Progressive's are the highest margin lens for both the retail store and the manufacturers (Essilor, Zeiss, Hoya, Rodenstock, etc). By putting a fancy curve on the back of a lens a $1 piece of plastic is transformed into a $500 piece of plastic. There is a lot of pressure to sell progressives. Without the high margins on progressive lenses many optical retail stores would not make a profit.

Progressives are fine as long as they aren't being sold as a lens for all situations. For example a lens that would be good for driving or playing golf (using mostly distance vision) would be terrible for sitting at a desk (using mostly the reading area). Depending on your lifestyle there may or may not be a design available that is less annoying than just changing glasses. Bifocals are even more limited in this respect. This trade-off is not related at all to the issue of adaptation which is something else.

So the first question you have to ask is if having both a distance and reading Rx in the same lens is something that is better for you compared to separate distance and reading glasses. My monitors are at head height so simple reading glasses are the best solution for me when working at my desk. If I wore progressives with this setup I would have to tilt my head back in order to view my monitors through the reading area of the lens which is at the bottom of the lens. If I instead worked on a notebook computer all day, looking down at a screen, then viewing that screen through the reading area of my glasses wouldn't be a problem.

I'm currently wearing a pair of fancy fully personalised progressives that retail for £2000 a pair but I still use some cheapish reading glasses for working at my desk. However to be fair to the progressives I adapted to them just about instantly; the design just wasn't suited for reading for long periods of time.

The adaptation issue is another issue and another thing you should consider. Adaptation refers to the ability to become accustomed to the distortion that often exists at the edges of progressive lenses. They can make you feel a bit dizzy when you first wear them. The general rule of thumb is that if you have a small "add" then it will be easy to adapt to them but if you have a large add it may be difficult.

If your add is small now and don't see the point of progressives but are thinking of trying them later as your near vision deteriorates you may want to consider starting on them early just to make it easier to adapt to them later. Otherwise you might get stuck with bifocals which make you look old.

Anyway if I had to boil that advice down to just a few quick points I'd say:

- If you're planning on using the glasses just for working at a desk then I would just get reading glasses (that also correct your astigmatism).

- For other situations where you need both distance and reading then progressives can be nice.

- If you're not quite sure about progressives but think you'll definitely want them later in life then it is better to start on them now.

- If you're buying online I would only get single vision lenses. To get a nice fit for progressives you need to get a bunch of stuff measured that doesn't get put on your prescription.