By Michael Hutton 

Monovision contact lenses  worn only while sleeping can provide an alternative corrective treatment for the over 40s who are likely to find they need reading glasses due to presbyopia. The latter is an age-related degenerative condition in which the eye finds it harder to focus on nearby objects and affects millions of people from the age of 40 onwards. Presbyopia is nearly always rectified by reading glasses but those who start to wear glasses in middle age are often unhappy about doing so and for Adolf Hitler, his requirement for reading glasses was kept secret to avoid any suggestion that he suffered from any physical weakness.

Hitler's reading glasses were made for him when his eyesight began to fail as the Second World War dragged on but few photographs of him in his reading glasses exist because he believed it would undermine his authority with his subjects. Sixty-six years after the end of the war, however, the glasses are in the news as they come up for sale in a major auction of the Nazi leader's possessions. However, had the new overnight ortho-k monovision contact lenses  been available at the time, it is likely that Hitler would have chosen to wear them rather than reading glasses. The monovision lens is worn at night while sleeping in one eye only - usually the dominant eye - to correct distance vision whilst the other eye is left uncorrected for near vision. The lens is removed in the morning and the wearer has perfect near and distant vision all day long.

To compensate for not having to use glasses as a result of his worsening presbyopia, Hitler had all his speeches and official documents prepared on a special typewriter with large print and huge line spaces from 1933 onwards. His reading glasses are expected to fetch £5,000 in a sale of Nazi memorabilia and come in their original black leather case with dark blue velvet embossed with the manufacturer's inscription ‘Optiker Ruhnke' opticians in Berlin which made them for him under great secrecy. For such a powerful political figure of the time to be fearful of being seen in glasses seems highly ironic but such a problem could be avoided today with the availability of monovision contact lenses .

Check if you are suitable for ortho-k monovision contact lenses .