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Ask HN: Do your eyes bug you even though your prescription is "correct"?

340 points jbornhorst | 2 comments | 07 Mar 25 17:09 UTC | HN request time: 0s | source

I’m digging into an idea around eyeglasses, screen-time, and vision discomfort. If you wear prescription glasses but still get headaches, eye strain, or blurry vision after long screen days, I’d love to chat briefly (20–30 min).

Pure research, zero selling.

Interested? Drop a comment below or email me directly at jbornhorst [at] gmail.com. I’ll coordinate a convenient time to talk.

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avalys ◴[07 Mar 25 18:19 UTC] No.43292628[source]▶
Anecdotally related, but, during Covid and remote work I went to an optometrist around age 35 after I noticed my distance vision was blurry, especially at night after working inside all day.

They told me "you have 20/20 vision, your vision is completely fine, you don't need glasses!" But, I responded, my vision is definitely blurry. They politely told me to stop wasting their time.

Dissatisfied, I went to another optometrist, and paid closer attention to the whole process. After some discussion with the doctor, we arrived at the conclusion - I've had essentially 20/7 vision my entire life, and now in certain circumstances my vision has degraded to 20/20!

They gave me a prescription and now I am perfectly happy having laser-sharp vision again when I want it.

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simoncion ◴[07 Mar 25 21:42 UTC] No.43295059[source]▶
How the hell did you convince your optometrist to correct your vision to 20/7?

The past two docs I've been two have ignored me when I've said "I can make out the letters, but they're blurry and fuzzy. Can we go stronger?" with "Well, that's corrected to 20/20 vision.".

I'm very, very strongly considering finding a used eye-testing-headgear thingie like they have in their offices, learning how to use it, and doing the testing for myself.

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1. YZF ◴[08 Mar 25 05:57 UTC] No.43297853[source]▶
That's odd. Most optometrists I've seen over my life (and specifically here in Canada, BC) will keep trying to adjust and ask you if it's sharper or not before they settle on the numbers. They'll go higher or lower power and/or astigmatism in different increments. They're also generally pretty cool with things like testing with a laptop monitor and getting the sharpest computer prescription.

Maybe this is your sweet spot?

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2. simoncion ◴[11 Mar 25 02:21 UTC] No.43328511[source]▶
> Maybe this is your sweet spot?

I doubt it. I played around a bit with the hand-lenses and was able to get a much more clear picture by increasing the lens strength more than the doctor was willing to.

If the doctor was making any sort of tradeoff, they were not informing me of it. They kept asserting that I was "corrected to 20/20" when I protested that the letters on the chart were still quite fuzzy. If they'd have informed me of a "close range vs. long range" lens tradeoff, I would have happily informed them of my willingness to have multiple pairs of glasses.