Help getting glasses

Hi,

I got my first pair of glasses three years ago (think prescription was 0.5) so they were a very mild lense. I work in IT so stare at a monitor for 35 - 40 hours a week and might read 2- 5 hours a week from paper. One thing that was nice about the mild lense was I didn't have to take the glasses off if I was taking a break from the screen and going to watch a presentation or something.

Recently, I said I might need something a little stronger. Got my eyes tested in a well known eye shop and was advised to get 1.5. They also told me to buy new frames as my existing frames might not take the new lenses. So I got the two for the price for one deal for new frames and I didn't really want to to throw my old frames out and when I went to pay someone else said hey those frames look ok to upgrade the new lenses and I decided to go for that and make one of them a pair of shades.

I got a bit of a shock when I tried on the new glasses, they were excellent for reading small print but for anything 1M away, it was all blurry and far worse with the glasses on then off. I was thinking hey, I stare at a computer screen for my job and this is the primary reason why I wanted glasses, I told them that so was really worried how this going to work? Even worse, what happens if I have to go to a meeting where someone is presenting and I need to write things on a laptop etc. It looks like I have just paid for four glasses to have a specialist use of reading very small print in a newspaper which isn't even my primary need.

I told them I wasn't happy and they suggested I upgrade to either varifocal or something called super reader. I asked what the difference was and couldn't get a clear answer why one would be better than the other so asked to speak to someone else who also couldn't give me a clear answer so just asked for my money back. My needs are:

• Work with computer monitor screen 40 hours a week and don't want tired eyes
• Read probably for two to four hours a week from paper and if the print is smaller, it is harder to read than a monitor
• Don't want to have to be in the office and taking glasses on and off all the time.

So I am now thinking, maybe just a slightly stronger lense e.g. a 0.75 or 1.0 would have sufficed and because these aren't as strong as the 1.5 it means they may not distort things that are as far away. Also, rather than two new pairs of glasses and upgrade my existing two, keep my existing two for when I just need a little boost and then use a strong lense for reading in bed or something?

Any tips?