i wore contacts up until age 26 or so when they became unbearable due to dryness and worsening astigmatism. optometrist told me the same happens to a lot of people. I can handle certain brands of dailies for about 4 hrs but just way more hassle than glasses.

For me the 2 main reasons I dislike glasses are:

1. Peripheral, especially when driving.

2. Uncomfortable, pinches nose, laying down on side with them on.

Also: Modification of scale of things. Makes things smaller the further they are from my eyes. Not a big deal, but I always feel kind of satisfied when I go back to contacts because of accuracy of perception. I suppose if I can get glasses with thinner material this might be less of an issue.

Keeping them clean and smudge free isn't that big of a deal for me, I just wipe them with my shirt, and normally it's not bad enough to bother me. Fogging is slightly annoying I suppose, but goes away quick.

I also seemed to have an ever-increasing strength of prescription. The last time I had them checked was in 2010, and my optometrist changed my brand from Coopervision to Acuvue because I was refusing to take mine off at night, and the Oasis is supposed to be more meant for that. I then had two bouts of some sort of pink eye (after nights of heavy drinking, but still didn't happen with my Coopervision even then), and also in general my eyes would feel drier in them. They had these slits that would become uncomfortable fairly quickly.

I switched back to my old Coopervision prescription from 2008 or 2009 and they have been working fine for me. From my own anecdotal experience, it's my theory that the constant stronger prescriptions are what makes your eyes worse. I've also heard anecdotes from other people about them just stopping wearing eye correction and their eyes get better.

>>> I also seemed to have an ever-increasing strength of prescription.

I have a hunch that optometrists tend to slightly overprescribe the strength. Every time I would get a new prescription, I would walk out with superhuman vision, but than after a few days my eyes would adjust. At my last visit to the optometrist, I actually requested a lower strength and they obliged. And while I might have to squint here and there to read something really far away, I spend a good chunk of my time in front of computer, so I prefer the lower strength.

And I agree on increasing your eye strength as well. I try to take off my glasses frequently, and I have noticed that if I go for a while without them, my vision seems a little better when I put them back on. Also there are some apps that help as well [1]

[1] Came across this link on HN a while back: https://github.com/Fordi/eyegame

You are a perfect case study for why anecdotal evidence is categorically useless. More than a century of carefully studied evidence still hasn't managed to squash this way of thinking.

contacts irritated my eyes if I wore them for more than 12 hours. I'd have to decide if I was going to go out in the evening or not, and if so, I'd wear glasses during the day. If I wore them more than 12 hours, I'd have to wear glasses for the next few days because of the irritation. Don't get me started on what happened if I fell asleep with them in my eyes.

the last 4 or so years before lasik I mostly wore glasses except for special occasions where I'd wear contacts.

This is basically me. I wear contacts for "special occasions" but have really been considering lasik recently.

What has your post-lasik experience been like?

I had to try many brands. Finally found one I can wear 18 hours a day. Hard to think of a benefit to Lasik. Maybe open water swimming I fear losing a contact, but has never happened yet.

>> Just making up the LASIK recovery period would take a long time.

LASIK recovery is just 2 days or so - PRK can be 2 weeks

Even with just two lost days, I'm looking at something like a decade before LASIK pulls ahead.