Both eyes done with distance lenses and now the dashboard and satnav are blurry at night. Is that the lens or my age?

Coming up to a year since my second eye and I have been very happy, as anyone who has read my other moaning on here will know the halos settled exactly as promised. Far distance is superb. Number plates, road signs, the lot.

New gripe though, and it only showed up once the evenings started drawing in. Driving home in the dark, the road is sharp but the speedometer and the satnav screen are soft. Not unreadable, just mushy, and I find myself leaning forward and squinting, which is not ideal at 50 miles an hour. In daylight it is better but still not crisp.

I knew I would need readers for the crossword, everyone tells you that. Nobody mentioned the dashboard. Is this the lens doing what it was always going to do, or has something changed? And is there such a thing as glasses for the car that do not make the road blurry?

Same here Ken, and I had mine done in 2024 so it is not something creeping up on you. The distance lens is set for far away. The dashboard is not far away and not reading distance either, it is that awkward middle bit. In daylight your pupil is smaller and you get a bit more depth of focus, which is why it is better in the day.

I have varifocals now with a weak bit for the dashboard and nothing at the top. Took a week to get used to and now I forget I am wearing them.

My optician said exactly what Harold said about the pupil. I do not drive much at night but I notice the same with the oven clock across the kitchen in the evening.

crossword-ken said:

Is this the lens doing what it was always going to do, or has something changed?

Ken, the most likely answer is the first one: a monofocal lens set for distance gives its sharpest focus far away, and intermediate distances such as a dashboard at around arm's length, or a computer screen, are usually somewhat soft without glasses. Harold and Betty have the night effect right too. In the dark your pupil widens, which reduces depth of focus, so the middle distance blurs more than it does in daylight. That is the lens behaving as designed, and it is why the guide to glasses after cataract surgery talks about intermediate as well as reading glasses.

That said, it is worth ruling out two things rather than assuming. First, a small residual prescription. Even a small leftover focus error, or a little astigmatism, can make the difference between a crisp and a soft dashboard, and a year on is a sensible time for a full sight test if you have not had one. Second, posterior capsule opacification, the gradual clouding of the membrane behind the lens. It typically shows up as a slow loss of crispness and contrast, often more noticeable at night, and it is common in the months to years after surgery. If your optician sees it, it is treated with a quick laser in clinic; the guide to posterior capsule opacification explains what that involves.

On glasses for the car, yes, they exist. A varifocal with no power at the top and a weak intermediate zone below, as Harold has, is one route; some people prefer a single-vision pair for intermediate distance that they wear only for screens. Your optician can measure the actual distance from your eyes to the instruments, which is worth doing. Either way the sight test comes first, and if anything has changed in your vision since last year, that is a conversation for the optician or the eye clinic rather than this board.

Report back. Had a proper sight test last Thursday. Lens and capsule both clear, no sign of the clouding thing, small amount of astigmatism left in the right eye which is the one that did NOT get the toric lens. Funny that.

Ordered varifocals with plain glass at the top like Harold's. Optician measured from my nose to the steering wheel with a tape measure in the car park, which got some looks. Should have them next week. Thank you all, I had half convinced myself the lens was going cloudy.