Improving your vision – almost always a question of how much effort you are willing to put in for the first month or two. With that being the case, it is encouraging to look at Paul’s figures for exactly how much he has improved in his first five weeks:
I’ve been using my first Normalized prescription now for 5 weeks. Haven’t touched my old full prescription glasses in all that time!
For reference, my old prescription was:
OD -3.25, -0.75 Cyl, 180 Ax
OS -3.00, -0.75 Cyl, 160 Ax
My Normalized prescription is:
OD -2.50
OS -2.25
with no CYL correction.
The first week was definitely the hardest in the sense that I really noticed the difference in my ability to see clearly, especially indoors or under poor lighting. But day by day it got better and now it feels just fine when I’m outdoors on a sunny day. With a bit of focus pulling I can read car license plates from about 30 meters away. But under cloudy conditions or near dusk, my distance vision noticeably drops, and I can barely make them out at 15 meters.
I also did some Snellen measurements within the first 2 days of switching to my Normalized prescription and just repeated the measurements yesterday. Here’s what I got:
Day 2 with Normalized, 20 foot Snellen:
Right 20/40
Left 20/30
Both 20/25
Week 5 with Normalized, 20 foot Snellen:
Right 20/25
Left 20/20
Both 20/20
These Snellen measurements were taken indoors under the best artificial lighting conditions I could manage, but now that I know how much full sunlight helps I’m sure I’m better than 20/20 outdoors in the sun with this Normalized prescription.
My centimeter has improved too. The last measurements I took before starting to use my Normalized prescription was:
Right 40cm, Left 44cm, Both 42cm
Now it’s:
Right 42cm, Left 48cm, Both 45cm
Finally, at work while using my Differential prescription (OD -1.50, OS -1.25), I can comfortably work at about 75cm from the screen, and edge of blur is about 85cm.”
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The full thread for that discussion is here.
Improving your vision is in no small part a process of self discovery and personal initiative. I like to read stories like Paul’s, where it becomes immediately obvious that he will succeed. Let’s look at some more of forum forum commentary, here from Ryan:
Because my current prescription is a bit complex I ordered a range of uncut opthalmic lenses from -1 to -6 from ebay (20 lenses for £10!)
This has meant that I was able to give myself a regular eyetest and can be super specific about cm distances with the varying lens strengths
I have put all the data at the bottom (there’s a lot) so in the meantime here are my facts and questions-
I get 20/20 vision with a prescription exactly 1 dioptre less than my current prescription.This is really exciting as it means that I can go ahead and order new glasses for my main prescription (and hopefully stop the steady deterioration of my eyesight).”
Well done, so far. That post had been back in September. And then he writes in an update yesterday:
A quick update and question. I have been using a differential prescription of R -2 L -3.5 (a big reduction from R -4, L -5.75 but I generally use them for reading and use 40cm blur distance). However, my main prescription glasses recently broke (daughter stepped on them – good for her ha ha) and I am now left only with the reading glasses or the option of using my old contact lenses while I am waiting for a replacement. I am loathed to wear the CLs as they are higher still prescription and give me headaches quite fast, plus it is too much much of a bother to take them out to read, so I have been going without. I find it is a bother to be in blur by the the end of the day, so end up reading just to get some sharp vision. Is this okay? Or should I just put in the CLs? Hopefully the main prescription will arrive soon, and anyway it is time to start thinking about using normalised.
I have not redone snellen yet but I am finding big improvements, becoming more aware of clearing vision at blur distance. Recently, following a morning yoga class one bright morning (feeling relaxed and energised) I noticed a VAST improvement in my sight. With differential prescription glasses on I found I could read number plates sharply from cars right along the street, and experienced almost no double vision at all for a good hour or so.”
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It’s an interesting experience (and timing), because (my response):
It can be fortuitous to loose or break ones normalized at just the right time. You end up using the differential and possibly discover that you actually have more margin in your distance blur horizon than you thought.
Back in the office days I would confiscate clients normalized when the circumstances where just right (no driving, good general progress, lacking confidence in their eyesight distance).
It’s something I can’t do online, unfortunately.
For you though it seems that this happened at a great time. Find that new distance when you feel ambitious and keep a log (or remember landmarks) for those peak clear flashes. Remember that your distance vision can improve at a different rate than your close-up centimeter, also.”
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If you are serious about improving your eyesight, Paul and Ryan’s approaches are exactly what you want to be doing. He is methodical, he keeps track of his progress (avoid subjective opinion in favor of tangible numbers), and he asks questions. It make me happy to see the course being put to good use.
The full thread with several more observations is here.
Put in the work, get the results. Sometimes I get frustrated about all the snake oil eye cure things online. It’s not even that they waste your money, but that they waste your time and destroy your confidence and motivation. I’d love to find a way to have good impartial reviews of various eyesight health venues to give people a better perspective of real vs. fake.
Either way, Paul has done well. If you get a strong start, the odds that you will persist are very high. Persistence equals improving vision, reason for you to do it, and reason for me to keep logging back in and providing support.
I hope you are enjoying some healthy eyesight today!
