Posted on 03/05/2025 6:23:06 PM PST by ConservativeMind
Each hour a person spends squinting into a smartphone or staring at a screen increases their risk of nearsightedness, a new evidence review suggests.
Every daily one-hour increment in digital screen time is associated with 21% higher odds of myopia, researchers report.
What's more, the risk continues to increase as more time each day is spent with screens, researchers found.
"Myopia risk increased significantly from one to four hours of screen time and then rose more gradually thereafter," the research team wrote.
The risk of nearsightedness is doubled for people who spend four or more hours with a screen every day, results show.
The review suggests a "potential safety threshold of less than one hour per day of exposure, with an increase in odds of up to four hours," the researchers concluded.
By 2050, nearly one-half of the world's population is expected to be nearsighted, researchers said in background notes.
Nearsightedness is when close-up objects look clear but distant objects appear blurry.
For the new paper, researchers pooled data from 45 prior studies involving more than 335,000 people.
The data showed a significant dose-response association. In other words, the more time people spend with screens, the greater their risk of nearsightedness.
This risk is independent of other activities that require people to work their near vision, like reading or writing, researchers said.
"It is also likely that digital screen use and other near-vision tasks collectively contribute to myopia risk, potentially influencing the overall dose-response trend," researchers said.
"This suggests that simply reducing screen time in favor of traditional near-vision activities may not be an effective prevention strategy," researchers added. "A more effective approach to the mitigation of myopia risk would involve minimizing overall near-work activities while promoting increased outdoor time."
(Excerpt) Read more at medicalxpress.com ...
You have to use muscle to see close, but your eye muscles get overused and we get used to that feeling and think we are fine.
Over time, we more permanently keep our lens bent and our eyeball grows a little more oblong or egg-shaped, and we are chronically near-sighted.
I’m doomed.
I do too much internet time, but my opthamologist says my eyesight hasn’t changed in 35 years. I still have very near the vision I did when I was 18.
What if it is “held” 3 ft. away?
There is a correlation between education level and wearing glasses. The higher you go in education, the more people you will find, as a proportion, that wears glasses.
My ophthalmologist has told me that this isn’t true, but I’m not sure if I can believe him.
I’ll quit when I need glasses.
Does that include you? Care to share your “screen” time?
Wonder what caused mine before screens were around?
Double Jeopardy when you throw in masturbation.
You Got 5 Minutes...
Reading. The more you read, the more you set your eye muscles on permanent focusing.
Although whether the reading caused the nearsightedness or if I read because it was one of the few things I could do with horrible eyesight is up for debate.
So then what is the reason for people in their 40’s who have 20/20 eyesight and have used computers most their life?
I guess using the screen to watch porn hub and spank the monkey means instant blindness.
bkmk
All true, but the same is true for reading book or other printed material. On the other hand, ANYTHING to get kids away from screens is a good thing.
“My ophthalmologist has told me that this isn’t true, but I’m not sure if I can believe him.”
It’s like telling diabetics that they can continue to eat their carb-loaded meals...although at least I understand why that’s the case (more business as their bodies start falling apart).
But for the life of me, I don’t know why they make the claim about myopia, and I too have heard it. Come to think of it, though, maybe they figure if you keep reading, you’ll keep coming back for stronger and stronger glasses.
It just goes to show, there’s always something. RIP rosanna rosanadanna.
Why does this study make no real attempt to define the issue. How do I respect them? Is it the lighting? Is it about the text size. Because some people have some huge monitors.
I can say this. I have reason to believe that all things related to LED lighting are damaging our eyes if we are staring into them. TV’s, Monitors, Light bulbs, And the Newer car headlights. They put out a certain light spectrum that is destroying out eyes over time. Also damaging our ability to see in the dark. Everyone will find out some day.
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