Reading glasses are typically prescribed to help relieve eye strain, eye fatigue or to make things clearer.

A common myth is believing that wearing reading glasses will weaken the eyes and cause your eyes to be dependent and presumably get worse. That is false, reading glasses reduce the work your eyes have to focus and will focus for you at the amount prescribed and will not change your prescription nor weaken your eyes.

Presbyopia is the normal loss of focusing on near objects because the lens in the eye stiffens with time. This eventually happens to everyone. It is important to note that it’s not the focusing muscle that weakens but that the lens gets stiffer and cannot flex to focus at different distances anymore even though the muscle is still functioning normally. Thus, there are no eye exercises can be done to improve focusing since it’s not the muscle that’s causing the inability to focus.

Simple Terms: When you are reading, it’s like you’re lifting a weight. Reading glasses will help you lift some of that weight so that instead of lifting 10 lbs, you’re lifting 5 lbs. Your eyes will be more relaxed and less fatigued from doing less work.

TBL: Reading glasses reduce the focusing work your eyes have to do.