Every year, on the second Thursday of October, the entire world mobilizes around vision health. Organized by the International Agency for the Prevention of Blindness (IAPB), World Sight Day aims not only to raise public awareness about vision issues but also to promote equal access to eye care and to remind people that many visual impairments are preventable or treatable.
For the 2025 edition, the campaign adopts the slogan "Love Your Eyes," inviting us all to prioritize our eyes in our professional, digital, and daily lives.
However, within this vast topic, two themes deserve particular attention for many of us: presbyopia, a very common visual defect starting in one's forties, and the effects of blue light on our eyes, especially in the all-digital age.
Understanding Presbyopia: When Reading Becomes More Difficult
What is presbyopia?
Presbyopia is a natural phenomenon linked to the aging of the eye. With age, the lens, the internal lens of the eye, loses its flexibility, and the ciliary muscles responsible for accommodation (i.e., switching from distance vision to near vision) become less effective. The result: when reading nearby text, the gaze struggles to focus.
This is why people often start to experience difficulty reading small print (smartphones, watches, labels), or have to hold the material further away to see better.
When does it appear?
Generally, the first symptoms of presbyopia appear around 40-45 years of age. They gradually worsen until the phenomenon stabilizes, often around 65 years of age.
How does it manifest?
Here are some common signs:
- Rapid eye fatigue when reading or in front of a screen
- Need to move text further away to see it better
- Itchy or burning eyes when reading for a long time
- Headaches or a tendency to squint
- Less clear vision in low light conditions
Presbyopia is also one of the main uncorrected visual impairments in the world: according to the WHO, out of more than 2 billion people with visual impairment, 826 million suffer from near vision impairment caused by unmanaged presbyopia.
What are the solutions?
- Reading glasses or dedicated lenses: the simplest and most common solution.
- Progressive lenses or bifocal lenses: for people who also have distance vision defects.
- Surgery: certain techniques (e.g., implants or correction methods) can correct presbyopia in some cases.
- Visual adjustments: increase brightness, adopt correct posture, take frequent breaks when reading or working on a screen.
At Varionet, our glasses for presbyopes can be equipped with sun proximity lenses, anti-glare and anti-blue light proximity lenses to improve visual comfort throughout the day, even in front of screens.
Blue Light and Eyes: Myth, Reality, and Precautions
What is blue light?
Blue light is a component of the visible light spectrum. It is naturally present in daylight (especially during the day, blue sky) but also emitted by digital screens (computers, tablets, smartphones, LED lighting).
Potential effects on the eyes
There is much debate surrounding the exact risks associated with blue light. Here's what we observe:
- Digital eye strain: overexposure to screens often leads to visual discomfort, dry eyes, a burning or stinging sensation.
- Circadian rhythm disruption: "cold" blue light in the evening can delay melatonin production and interfere with falling asleep.
- Hypothetical risk to the retina: some research suggests that, in the long term, excessive exposure could affect retinal cells, but evidence in humans remains limited.
However, it should be noted that the blue light emitted by screens is not intense enough to directly cause visible retinal damage under normal use conditions; however, spending long hours in front of a screen leads to eye and visual fatigue.
How to limit undesirable effects?
Here are some good practices:
- 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look 20 feet (~6 m) away for 20 seconds to rest your eyes.
- Regular breaks: lift your head, blink, stand up, do some stretches.
- Screen settings: lower brightness, use a "night" or "warm light / blue filter" mode in the evening.
- Distance and posture: maintain a reasonable distance (at least an arm's length) between the screen and your eyes, and adopt a comfortable position, avoiding tilting your head too low.
- Optical protection: choose computer glasses equipped with lenses that attenuate some of the blue light, "anti-blue light" lenses.
- Good ambient lighting: avoid too strong contrasts between the screen and the light environment/in the shade.
Eyesight, a precious asset
At Varionet, we believe that everyone deserves clear, comfortable, and lasting vision. On World Sight Day, our mission is twofold:
- To inform and educate our visitors about the silent dangers of presbyopia and blue light.
- To offer concrete solutions through our range of proximity glasses for presbyopes, to be equipped with anti-glare and anti-blue light lenses to reduce visual fatigue.
That's why we also encourage you to:
- schedule regular eye exams, every 2-3 years maximum, even without apparent discomfort
- adapt your digital habits to protect your eyes
- discover our reading glasses designed to combine visual correction and comfort in front of screens.
On the occasion of World Sight Day, Varionet offers you 15% off all presbyopia glasses for orders over €39.00.
