Recent studies have shown there is a link between increased screen time and myopia or other problems like eye strain, blurred vision, headaches and sleep disruption.
There are many well-documented studies showing extended screen time leads to 'rapid proliferation [explosion] of myopia'.” Ophthalmologists, physicians who specialize in medical and surgical eye care, are seeing a marked increase in children with dry eye and eye strain from too much screen time.
No studies to date have demonstrated that reduced screen time can cure or reduce myopia that has already developed. Several studies have found that spending many hours on screen time is associated with an increased risk of myopia development.
Retinal damage – Digital devices release blue light, which can reach the inner lining of the back of your eye (retina). Studies show that blue light can damage light-sensitive cells in the retina. This can lead to early age-related macular degeneration, which can lead to loss of eyesight.
Especially during growth spurts of the pre-teen and teen years, when the body grows quickly, myopia can get worse. At the age of 20, myopia usually levels off. It's also possible for adults to be diagnosed with myopia. When this happens, it's usually due to visual stress or a disease like diabetes or cataracts.
The average age at myopia stabilization was 14.6 years, and girls slightly stabilized earlier than boys. 73.7% of the 6-year-olds and 85.7% of the 7-year-olds had high myopia at 16 years old, and the risk decreased each year from 7 to 10 years old.
Generally, wearing glasses with an accurate prescription can provide fast relief. However, some conditions can risk worsening eyesight without glasses, such as high myopia.
Remind them to take breaks. The American Optometric Association recommends the 20/20/20 rule: look away from the screen every 20 minutes, focus on an object at least 20 feet away, for at least 20 seconds. In addition, children should walk away from the screen for at least 10 minutes every hour.
Experts say adults should limit screen time outside of work to less than two hours per day. Any time beyond that which you would typically spend on screens should instead be spent participating in physical activity.
Age-Related Eye Changes at 20–30
The lens of your eye also hardens with age, which can lead to age-related farsightedness, called presbyopia. As the lens becomes more rigid, focusing on the retina directly is more difficult. This leads to blurred vision and trouble seeing things clearly close up.
When using a digital device for extended periods of time, we recommend the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Atropine eye drops can be used to slow the progression of myopia in children aged 5–18. These drops take about 2–3 years of continued use to slow down the development of myopia. It is recommended that your child uses the drops every night before bed.
Low doses of atropine eye drops may also help slow the progression of nearsightedness. Increased time outside. Spending time outdoors during childhood, adolescence and the early adult years may decrease the risk of developing nearsightedness.
Myopia management eye doctors do more than prescribe corrective lenses. Although no actual cure for myopia exists, there are methods that can help control its progression. Current treatments include: Atropine eye drops.
The definition of high myopia as ≤ −5 D was adopted as the World Health Organization (WHO) definition in 2015. A person who needs ≤ −5 D of correction has a visual acuity that is far worse than the threshold for blindness (–3/6 in the better eye).
A new nationally representative survey of 1,058 respondents revealed the average Australian spends 150 minutes on their phone per day. The research found 1 in 6 (16%) admit to staring at their device for more than 5 hours every day – equivalent to 76 full days a year, or more than 2 months.
The average American spends over 7 hours looking at a screen each day. According to data from DataReportal, the average American spends 7 hours and 4 minutes looking at a screen every day.
Battery life is a highly subjective thing. For some, getting 3-4 hours of screen-on time is more than adequate, others don't consider anything short of 6 to be enough.
As screen time increases - at home and in the office - so do symptoms like blurred vision, burning eyes, headaches and disrupted sleep. In total, nearly two thirds of American adults now experience symptoms of digital eye strain due to prolonged use of electronic devices like computers, tablets and cell phones.
Nearsightedness happens when your eyeball grows too long from front to back, or when there are problems with the shape of your cornea (clear front layer of the eye) or lens (an inner part of the eye that helps the eye focus).
Too Much Screen Time. From computers and smartphones to TVs and tablets, people spend a huge amount of time these days staring at screens. Excessive screen time can cause dry eye, as well as eye strain, which can lead to a decrease in vision clarity.
The prevalence of visual impairment rose with increasing axial length and spherical equivalent, so that among participants with high myopia, cumulative risk of visual impairment was 5.7% at 60 years and 39% at 75 years.
The fact is that the condition worsens with time. Failure to act early causes serious eye conditions and even vision loss. Myopic children may develop vision-threatening conditions like glaucoma, retinal detachment, macular degeneration, and cataracts later in life. Early treatment can impede the disease's progression.
According to an eye specialist at Vinmec International General Hospital, people with myopia should wear glasses regularly, if they don't wear glasses, they have to adjust a lot, then the degree of myopia will increase rapidly and worsen.