best vision.  I don't know if that matters.  So as crazy as this sounds having one lens for infinity and one for intermediate allows me to see distances in between without blurriness!  So far I haven't found any issues with my vision with this weird Rx.  It really facilitates my vision for a myriad of day to day activities so I thought I would pass this on hopefully to help others. 

 

Helps me immensely hence the write-up.  Glad I can share it.  Hope you enjoy the Abra Effect.

 

I will update this posting if I find out anything new.

Yes there are progressive lens but I didn't like using them. This should be cheaper too as single vs. multifocal lens.  I do not know if this will work for reading

Update: I did a pair with a lens power at 22 inches.  The computer seem a bit off (distance was fine) so I'm sticking with the near distance of 32 inches for the time being.