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Comment by geowwy | Hacker News Reader

Since getting some computer glasses my eyes have gone from deteriorating every year to getting slightly better. Might be a coincidence but I suspect not. Next time I'm in Asia I'm going to get an even weaker pair and see if my eyes can keep improving.

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Cliff Hayes successfully went down that unsanctioned road, he published some videos [1] and a PDF [2]. We need more scientific studies [3] to figure out why undercorrection works for some people.

When it works, the key seems to be relaxing the eyes and surrounding muscles while viewing objects at a distance which causes just enough blur. Within a minute or two, the brain's visual cortex figures out a "software compensation" for the signal coming from the eye, which lets the eye stay relaxed instead of straining to focus. More info on Vision Therapy is available from behavioral opthalmologists, but it takes time, motivation and may not be covered by insurance.

[1] https://youtube.com/user/cliffgnu

[2] https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B5REdzibAJQ4VFJuWnZCU3dLcHc...

[3] https://dspace.mit.edu/openaccess-disseminate/1721.1/105363

This is purely anecdotal. I have a bad astigmatism. I tend to not wear glasses until I have to. In the garden I don't bother. And oddly, when I do use my glasses everything becomes too much. In my mind scenery becomes unpleasantly cluttered/dirty. It's quite horrible. I prefer the soft focus - but can't read the laptop, watch TV without.

If your astigmatism (cylinder) and/or spherical diopter numbers are very high, your glasses may have significant distortion when looking through any point other than the optical center of the lens, e.g. for peripheral vision. Have you compared contacts with glasses? They provide a much wider field of view.

If you like soft focus, you can try on different drugstore reading glasses (e.g. +0.50) over your normal glasses, to find a reduced strength which lets you see at the desired distance without super-duper-sharp edges. Then ask your optometrist to provide you with a reduced prescription for non-driving or near work tasks. Otherwise, they will prescribe driving-strength glasses to avoid legal liability.

Interesting, my prescription was out of range for contact lenses when last explored. It might be worth me getting something as best as they can get if the contact effect is beneficial.

If your prescription is out of range for contacts, it means it is very weak, so there shouldn't be much distortion in glasses, hence you won't see much difference with contacts.

Easiest would be to find a friendly optometrist who will put your astigmatism prescription into a trial frame, then let you self-adjust the cylinder and axis values until you find your desired blend of clarity and softness at your target distance. They can also advise on the safety of using that prescription vs using no glasses.

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