Seeking Clarity: My Contact Lens Journey Begins

by Alan Cole · Published Thursday, December 18th, 2025 · Updated Monday, December 8th, 2025

Yes, I’m getting older, and I’ve been wearing glasses for a while now. I need varifocal lenses as I can’t be bothered to carry more than one pair around or keep swapping between them. My distance vision isn’t too bad but does need a little help, while my near vision needs quite a boost these days. Glasses annoy me though — they get dirty, which distracts me instantly. Somehow Anna can use hers even if they’re caked in muck; if I have just a speck of something on mine, it drives me to distraction and I have to clean them immediately. That’s just not possible when cycling, running, gardening, or doing pretty much anything outdoors. They steam up, get covered in raindrops, snag on things in the garden, and are generally a bit of a nuisance.

Eventually, after putting up with them for ages, I decided it was time to try contact lenses instead. They shouldn’t steam up when I’m exercising, they won’t get knocked off while gardening, they won’t get covered in raindrops, and they should be far less intrusive. They also have the advantage of being replaced frequently, so when a prescription change is needed, they aren’t as expensive to switch. With everyday specs, varifocal sunglasses, and bifocal running/cycling glasses, any change in prescription used to mean three new pairs — it soon adds up. Contact lenses also give me the freedom to wear whichever sunglasses I like.

It’s not quite that simple though, and getting them perfect is proving tricky. People who need varifocal lenses generally have two options, though the details get a bit more intricate once you dig in.

Monovision lenses
This is where one eye has a near-focus prescription and the other eye has the distance prescription. Your brain then decides which eye to use for what and blends things together for mid-distance. Some people adapt very easily to this, others—like me—notice the “wrong bits” more than the right ones.

Multifocal lenses
These are more complicated. Rather than giving one job to each eye, both eyes get lenses that contain multiple focal distances at once. There are actually several designs:

Concentric ring designs – alternating rings of near and far focus.
Aspheric or “progressive” designs – a smooth gradient from distance to near, a bit like varifocal glasses.
Hybrid designs – combinations of the above, with differing transitions or centre-weighted zones.

Each make and model uses its own geometry, optical layout, and balance between near and distance clarity, which is why fitting multifocals can take a fair bit of trial and error. Your brain then learns to select the bits it needs and suppress the rest, ideally merging everything into a usable image.

I’ve spent the past few weeks trying various combinations. I started with multifocals and soon got the hang of putting them in and taking them out. They were OK, but I had some double vision and nothing was pin-sharp at any distance.

Closeup view of a man’s brown eye while inserting a corrective contact lens on a finger with a white background.

The optician thought my dominant and non-dominant eye might be reversed, so that was swapped, and I was given some monovision lenses to try. I just couldn’t get on with them. Nothing was in focus, and instead of using the part that was supposed to be clearest, my brain seemed to latch onto the bits that weren’t. It focused on the problems rather than ignoring them, so I didn’t persist — but at least it confirmed that monovision isn’t for me.

Next, it was back to multifocals with the prescriptions tweaked and the dominance swapped again. These worked OK for mid-distance, but distance vision was quite blurry, and close-up intricate work was impossible.

My prescription has been tweaked yet again, and next I’ll be trying another pair of multifocals as we attempt to home in on the perfect setup.

It would be nice to get it sorted, but so far it’s been far from perfect. Just as I think we’re getting somewhere, I take a pair out, put my glasses back on, and realise how much worse my eyesight has been with the contacts. At the moment, glasses are still better at every distance, which is frustrating. Putting them on makes everything clearer, sharper, and larger.

I feel a bit as though I’m messing the optician about by trying so many different combinations, and the more I try, the more I wonder if I’ll ever find the right solution. I’m beginning to think that maybe I need a different type of multifocal lens? O, maybe I’m just too sensitive to imperfections.