Progressives: How to Adapt

Because of how they’re designed, progressives can take longer to adapt to than other lens types. However, for many people, the convenience of only needing one pair of glasses throughout the day makes the effort of adapting worthwhile.

Fortunately, we can provide some tips to make it easier! Check out our How to Adapt to Progressive Lenses video as well for some more visual demonstrations.

Tips & Tricks

We recommend that you get in the habit of turning your head toward the object of focus instead of simply moving your eyes.
Practice using your new progressives first thing in the morning. This is when our eyes are most accepting of a new prescription.
For new wearers, get used to your new lenses gradually by increasing the time you wear them over the first few days. Try not to switch back to old pairs of glasses, since this will lengthen your period of adaptation.
For experienced wearers, a new pair of progressives – even in the same prescription – can still have a slight adaptation period.

Practice Activity

Part of adapting to progressive lenses is building muscle memory. This means that once you’ve adapted to one pair of progressive lenses, it becomes easier to adapt to the next!

Try the steps below for even a few minutes each day to help build up that muscle memory.

Set up your space
- You’re going to need enough room to practice using the distance portion of the lens, too.
- Set three objects to focus on in a straight line at approximately eye level: one far, one midway, and one near. In this example, we show a TV, a laptop, and a cell phone.
Practice focusing on the distant object (TV), then the intermediate object (laptop), then the near object (cell phone).
Repeat in reverse.

While most users have great success with wearing progressives, they aren’t for everybody. If you’re still having trouble adapting after a couple of weeks, with headaches or feeling off-balance, contact your eye doctor to check your prescription and lens placement.