Almost everybody will experience reading difficulties, as they get older - usually during the mid 40s. This is perfectly natural. Just as the body loses a little flexibility, so does the lens inside your eye. It becomes harder to focus, especially for reading. You may find that you need to hold the newspaper at arms length. That's because images of close objects focus behind the retina and appear blurred. This condition is called presbyopia and it's sometimes wrongly referred to as being long sighted. It is a quite normal and natural condition, easily remedied. Click here to see how different lenses affect your field of vision.

These diagrams explain how close objects become out of focus and how vision is restored with the use of a reading correction lens. Click on the lens in the diagram to change the focal length.