For Better Vision, Let the Sunshine In

I am asking then myself that our Gov can't figure it out and still playing around with Winter and Summer time. After the change next month you will get out of work at 5pm it will be already dark, so good luck in catching some sun daylight per day :~( It had been proven for years that there is zero saving or benefit with the Summer and Winter Time Change.. Rather health issues do the change ! EU will finally get rid of the time change !

I wonder if the rise is not that more people are actually near sightedness, or a rise in eyesight just being tested more. More and more schools are actually testing eyesight at school, and I'm sure proper eye care is now more accessible to more Americans. I also wonder if the bad eyesight is actually being caused by too much screen time at a young age.

apart from the sunlight>dopamine story, it could simply be that more time focusing on near objects like small screens allows the eye muscles to decide that's the primary need whereas more time outdoors, where I think more than 15 feet away may be effectively infinity for the eyes focal range, allows the eye muscles to work out - hey, I need muscles for the full range of near and far please !

When I was a child, more than six decades ago, my mother believed that children belonged outdoors most of the day. Though we had a television, we didn't have computers, smartphones, tablets, etc., and the first TV show came on at 5 p.m. Nonetheless, by age 6, I was very nearsighted and finally got glasses at age 7. I will never forget how high I stepped when I first walked with glasses: the floor was so close! Studies like this are only the first step in determining correlation, let alone causation.

Is it just coincidence that this months-old article appeared in the Well newsletter just days after a new study was published in BMJ? My own decades-old myopia (or as the BMJ terms it, “shortsightedness”) began when I was 12 years old. My brothers are not nearsighted, but all of my cousins on my mother’s side are as nearsighted as I am. So yes, there can be a substantial component of heredity. Some of them have had ophthalmic surgery to correct it, but after reading the (again) recent clinical studies and analyses regarding adverse effects of such surgery, I am glad I still have my eyeglasses instead. The cure is indeed worse than the disease for many.

I am skeptical that the critical factor is sunlight. I think it's more likely that it is factors associated with being outside, including less close up work (reading), and possibly engaging in more activities that develop hand-eye coordination, such as ball sports. I read a lot beginning in second grade. I also spent a lot of time outside in the warmer months, much of it riding my bicycle, but I was not interested in ball sports. Close work engages the eye muscles to focus up close, which possibly could reduce the eyes' ability to focus in the distance. Activities involving hand-eye coordination likely help guide the eyes' development as the body grows.

I've been coming across articles carrying weird theories about nearsightedness recently. This is one of them. How can anyone in her right mind suggest that computers have anything to do with myopia knowing that this condition has existed for millennia whereas the personal computer is not even 40 years old yet? And what's up with this sunlight theory? I was born in northeastern Brazil, where the sun practically comes down to Earth in the summer and hangs around pretty close throughout the rest of the year. Nevertheless, that didn't stop me from developing an extreme case of nearsightedness requiring me to wear a correction of -11 on the left eye and -21 on the right. Actually, I've seen more people wearing thick glasses in the northeast, a decidedly sunny region, than in the other parts of the country.

Sunlight has little to do with it. Looking into the far distance counteracts nearsightedness caused by sitting in from of a computer screen, tv, and the four walls of any room. AND, genetic profiles matter. That is COMMON SENSE. I am VERY farsighted, but never required glasses for reading etc. I am one of nine children with equally great vision. Our mother's eyesight was identical, until her mid 60's when she required reading glasses. Her very pale blue eyes, and the fact she, like her nine children, never wore sunglasses subjected her to Macular Degeneration. She was legally blind by her early 80's. It is no wonder that my very light eyes, that absorbed all that sunlight and its UVB rays are riddled with melanin deposits in both irises. In addition, the right eye has a "freckle" on the retina, which is monitored every six months for malignant melanoma, along with the freckles in both irises.

Your article is lacking in COMMON SENSE, SCIENTIFIC FACT and LOGIC. Genes anyone? Darker eyes are protected from the damaging UVB rays of the sun, as is darker skin. WHY? Those darker eyes & skin have more melanin. Sunglasses & sun block would have saved my eyes & skin. I now have Macular Degeneration, and cataracts. Both from the sun, along with the melanoma- threatening "freckles." My only child never had a computer, cell phone, or tv. He was outside playing. He has pale green eyes, and he is very nearsighted as of 12 yrs of age. So was his dear old Dad.

Genes!

I was wondering if the authors had considered the idea that the reason being outside may be beneficial may not be related to sunlignt itself, but rather that it allows people to focus their eyes on distant objects rather than things confined to the shorter distances allowed by inside spaces. I know that when I go outside on my bicycle and am forced to scan up ahead into the distance it often relieves eye strain and reduces tension headaches. Perhaps the original study considers other variables, however, in this Times piece, it is not clear how causation can be deduced from this correlation.

I've been warned that because I had lots of sun exposure as a teen that I was at heightened risk of cataracts.

Being outside most of the day all summer long as a child didn't help me. I was very nearsighted by age 11, but so was my mother.

The upside: even in my seventies I can read tiny print and my far vision is improving.

In the documentary, "Running from Crazy" Mariel Hemingway waves some kind of magnifying glass over her eyes in the sunlight... I've tried to look it up but always wondered if this type of article was her motivation for doing so. Or maybe to eliminate dark periorbital circles? Curious if anyone knows any more of this. Thanks.

Sunlight? Really? Being outdoors requires one to focus on distant objects. Being indoors, especially doing indoor tasks, requires one to focus on nearby objects.

Sunlight? Really?

What a flawed study to use to suggest that people expose their eyes and their children's eyes to the sun/UV (which has proven potential for injury to the delicate structures of the eye). Does it not seem more likely that people with myopia simply tend to spend more time inside because the hobbies that are most suited to near-sightedness include close work like reading instead of outdoor activities?

Um, why wouldn't genetics explain the increase? Especially with contacts, we nearsighted folks are so much more attractive!

Determining historical sunlight exposure by asking a person "how often they remembered being outside during various stages of their lives" is one of the most unscientific methods I've ever seen published. I get myopic just from reading this nonsense.

Am am now an old lady now but I remember playing outdoors all the time and spent summers outdoors all the time. I spent plenty of time in the sun but, still, I started wearing corrective lenses in the fourth grade. I would say this theory needs more study

When I'm outdoors I look far away at mountains and trees as well as closer objects and was fortunate to grow up outside a good deal and have prefered it to the great indoors. However years of architecture did catch up and got a pair of readers at 50 years. While close working I would often look away and try to focus on small items to give my eyes a stretch. Now over 70 my far vision now down to 20/20 from nearly 20/10 as a kid. Could be some genetics as my Father had been a Navy pilot.

I was decidedly myopic by the time I turned twelve. I suspect it was already present, just unnoticed, when I was about eight years old. I recall watching movies in movie theaters without a problem. Perhaps I just wasn't aware I had one.

I was forced to learn how to read and write and do arithmetic beginning in the 2nd grade. Letters and numbers. I still recall how difficult that was. Classes, of course, were held indoors. Did staring at printed symbols like numbers and letters on pieces of paper a foot from my nose everyday change the shape of my eyeballs?

Would being a normally-sighted semi-literate adult be preferable?

No computer screens back then, let alone cellphone screens and iPADs. Just books, booklets and hand-outs -- class materials, tests, magazines, that sort of thing. Don't recall watching much television. Although I didn't realize it at the time, it was very new. I had no frame of reference for it. It didn't become a significant part of my life until my early teens, although a TV set was in the house by the time I was six years old. I remember watching Steve Allen.

But I played outside almost every day and went to the beach a lot.

I don't think it mattered.

I would be more comfortable if you would add a caution that by exposure to direct sunlight you do NOT mean ever causing anyone to look straight at the sun. Easy for you to do, and, trust me, there are millions of people who think that is safe.

Sun deprivation had been known to associate to myopia for many years, but it is only one of the downsides of avoiding the sun, which associates with cancer, mood disorders, multiple sclerosis and numerous other maladies. Here is a list of reasons that sun exposure is so vital to human health:

• The Melanoma International Foundation states that since 1935, melanoma incidence has INCREASED BY 3,000%. At the same time, sun exposure in the U.S. has DECREASED by 90%.
•A Spanish study shows that women who seek the sun have one-eleventh the hip fracture risk as those who avoid sun.
•Men who work outdoors have half the risk of melanoma.
•Women who totally avoid the sun have 10-times the risk of breast cancer.
•Women who sunbathe regularly have half the risk of death during a 20-year period compared to those who stay indoors.
•Sun exposure dramatically improves mood.
•Beyond vitamin D, sun exposure also stimulates the production of endorphin, nitric oxide and BDNF, all of which are vital to human health.
•Regular sun exposure also reduces high blood pressure, heart disease, psoriasis and multiple sclerosis (MS).
For the scientific references, visit http://sunlightinstitute.org/

I was outdoors all the time when I was young, but I didn't learn to read until after I was diagnosed with nearsightedness and got glasses in grade I. Also there was no computers and video games in those days. My mother needed glasses. It must have been heredity.

Another expert who doesn't realize that UVB is a. not even present except in midday most the year, b. is not present at all if the sun is not above 30º, and c. is at its highest concentration at solar noon. A little sun in the middle of the day is a much better recommendation.

Idiotic

There also seems to be a strong genetic factor in development of myopia. My dad was very nearsighted; he got lots of sun growing up. Ditto for my two brothers who both got glasses for myopia by their early teens. I, however, like my mother, did not need glasses until I developed presbyopia (literally "old eyes" = "farsightedness") in my 40s. My brothers and I certainly got similar amounts of sun light while growing.

It may be adaptive. If you spend lots of time indoors, where everything you look at is fairly close, the eyes get set up so you can still see near objects clearly later in life when presbyopia sets in. Nearsighted presbyopes usually can see up close with the naked eye, but non-nearsighted presbyopes need reading glasses.

Myopia: not the angle the light enters the eye but the angle the light distored while falling on the retina.. social media and media became the root of knowledge pollution. Everybody knows little of everything and that little is wrong. Hiding behind the money coming from day to day work and hiding behind social media shows people are shallower than ever.. that is the real myopia, the distorted angle of information falling onto the brain... PERIOD !.

Well, I was outdoors all the time as a child and I started wearing glasses in third grade for nearsightedness. So, genetics must have some say in the matter (although both Mom and Dad had good vision).
A corollary to being indoors most of the time is a lack of appreciation and comprehension of the outdoors. And if that outdoors is from an urban or suburban setting, this would lead to a lack of appreciation, comprehension or even awareness of nature. All the great ecologists, from Thoreau to Carson to Abbey to E.O. Wilson grew up close up to nature. I suspect that all ecologists have a deep rooted from childhood involvement in nature, not city streets or
suburban playgrounds. And this may be the case for current and future ecologists. Those who discount the environment, the natural world, probably never really knew it as a child. I wonder if that's the case with those who are climate change deniers, for example. If the trend is for people to move to the cities, the suburbs, to grow up there, coupled with increased indoor activities, this will be troublesome for future ecologists. Fewer and fewer will listen to them.

I think this article overlooks an important point. When people are outdoors, they are more likely to use eye muscle action which enables far vision. However, spending a great deal of time indoors results in disuse and weakness of the far vision eye muscles, and perhaps this contributes to the elongation of the eyeball.

I once read that military personnel assigned to work in underground nuclear missile control rooms often become near-sighted within a year. This problem was reduced by incorporating some kind of optical effect in the screens these crews looked at, which tricked their eyes into focusing at a longer distance.

It's not just screen watching that keeps young people indoors. Heavier homework loads for college-oriented high school students, after-school care for younger children whose mothers have full-time jobs, the end of family farms on which children had spent some after-school outdoor time helping out, the car culture, the growth of dense suburbs that leave children with fewer outdoor things to do unless they're in an organized outdoor sport, have all contributed. And in East Asia, a lot of children even from elementary school age have a school day that goes right up to suppertime, with homework to be done afterwards.

That's one weird - and effective - illustration!

But this is a report on a hunch, and an association, not evidence that defines any connection. Moderation is the advice - don't let kids hunker down by their screens - for myriad reasons.
From a long time myope who did spend hours outside, as well as hours lost in books...