What Is Mini Monovision?

Mini monovision sounds like something out of a sci-fi movie. And for people needing reading glasses, just like science fiction it's used to restore their up close vision!

There exists a time in everyone's life when reading things up close becomes more difficult. This typically happens around the age of 45 and up. People who wear glasses find they need progressive glasses or bifocal glasses. People who wear contact lenses find they need to throw on reading glasses over there contact lenses. But there is another way...

Let's get rid of reading glasses

Monovision is mini monovision's older sister. Monovision is a technique commonly used with contact lenses. Everyone has one eye that is stronger than the other (or a dominant eye). With monovision, this dominant eye is corrected with contact lenses as usual to see off in the distance. But because you can't read, the other eye (the non-dominant eye) is actually corrected to be near-sighted to see up close. Sounds weird but gradually over time people adapt get used to the eyes performing separate tasks.

With monovision, there is typically a large gap between the distance eye and the reading eye. This large gap can make it more difficult to adjust to monovision.

Enter mini monovision

Mini monovision improves upon monovision. For the vast majority of tasks throughout our day, we don't need very strong up close vision. If you are reading this on a computer, you are likely sitting about arm's length away from the screen.

The stronger dominant eye stays the same in the distance, but in mini monovision the up close eye is focused more in the distance. Instead of being focused 16 inches in front of you, the up close eye is focused at about a meter away from you (right at about computer distance). This improves overall distance vision and because the gap between eyes is smaller, this improves the ability to adjust to mini monovision. There may be a some tiny text up close that becomes a little bit more difficult to read but the improved distance vision and ability to adapt make up for it. That's about it. Mini monovision isn't too complex.

So what this all means is that with mini monovison: reading glasses, bifocals, progressive glasses all become unnecessary. Mini monovision isn't only done with contact lenses; it is also frequently done with lasik and can be done with cataract surgery to provide glasses independence. It's a tried and true way to achieve glasses independence.

Although it works great, it does take some time for the brain to adjust.

How Do I Adjust To Mini Monovision?

_{Using non-dominant eye to read up close with mini monovision; image by MadFishDigital / CC BY}

Mini monovision has a few extra side-effects in the short-term while adjusting. These side-effects are a byproduct of the eyes doing different things. While the dominant eye will see great in the distance, that eye will be more blurry up close. It is the opposite for the non-dominant eye. While this eye will be great for computer and for most reading activities, it will be blurry when looking far away. This blurriness causes a few effects. There is the sensation that the eyes are fighting each other (since one is blurry and one is sharp). Also at night-time lights in the distance will be more blurred in the up close eye causing some extra halos around those lights.

An amazing thing happens over the course of the first few months. When we talk about vision, more accurately we are talking about how the brain is interpreting visual signals from the retina. The brain has a remarkable ability to forget unimportant things. When you first start wearing a watch, you notice it quite a bit. But after some time your brain starts to forget that it’s there and you don’t feel it unless you think about it. The same thing happens with vision. While the vision doesn’t actually change, the brain starts to realize that the eyes are doing different things. It starts to optimize your vision so that the fighting sensation and the halos fade away. That’s very cool!

The downside is that this process isn’t quick. For many people this completes in about 3 months. For some, it can take a little bit longer. But once you adjust, it’s a whole new way of seeing!

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