Hyperopia(Farsightedness)
Struggling to focus up close? Long-sightedness can be corrected
If reading small print, looking at your phone or working at a screen leaves your vision blurred or your eyes feeling tired, hyperopia could be the reason.
Also known as farsightedness or long-sightedness, hyperopia is a common focusing problem that can affect near vision and, with stronger prescriptions, distance vision too.
Glasses and contact lenses can correct it, while suitable adults may also have options including laser eye surgery or lens-based vision correction.
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Long-sightedness is common, and correctable
Mild hyperopia often causes few noticeable symptoms when you are younger, because the natural lens inside the eye can adjust to compensate. As that ability reduces with age, the effort involved becomes more obvious.
For suitable adults, laser eye surgery or a lens-based procedure can reduce the focusing effort your eyes make every day.
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What is hyperopia?
Hyperopia is a refractive error, meaning the eye does not focus incoming light in exactly the right place.
In an eye without a refractive error, light is focused directly onto the retina at the back of the eye. With hyperopia, the eye's focusing power is not strong enough for its length, so the point of focus would fall behind the retina. This can make nearby objects appear blurred and require your eyes to work harder to bring them into focus.
Mild hyperopia can sometimes cause few noticeable symptoms, particularly in younger people, because the natural lens inside the eye can adjust its focus to compensate. With a stronger prescription, or as this ability reduces with age, symptoms can become more noticeable.
Farsightedness is another name for hyperopia. The name can be slightly misleading, because hyperopia does not always mean that distance vision is perfectly clear. People with mild hyperopia may see distant objects relatively well while struggling more with close-up tasks, and with moderate or higher hyperopia vision can be blurred at both near and far distances.
What causes hyperopia?
Hyperopia is usually related to the natural shape and focusing power of the eye.
In itself, hyperopia is not simply an age-related condition, although its symptoms can become more noticeable as you get older. When you are young, the natural lens inside your eye is flexible and can change shape to add extra focusing power. This process is called accommodation, and it can allow younger people with mild hyperopia to see clearly without realising how much focusing effort their eyes are making.
As the natural lens becomes less flexible with age, it becomes harder to compensate for an underlying hyperopic prescription. You may therefore start needing glasses for near tasks and, in some cases, later for distance vision too.
It commonly occurs when
- The eyeball is shorter than needed for its focusing power
- The cornea does not have enough curvature
- The overall optical power of the eye is not sufficient to focus light directly on the retina
Hyperopia symptoms
The symptoms of hyperopia or farsightedness vary depending on your age and prescription. You may notice:
- Blurred vision when reading or looking at nearby objects
- Needing to move text further away to see it clearly
- Tired or aching eyes after close-up tasks
- Headaches after reading or screen use
- Difficulty maintaining focus for long periods
- Squinting to see more clearly
- Blurred distance vision with stronger prescriptions
Some people with mild hyperopia have few symptoms because their eyes compensate naturally. If you regularly experience blurred vision, headaches or eye strain, an eye examination can determine whether hyperopia or another vision condition is responsible.
Hyperopia treatment options
The right hyperopia treatment depends on your prescription, age, eye health, lifestyle and what you would like to achieve from vision correction.
How LASIK and PRK correct hyperopia
LASIK and PRK both use an excimer laser to reshape the cornea and change how the eye focuses light. For hyperopia, treatment is planned to increase the focusing power of the cornea so that light which would otherwise focus behind the retina is brought into the correct position. The main difference between them is how the surgeon accesses the cornea.
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Benefits of treating hyperopia
Correcting farsightedness can make everyday vision more comfortable and reduce the effort your eyes need to make to focus. Depending on your prescription and chosen treatment, potential benefits include:
- Clearer near visionReading, using your phone, looking at a computer or completing other close-up tasks can become clearer with the right correction.
- Less focusing effortYour eyes do not need to compensate as much to bring objects into focus. For patients whose headaches or tired eyes are caused by uncorrected hyperopia, correction may help reduce these symptoms.
- Less dependence on glasses or contact lensesFor suitable patients choosing laser or lens-based treatment, vision correction surgery can reduce dependence on glasses and contact lenses. It cannot guarantee that you will never need glasses again, particularly as presbyopia continues to develop naturally.
- Treatment tailored to your eyesYour recommendation takes into account your prescription, age, corneal measurements, eye health and personal visual needs rather than a one-size-fits-all approach.
Hyperopia treatment cost in Northern Ireland
The cost depends on which treatment is suitable for your eyes.
If laser correction is not appropriate for your prescription, your clinical team can discuss suitable lens-based alternatives and their associated costs.
Your consultation will confirm which options are available to you before you make any decision about treatment.
Standard Laser Eye Surgery
From £795 per eyeor from £27 per month
Standard Laser Eye Surgery fixes short-sightedness, long-sightedness, and astigmatism with advanced laser tech for clearer vision.
- Free Consultation with Senior Refractive Optometrist
- Corneal Topography, Eye Design and AR Scans.
- Pre-operative Consultation with Surgeon
- Laser Eye Surgery
- Post-operative Care
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LASIK
From £1,847.50 per eyeor from £77 per month
A flap-based laser procedure with rapid visual recovery, usually within a day.
- Free consultation
- Advanced diagnostic scans
- Pre-operative appointment with ophthalmic surgeon
- Surgery
- Post-operative follow up care with refractive optometrist
- Eye care drops
- Laser lifetime care guarantee
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PRK
From £1,847.50 per eyeor from £77 per month
A surface laser treatment suited to thinner corneas, with a slightly longer recovery.
- Free consultation
- Advanced diagnostic scans
- Pre-operative appointment with ophthalmic surgeon
- PRK Surgery
- Eye care drops
- Post-operative follow up care with refractive optometrist
- Laser lifetime care guarantee
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Phakic IOL
From £3,247.50 per eyeor from £136 per month
An implantable lens placed alongside the natural lens, for higher prescriptions.
- Pre-operative consultation with ophthalmic surgeon
- Advanced diagnostic scans
- Phakic IOL Surgery
- Eye care drops
- Post-operative appointment with refractive optometrist
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Hyperopia questions answered
Common questions about long-sightedness, what causes it and how it can be corrected.
Hyperopia is the medical term for long-sightedness or farsightedness. It is a refractive error in which the eye does not have enough focusing power for its length, meaning light would focus behind the retina rather than directly on it.
This commonly makes close-up vision more difficult, although stronger hyperopia can also affect distance vision.
Hyperopia is usually related to the natural shape and focusing power of the eye. It often occurs when the eyeball is relatively short, or when the eye does not have enough optical power to bring incoming light into focus on the retina.
Genetics can also play a role, so farsightedness may run in families.
Common symptoms include blurred near vision, tired eyes and headaches after tasks such as reading or using a computer. You may also find yourself holding text further away to see it more clearly.
Symptoms alone cannot confirm hyperopia. An eye examination can measure your prescription and establish what is causing your vision difficulties.
No. Hyperopia is a refractive error that can be present from childhood, while presbyopia is an age-related change in the natural lens that makes it progressively harder to focus on nearby objects, usually becoming noticeable from the 40s onwards.
Someone can have both hyperopia and presbyopia at the same time.
The underlying hyperopia does not necessarily develop because of age, but it can become more noticeable. Younger eyes can often compensate for some hyperopia by changing the shape of the natural lens to increase focusing power.
As this ability reduces with age, previously unnoticed hyperopia may begin causing blurred vision or greater dependence on glasses.
Laser eye surgery may be suitable if you are over 18, have a stable prescription and healthy eyes, and meet the corneal measurement and treatment criteria.
Being over 18 does not guarantee it is the best option, particularly for hyperopia, because age-related changes such as presbyopia and cataracts also matter. A consultation will evaluate your prescription, cornea, eye health and natural lens before recommending LASIK, PRK or another treatment.
Yes, hyperopia can be corrected with laser eye surgery in suitable adults. LASIK and PRK reshape the cornea to adjust its focusing power so light focuses on the retina.
Not every hyperopic prescription is suitable for laser correction, so your prescription, corneal measurements and eye health need to be assessed first.
Both LASIK and PRK can correct suitable hyperopic prescriptions. The better procedure depends on your individual eyes rather than hyperopia alone.
Factors such as corneal thickness, eye-surface health, prescription, occupation and lifestyle will influence which treatment is recommended.
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