I'm in the same boat. I constantly wear contacts for severe near-sightedness, and recently started to wear reading glasses. I even got checked by my eye doctor because I was only 30 years old when this happened. He wasn't alarmed and just said my eyes turned "old" about ten years earlier than most people.
I don't know about you, nance-ell, Sometimes I leave my contacts out and just wear my near-sighted glasses when sewing. For me that takes away some of the strain. For distance sight like driving it's always contacts, or I have trouble reading street signs. But for close up things it's contacts + reading glasses or super-thick glasses by themselves.
You can experiment with different powers of reading glasses, but I strongly recommend going to an eye doctor and explaining all your activities. We only have one set of eyes...
p.s. I thought I was the only one who wore reading glasses over contacts. I don't feel alone anymore :shock: