Oh dang, this is a perfect example of correlation ≠ causation. People who look at screens more inadvertently stay inside more. But looking at screens by itself doesn't cause nearsightedness
@@PasciSch it's known as 'mediation', and can be complete (screens have no direct effect on eyesight, only sunlight exposure has) or partial (part of the effect is from screens directly, the rest goes 'through' sunlight exposure)
It's so true for me! Listen.. 2 years ago (I'm 17, since today) i met an online friend. We've written self-made stories through the night! And i always thought darkening my screen light would be better for my eyes.. One year later, while i was looking outside, i realized that i don't see as clearly as before.. I was confused. The mother from another friend of mine also told me i shouldn't turn the screen light so dark but i didn't listened. Since a couple of months i have glasses now. But until i realized that my dark screen is the reason all along.. That's now when i watched this video. I know it may not worth making drama but i love my eye sight. I'm so glad to be able to see! I think biology teachers should tell kids how all of this works!
Fun Fact She’s a scientist while the “experts” in the news merely stole her research and said things without knowing the actual meaning. Now she has nothing to do but looking after her family.
I was lectured multiple times by school nurse and optometrists that it was screens. I was constantly telling them that it doesn't make sense because I have family members spending way more screen time with 20/20 vision and could it perhaps have something to do with one side of my family all needing glasses around puberty for generations? They kept telling me it was the screens. Until my eyes suddenly stabilized at a point, and they noticed small signs of astigmatism (also genetic). I start getting asked if anyone in my family needed glasses at a young age and also have astigmatism, yes, over 20 of them. OHHHH, now the reason I need glasses isn't screens at all :/
@@elomars_xd More like spend 12 hours of their rest day watching TV or shorts from any TikTok ripoff ass platform about aliens building pyramids or some similar shi. And then complaining about being tired and whatnot.
She just didn't have the heart to tell you that it's actually because your brain wasn't developing at a normal pace so it was small and atrophied resulting in a lack back pressure on your eyeballs to prevent them from overstretching. She also would have had to tell you that this explains both the vision impairment as well as the stupidity.
It's kind of crazy how overlooked (no pun intended) this problem is just because it's so easily fixable. Half the time I forget just how bad my vision is but had I lived before corrective lenses I would be markedly disabled.
@@dinamiteurdinamiteur2324 thats not the only reason people end up with bad vision. Its still entirely possible to have garbage eyesight back when most people still regularly spent their childhood outside.
Same. I'm shortsighted, with a prescription glass of -9; I'm unable to live without my glasses, nothing is readable further than half a meter away from me
@@dinamiteurdinamiteur2324 I mean I'm just saying hypothetically if my vision had somehow ended up just as bad as now. Obvs not a likely scenario but still interesting to think about. (I was also noticably short-sighted by age 1 so think it's partly genetics and my vision would at least have been a bit bad still)
I’ve been telling my 7 year old this for years as an excuse to drag him out on walks every week. Useful to get an update on the new science behind it and find out it’s to do with light, though, not enclosed spaces as I was taught at uni.
The question is whether bright lighting indoors already helps or whether there is an important component in sunlight that's lacking from most other light sources.
My parents were always like "Don't look at screens so much, or you'll need glasses!" Now I'm 22, still looking at screens a lot, and I am the only one in my family who doesn't need glasses. According to my last eye test, I even still have above-average eye sight in terms of how well I did on that test. UPDATE: 24 now and still the same. Funnily enough, many people here are expecting I'd eventually become near sighted. But if anything, it's rather the near vision that gets SLIGHTLY blurry if I really push it
People eyesight are weak because of genetics or adding pressure on eyes a lot like reading books of tiny letters. But yeah disadvantage of screen time is , it’s make your eyes dry and make difficulties in falling asleep. I use blue light filter / night mode.
@@juliane5632 I mean, scholl, yeah, but besides sometimes visiting a friend (with which I'd be usually inside, gaming), I never really had a "regular" outside activity. And later on, my way to work was quite long, but like 80% of it was in the subway. And where I am now, with Home Office and still living with my parents, I rarely NEED to go out, leaving my home rn is always a matter of "Dude, I really haven't been outside for too long now" and just aimlessly walking outside for a few minutes to hours. Which might sound sad, but my social life is still very much intact and I'm quite happy. I practically only go outside by choice for my health (and I gotta admit, I surely still do THAT too little, but I'm working on it)
Ngl it was always obvious to me that digital screens weren’t the culprit when it came to making people blind because growing up I noticed people that spend a lot of time reading books also tended to need glasses. I always assumed it had to do with eye strain though but thanks to this video now I know that’s not the case and it has to do with lack of sunlight exposure, which makes perfect sense because people that spend a lot of time reading books also don’t tend to be the outdoorsy type
It's actually because these people's brains don't develop at a normal pace so they are small and atrophied resulting in a lack back pressure on their eyeball to prevent it from overstretching. This explains both the vision impairment as well as the complete idiocy we see today.
Not only that, think about the mole and other animals that live solely in darkness of the ground or most of the time in it. They either don't have eyes or their eyesight is bad in daylight.
I need glasses because of my nearsightedness (I can’t see far away) and some of my family members said things like ‘it’s because of those screens isn’t it?’ It isn’t. I went to the optometrist and I found out I have astigmatism. It was genetically given to me by some of the same family members who told me it was screens.
Same people say it screens but I have bad genes and my eyes were bad and a few hours a day would start to ruin my sight even a hour or two started the problem screens have a factor kind of but mine was already bad
@@skvlsky I went and saw multiple specialists??? They all said it was genetic and had had just developed with age. Nice try diagnosing me but I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong with my own eyes
Optometry student here, I just recently covered this topic. There are a few inaccuracies but overall this video is a decent simplification. Namely, the chemical signals regulating emmitropization (eye lengthening to match the focal point of the eye’s optics) are intrinsic to the eye and not from the brain. We know this because even when all nerves are cut off to off from the eye, emmetropization still happens. Light levels do have an impact on this though! Winter months see the highest rates of worsening myopia, because people are inside still.
So does this hormone need to be continually released throughout your life in order to prevent further lengthening of the eye, or is it something that only happens in children and your eyes, like most of the rest of your body, just stop growing eventually, hormone or no?
@@austinowens2061 I don’t believe the exact mechanisms are perfectly understood yet, my understanding is that the retina is capable of detecting a defocus that is in front or behind the eye, and chemical signals in that area promote lengthening or shortening depending on what’s required. When the point of focus and retina are matched, the signals indicating defocus should normally stop. That’s complicated by light levels, and a number of other things. The reality is it’s such a complicated process that a short explanation or video could never fully cover the intricacies. I’m not sure what signals are being released when the stop occurs.
@@ED-qt7en "my understanding is that the retina is capable of detecting a defocus that is in front or behind the eye, and chemical signals in that area promote lengthening or shortening depending on what’s required. When the point of focus and retina are matched, the signals indicating defocus should normally stop." Could this possibly mean that kids that get glasses very early on could ultimately end up with worse vision overall - has there ever been a study on the connection between average age of corrective lenses and ultimate eyesight? Intuitively, I would presume that if there was an effect it would have to be pretty minor or else someone would've noticed; just anecdotally, I started wearing glasses later then mostly my peers, and it didn't seem to 've made any difference in the long run.
@@jared_bowden That's a great question, and I hope I have better answer when I finish my education! Normally glasses are not given to very young children, but there are a number of techniques optometrists use to prescribe to young children when necessary that keep these processes in mind. It is very important to not "over minus" a child when prescribing, which would be giving them a perception that puts the focus of the eye behind the retina. Doing so can induce worsening myopia in children, but is not a major concern in adults.
@@findingagain perhaps I made it sound too infrequent, there are many reasons why a provider may prescribe glasses to a child, and not wearing a prescription given for full time ware may negatively impact their vision. It is often case by case. When a provider prescribes glasses, they have a good reason for doing so. It so happens that most (not all) very young children would not benefit from corrective lenses. At very young ages most children are “hyperopic” or have a focus behind the eye. The lens in our eye naturally can accommodation and thicken, allowing that focus to come on to the retina when clear vision is required. This is the same mechanism that allows you to look at something close. As children get a little older, normal emmetropization makes the average error less hyperopic. I wouldn’t say 5-6 is an atypical age to get a first pair of glasses. For patients younger than that, I’d imagine a fairly large error is being corrected, or other factors are being considered.
I always thought about it this way. When you live in darker environments your eyes don't need to see very far, so they adapt to close range sight. In the wild you need to be able to see farther.
"just go outside" is a little hard when kids are cooped up in school for 7 hours a day with only a few short breaks to play outside. Especially in more northerly countries like the UK, where daylight hours during the winter are very restricted. You can often only get a couple of hours or less of daylight outside of school hours
this is worse when you live in north america or similar places defined by car dependent suburbs, there is very little "outside" for someone at the age where this is important, and if there is, you can only do things if one of your parents agrees to drive you around.
@@backtrace8668 This!!! I wish I could walk to stores more and do my own thing but it requires a car. I’m too young to drive. I could at least use a bicycle but my parents won’t buy one yet.
Yeah the just go outside tip works way less well in the city and if i get home at 4:30-5 and take a shower I’m not going outside and walking to a park to be able to do stuff and then homework since most parents either want their children safe at home after dark or have to spend time following them outside
crazy. ive never heard of that before. sounds wild actually. cant almost believe that that is how it works. amazing. thank you for that video. im born in 1990 and im the only one in my family without glasses. i have 130% on both eyes, even tho i started gaming when i was 5 and never stopped until today. but i guess i spent a lot of time outside before i was 12. thank god.
I had 130% and still couldn't see well at a certain distance. Never noticed, until my gf had some eyetest thing with magazine and I failed the easiest test haha. Headaches all the time everyday for years because my eyes were strained, trying to compensate. Even started to think the mild headaches was normal and the bad ones were just loss of sleep or something. Got glasses, headaches gone after 2 weeks.
Born in 1985, I'm also only one in my family sans glasses/contacts. And I likely still have the best vision among us, as most of them are all but blind unaided, but I did suffer two sudden deteriorations. The first time a few weeks before my 21st birthday (after my first six years or so of intensive PC use) and the second time a few weeks before my 33rd birthday (after my first six years or so of intensive smartphone use). The first time I came back from winter holidays at home and suddenly couldn't read the blackboard from the back rows at uni anymore. And after the second I would've had to move all the way to the front rows, but it only really affects me in everyday life when I watch something subtitled on TV. At normal book distances I can still read even really tiny script perfectly well. Of course it's just anecdotal, but my changes in nearest daily screen distance coincide so well, I have quite the hard time believing they weren't a major factor.
I'm in one of those 90% myopia countries, it's normalised, but still absolutely insane. I'm a millennial in the dial up era and never used screens all that much, but my Asian parents wanted me to read books at home rather than going outside and getting influenced by "bad friends", so I spent lots of time lazing at home. My myopia is real bad.
What country are you from? It's kinda weird how in my asian mother country only the higher educated and more privledged wear glasses but mostly everyone, educated or not grows up playing outside. I'm the only one in my family needing glasses and having very bad myopia and I'm the first of my close family born in America. Now thinking back I didn't really go outside much and play.
@@ahnafj416 I heard about this topic from a science news article where the Chinese government had funded a study to see whether nearsightedness was caused by distance, and instead found it's exposure to light. They funded this study because one generation ago, about 3% of Chinese people needed glasses, but now 90+% do.
yup, me and my older brother got our myopia diagnosis first, and it was almost always blamed to our affinity towards computers (dad bought an Amstrad computer early 90s). Then, ALL of our siblings got myopia diagnosis as well, even those who are not interested in computer or TV. Looking back, we weren't even allowed to play hopscotch with the kid across the street, and even forgoing after school clubs like choir because "it distracts us from our studies".
I keep saying it, children are spending way too much time in school instead of playing outside. Like 75% too much time. I've not yet heard a compelling argument to the contrary. And the research on eyesight only adds to the growing list of problems.
@@HowlingWolf518 recess only exists to facilitate the mandatory breaks for teachers. Notice how basically as soon as you start to change rooms between classes that recess stops. (Because now they can schedule a period without kids to babysit as they do other work/rest) It would be nice to have schools actually care about the children's well-being. I know that i didn't get glasses until well after i needed them because both the school and family doctor stopped doing eye exams and i didn't know better and just assumed my vision was normal until my dad realized his eyesight without glasses was better than mine. (I loved reading and games and didn't care for sports so i spent a lot of time inside and away from the "annoying" sun).
I absolutely agree! As a kid, I was often cooped up in school and when I'd get home I'd be inside doing my homework and studying, so I spent most of my time inside
It would have been nicer to have more time outside and in nature as part of regular schooling. Being outside isn't nearly as fun as being out in nature and exploring and learning. But schools aren't made for that. They are big blocks with lots of rooms on top of lots of concrete. Sure, you can go outside, but all you see is grey, not green. That's not stimulating to kids, of any age.
I wish I can show this video to every single patient with kids. Like I should just make it mandatory in my office lol. It's a great way to explain nearsightedness quickly with both audio/visuals.
You should also note- >Most kids are in a school building for ~7 hours a day, 5 days a week. >Things to do outside have drastically dropped since the 80s or whenever those parents were born >Time to be home is 7-9pm (1900-2100) if we're lucky enough to have anything to do >Try parenting us through TV and other technological marvels "Man, I wonder why kids spend all day on screens." Maybe because A. There's nothing to do outside and B. Bedtime is 8.
@@Not_interestEd-I’d say getting home around or before 5 PM is more accurate for most people, unless they have school clubs, making it closer to 6, and sleeping at 9 or 10 would be the earliest if the goal is to wake up around 5, 6, or 7 AM and start school around 7 or 8 depending on the school/state. It seems like kids these days don’t even use TVs, instead using an (perhaps unfortunately) ipad or phone from a young age to access the internet. If that’s the case, perhaps it wouldn’t be too difficult for kids to be outside for a few hours while viewing. It could be annoying for them, but not completely untenable.
@@cassusgames no absolutely, kids should be outside. The problem is parents nowadays think the TV or whatever device is used to browse the internet is a good replacement for doing a job as a parent. It's... a weird thing to explain, but I see parenting as a task that goes both ways. Your kid learns to be, well, human, and you learn how to parent as the child matures. Both of you learn something. When you have a screen that does it for you, sure it's convenient, but neither you or your child learn anything, so who's benefiting from this? This in combination with the fact that I've heard schools take a much lighter approach to education than they did 30-40 years ago just tells me kids aren't getting the wake up slap they need. The world revolves around them, and it's apparently up to the internet to teach them this isn't the case. Not good. People really need to start actually raising their kids, yet no one is willing to listen to this hard fact because TV just does the job for them.
@@Not_interestEd- oh I totally agree, I’m probably going to delay exposure to the entire Internet and progress slowly over time, and hopefully I can find a school that can adequately challenge my future children. Most importantly though does come instilling good habits and practices for living and learning, and handing a very young kid an iPad as a substitute I fear would cripple the child’s future autonomy, as well as having negative impacts on hormonal and neurotransmitter reward pathways. It’ll probably still be many years until I have any children of my own, but it’s probably never too early to be thinking about how to raise your children once the time comes.
@@Not_interestEd-for me i always had to get home right after school and wasnt allowed out AT ALL like id get in trouble for going outside but i was allowed to watch as much tv as i wanted or use my laptop for hours...
Great vid. One issue.... Kids are stuck in school for up to SEVEN hours a day with really short breaks (at least at my school) and then when we get home, we have LOTS of homework to do so we just don't have the time to go outside. And also, this issue has gotten worse because our outside time is now restricted bc of Covid, so we have BARELY any outside time, and it's not even our fault.
But the thing is the hormone that stops the eyeball from getting longer is made at a very young age so its not about the schools since most kids this age won't even be going to school as they are too young.
I actually expected something else to come out from this video, because about link between the light exposure and eyeball growing i read in multiple studies few years ago. I immediately knew the reason seem valid for me, since i start to spend a lot of time indoor at age of 11 and it was not long after when i noticed issues with sight.
In college I ended up taking a class about far eastern history. One of the things that stuck out to me was a record in China detailing the rise of near sightedness hundreds of years ago. China had a very desirable government worker system, and parents making their kids study hard to pass the tests required to get those jobs lined up with the rise of near sightedness. In hindsight we can say it's because the kids were inside studying rather than outside playing, that they became near sighted.
And what is worse, when you realise that you are not getting smarter (learning more) by staying all day inside reading/studying. I noticed this after developing chronic back pain by spending like 5 years sitting down all day in front of a computer screen. Then I noticed that other people who know much more than me actually have a social life, for example my university professors are married, practice sports and so on. Then I decided to immediately change my way of life but I guess it was a bit late.
Nice video, but there is one minor mistake. The ciliairy muscles that influence the curvature of the lens can only contract to thicken the lens. Meaning they can work harder to look at object closer by. To look at object further away, the muscles relax, causing the lens to flatten more. There are no opposing muscles to the ciliary muscles, so the eye cant 'work hard' to look at object further away, it just gets fuzzy. This is also why people get farsighted at age; the lens stiffens with age, making it harder to accomodate to objects close by. EDIT: As some have pointed out, it's actually the lens becoming more rigid, not the muscles weakening! I changed that bit.
And in your comment there is also a small mistake: as people age, primarily the lens inside the eye gets stiffer. In lesser order do the muscles get weaker.
@@jamesmnguyen Probably not. I'm guessing it just means they will have a smaller visual range that, without glasses, is entirely in the middle distance part, without any ability to focus nearer or farther. I have worn glasses for distance since I was a kid, and in my late thirties now I have been warned by an optician that I will probably also need reading glasses sooner rather than later, so it looks like I will either have to learn to adapt to bifocals/varyfocals, or else end up endlessly apologising for having my wrong glasses on, as my late grandpa used to have to.
You know what? This makes so much sense. My vision was perfect until I was hitting puberty and was trapped in a dimly lit hellscape called school. I still went outside for sports plenty, but most of my life was inside either at home for the night or at school, with very little natural light. My eyes took a nosedive directly into extreme nearsightedness. My parents blamed my computer games, but it being the fault of a terribly lit space that I was stuck in for dozens of hours a week without stop… that makes more sense.
Another reason why schools need too be reformed, They only think about the crap stain we call "education" rather than focusing on the things that help us become wiser better people and our mental and physical health
@@MessiahVA Excuse me, but how do dimly lit schools and the education system correlate? Your argument is that we should reform schools just because they are dimly lit?
@@eliscips8833 As a guy who goes to a physics/math school (basically meaning I get taught more than an average kid) and has good grades I still hate school. I was never a bad student because I keep forcing myself to study to get good grades. Not only me but most of my friends are like this too. It's not about if you're good or not, some people just like studying school subjects and some don't.
i took "if you stare at the sun, you will go blind" as "if you stare at the sun, you will instantly go blind" and disproved it multiple times by staring at the sun, and now i need glasses
Man I thought I was alone in that. I started using glasses back at 5th grade, coincidentally it was around the same time that I tried myth busting that saying by staring at the sun, eyes wide open, in the morning walking to school a few times. I'm in my late 20s and I've been through 6-7 pair of glasses. After uni, i've only ever gone outside twice a month just to buy some some snacks.
I wonder if the increased social pressure to work (or "increased productivity") in a lot of countries right now is related to this. If parents are too busy to take their kids outside, and there are not necessarily other organizations in place to ensure kids get outside, then kids will stay at home, or at aftercare at school. It seems like, in a lot of places, leisure time for working adults is being whittled away, and as the pandemic has taught us, there aren't organized efforts to ensure kids get the care they need if their parents are too busy to provide it.
It also goes for kids as well since the amount of time you need to spend on school and homework has generally increased which leaves the kids with less time and energy to go outside. It's not really a shock that a kid might not want to go outside when they are tired from spending 3 hours on homework. At the same time the things that used to inevitably get people to go outside have kinda disappeared in a lot of countries, mostly going to and from school, you need a car do that in a lot of places these days and kids can't just bike on their own so they don't even get that outside time. Also various organizations have found a direct correlation between a drop in participation in sports and toxic body images because kids are scared to really be in changing rooms because they feel self conscious about their bodies. Schools also rarely have interesting playgrounds and many kids live so far away from any interesting nature that the best option they have for going outside are gonna be fairly boring parks and backyards that aren't interesting at all. The things that kids actually like to do outside like climb in trees, catch bugs and just go exploring really isn't possible in many places and many parents are too overbearing to allow it, at the same time video games and other digital entertainment now offers these experiences in spades, BoTW is gonna be far more interesting than 90% of the outside a kid living in the US will have access to, and they can play it with friends as they chose.
@@hedgehog3180 When I was a kid in the winter it was dark by the time I was home from school and for a good portion of spring and autumn if I did my homework as soon as I got home like my Mum wanted (when my brain was tired from leaning all day and most needed a break) it was dark by the time I finished it and obviously I wasn't allowed outside to play after dark, plus it was freezing after the sun went down. Kids just aren't allowed time to play outside half the year in a lot of countries further from the equator.
@@hedgehog3180 I agree with most of what you said, BUT here in oregon, it's really easy to have fun outside, especially during the summer. Rest of the year? Not so much. XD
Just realised even tho I love nature and stuff I rarely go outside cause except from going to school cause i just watch it in documentaries and videos. Going outside is more wishful thinking for me rather than doing anything, which is probably my fault, but then again I think it could be a side effect of social media etc providing indoor entertainment so we don’t find it necessary to go out. But there r kids that do, i have a classmate who has to go for a run each day cause she doesn’t like staying indoors too much. Maybe it’s different environmental influences? Idk
I've heard that blurry vision can also be a genetic problem. You'll need glasses at a certain age which would be around the exact same age when your parent(s) got glasses
It is a genetic problem, I got glasses around 8 years old. My parents both also got glasses at a young age. Genetics is one of the causes for bad vision.
You are right, it is a genetic problem that either causes a lack of the hormone or too much of the hormone so really wether you are inside or not you eyes will be fucked 1 day
I remember hearing several years about studies done in China that showed a strong correlation between kids eyesight and how much time they spent outdoors. Since then I assumed this was because people who grow up mostly indoors never practice focusing their eyes on things far away. This has been true for me. I only ever need my glasses when I'm outside or in a very large room. I only have trouble seeing things around 20-30ft away or more, and most rooms are smaller than that. It's interesting to learn that it seems to have more to do with our exposure to sunlight. That also makes a lot of sense.
The Chinese government funded a study that found this out that it's light level and not distance. They were wondering because one generation ago only 3% of Chinese people needed glasses but now 90+% do.
i honestly couldn’t stop laughing when i heard that most kids nowadays have “long eyeballs”, and it was even funnier for me when people thought it was their kids phones doing this to them.
i mean believe it or not, phones and computer(worse for computer) contributes to people being indoor more and that makes their eye grow longer which then causes myopia so yes phones and computer are partially a problem.
10 y.o me wearing glasses for the first time: “Yo, the world is this HD??” But yeah, thank you for the knowledge man! Now I understand why eye problems are quite common to kids who likes to stay inside (that includes myself).
I was born with a rare eye defect called anisometropia, that later manifested around when I was 4. I already had trouble seeing things at age 2 as my mom told me, I took toys to my eyes really close, so my trademark was a constant eye patch wearing to train my shortsighted eye, then began developing alternating esotropia.My eyesight kept worsening, recenly began stagnating, though my eyesight is still sh!tty, thankfully I can still wear my glasses I had been wearing for 3 years(I had to get new lens every year). I will have to see a specialist to examine just how crooked my eyes are, and if they can be corrected.
This reminds me of how one of my teachers had told us that people needed glasses because they only looked at phones and it caused their eyes to feel like they don't need to know to see past that, but since I'm the only kid in that class with glasses, everyone looked at me. And while this video disproves that, my teacher was wrong in two ways because my glasses aren't even for things far away, they're so my eyes don't give me a miraine when I look at anything closer than like 2 meters.
@@ceazria2499 no, nearsightedness is worse, not being able to see far clearly is worse than not being able to see near clearly. LIterally everyone outdoor who wears glasses have nearsightedness, whereas people with farsightedness only need to wear glasses in close up reading.
AQW Spart it depends if you have farsightedness that is more than 100 degrees, you can’t see what’s in front of you even if it’s your own hands. If you have 100 degrees of nearsightedness, things 5 meters away from you get a bit blurry. I know this from experimenter since one of my eyes are farsighted and one is nearsighted.
I had disabilities that prevented me from doing many outdoor activities that my four younger siblings could do. So if this video is correct, then it makes sense why I'd be the first one in my family to need glasses and why they'd be distance glasses (and why, since I don't do many distance activities, I don't really *need* glasses). It doesn't explain, now that everyone in my family except me uses glasses, why I'd have the least harsh prescription - maybe it's just because I don't use distance vision that much. Maybe my prescription is bad, but I don't need it as much so haven't really sought it out. And before anyone suggests it, they all had glasses before 2020, so the pandemic lockdown didn't affect their outdoor time that way.
I had a similar problem recently though I don't think it had to do with being outdoors in this case. my long distance vision got worse and worse and although I could see far away I just wasn't focusing. it took hours ended up turning out that a lack of fasting/fat fasting was leading by eye muscles to become in disrepair and red meat and eggs contains the nutrients to start repairingmy eyesight alot... Retinol also improved my dark adaptation to the point I could almost read in very dark conditions.... My optician kept trying to give me glasses. how odd...
Any more information on this? About wearing your glasses all the time causing vision to worsen? Ah, better phrased, the fact is I have glasses. The other fact is- I don't want my vision getting worse. And I wear them 24/7.@@kenpazaraki5781
@@kenpazaraki5781 Wrong causation. Just one example. You story is a prime example of irrelevance and bad "science". Your eyes will continue to develop until around 25, then your eye sight will not change much until you are between 40 and 50 (typically) So the fact that your eye sight did not change much once your reach 25 was expected.
@@57thorns Anecdotally, I don't find that to be true. I got glasses for the first time in my early thirties, and I know other people who got glasses in their thirties as well.
I blame schools. Spend all day inside, gym was inside, class was inside, afterschool was inside, go home and spend time inside because nobody was in the neighborhood to hang (and when there was, had to be watched while doing the chores which meant... inside).
I've been staying in my house for like 3x how I used to for almost 2 years. Mum still blames it on the screens and I always thought the same. My great grandma also can't see far properly and when I use her glasses, the world goes into 4K Ultra HD. Thanks for letting me know something like this. Never knew it worked like this.
Lol 4k ultrahd. My eyesight is ruined due to sunlight exposure as a baby. My mom said I was under sunlight too long even my skin darker than both my parents. But I still game on PC everyday without sunglasses QuadHD 32 inch 144hz so my eyes wont get tired.
Simple solution: "go outside to watch your videos!" Very nice explanation. Some of this is inheritance as well since my mom and her siblings also had to wear glasses.
Genetic inheritance is definitely overlooked. I spent a lot of time outside as a kid (and also looking straight into the sun, which might be the cause of some of my vision problems) and I needed glasses in like the 3rd grade.
To be clear, this is only one reason for nearsightedness, so !) don't expect that hormone to fix the problem for everyone, and 2) while "go outside to watch your UA-cam videos is a fun spin of an easy solution, screens *do* also have other negative effects on your vision than just tempting you to stay inside. While it doesn't immediately and permanently fuck up your vision, staying focused within a limited range for long stretches of the day does make the pupillary constrictor/iris sphinter muscles in charge of your pupil width lazy. This still doesn't mean you have to limit your screentime to a few hours or anything, but it does mean you should stay aware of long stretches of the day you spend in front of your screen, and take a few seconds every half an hour or so to look around and refocus your eyes back and forth on varying distances. This has been shown to long-term vastly improve the vision of children who do not have physical deformation of their eyes. Look up "Eye muscle exercise" to learn more - and focus on the ones that actually have to do with focusing on different distances; the ones that just move your eyes aren't very important for young people.
@@TheHadMatters how long did it take you type all of that? O-o Also the simple solution was just me making a meme lol. Screen time was probably one portion of my issue, since I've been exposed to screens since I was young, and now I'm near sighted. (I believe that's the one where you see near and farther objects are blurry) but definitely it had to be the fact that over the years I didn't get as much sunlight exposure.
Oof, big error at 1:05. Our relaxed lens posture for an emmetrope (someone with perfect vision) is set at infinity and a young person can focus in from there. There is no such thing as “focusing” the eye to look far away, only relaxing to reach that posture. -an eye doctor here.
@@thisisatest6553 people with a minus perscription (nearsighted, myopic, etc) are relaxed when looking up close. in my case, (-4.00 DS) that is 25 cm. since I cannot relax further, everything beyond 25 cm is blurry to me without glasses
Thats very hard for people who live in very hot countries or kids who dont have a backyard or a garden near them, or their parents never let them go out I was a kid like that, and now im 14 and i have 12/20 vision.
wow my dad was right. he's probably the only adult around me whose comment about kids these days needing glasses is because of lack of sunight. instead of the usual you play video games too much. he used to told me to stare at the sky. jokes on me and my glasses for not listening then.
there's an old saying in my culture that goes "look at the greens (trees) to heal your eyesight". I thought it literally means looking at the trees in pictures and videos but it turns out it's advising us literally to go outside and see the nature.
I mean there's probably a heavy genetic component to it, All of my family has always spent a significant amount of time outdoor,and we live in an area with hotter climate (aka. a lot more hours of light in a day compared with a northern country) but everyone's eyesight is bad, like very bad. I think that the "not enough sunlight" argument can only work if the kid isn't already genetically predisposed to get myopia.
A teacher in high school told us that looking at the sky each morning is good for better eyesight. I did that for two years and did notice that I see better.
So does this hormone have to be continuously produced in order to prevent lengthening. For example if you spend all of your life outdoors in childhood then as an adult spend most of your time indoors will the adults vision deteriorate. Also does this mean that cold climate populations wear glasses more often than warm climate populations because of there being less light in winter months?
Im pretty sure no. Since im assuming once it stops it stops but thats just my assumption. I have near super human vision and bearly went outside durring covod. My eyesight hasnt demonished even a bit. I get this is anecdoteal evidence but just my idea recommend you do more reaserch.
@@potapotapotapotapotapota And on the other hand, people in cold areas recieve little to no sun throughout the whole winter. I think there would be far more people in colder areas wearing glasses.
@@potapotapotapotapotapota That's not true. Asian countries are the most who wear glasses, but European also have have high number of prescription glasses: Finland: 66% Norway: 65% Belgium: *70%* Switzerland: *68%*
At least today wearing glasses are completely normal. When i was teenager, some of my classmates loves to bully people with glasses. Resulted me not to have one and slowing my learning process in middle school.
@@TheRaven123 Keep in mind that this is coming from someone rather ignorant of the whole subject. . . But the idea of shoving pieces of glass, or for that matter, any foreign object into my eyes just feels off-putting.
@@Steelpoly3dJ316 I also don't like the idea of contacts. The added benefit is that you can take your glasses off to reduce the strain required to see close objects.
There must also be some genetics involved too. I was a super outdoorsy kid, but my whole family has glasses, and my prescription is super weak (-.75 on both eyes if you're curious). So, like in most of biology, genes must also play a role in how much light is required to have Normal vision or if you have another eye abnormality that effects vision.
@@user88926 -*.*75 there is a decimal point in there, or if you'd like me to write it differently, -0.75, although it literally doesn't make a difference. Please, it's right there, double check before you make "UMM ACHTUALLY-" comments
@@user88926 "hey bud" ? "But nice story" ? You're trying to tell me you were *NOT* trying to be patronizing when you 1) allegedly intentionally just disregarded a decimal point, 2) FUCKING CALLED ME BUD??? Go back and read your first comment! Also, just ignoring the 0 before a decimal point is really fucking common. If there's nothing before a decimal point, it's going to be a 0. I tend to type as I speak so because I say "negative point seven five" I type out "- . 7 5" and I've literally never had a problem with anyone, ANYONE, family, friends, or doctor alike, taking issue with the way I write or say my glasses prescription (or any other decimal). Literally no one assumes I mean -7.5 or anything like that. Its only been you *BUD*. Next time, how about you don't assume anything, especially how your tone is going to read, because I can tell you, *BUD*, you don't come off in any amicable way. "You get what you give" and all that jazz.
@@user88926 listen, if your first thought was -75, when there is a decimal point and realistically you know that's not a prescription, why not at least assume I was saying -7.5? You could then say like "Hey did you mean -7.5? That's not a great eyesight realistically" because it's not, but that's not you saying "YO BUD YOU'RE LYING BUT GOOD STORY!" Also then I can answer saying "Oh hey, thanks for asking! No I have a -0.75, but because I type fast I just exclud the 0 because it's implied." Then this WHOLE mess doesn't have to happen. If you're unsure of something, Just ask!!! And don't call people BUD, it's fucking annoying. I'm not your bud, I'm a stranger on the internet, keep it that way.
@@user88926 but like you said, tone is important, and tone changes drastically between word choice. If I say "Come with me" that's a different tone then "Please, follow me." Effectively the same thing was said, but one is polite, the other is a command. If you think something should be corrected, ask "is this what you meant?" Or "Did you mean...?" I promise you it will (usually) come off a lot better then saying "You may want to correct that number" because my number is very much correct, it's not my fault that you misinterpreted it at 2 am. If you want clarification, that's fine, but ask for that, don't assume *I* need to fix something. Sometimes maybe I do, but that's not for you to dictate.
Maybe keeping kids inside to learn mostly unimportant stuff for 8 hours a day wasn’t the best idea. When I was a kid my parents wouldn’t let me leave the culdesac we lived on when I played outside and there was not much to do so I barely played outside. The sad thing is that’s more freedom than most kids are given now.
Oh my goodness - is it possible for this to happen in your 20s?? After over a year almost entirely indoors (because of covid) I got to the point where I need glasses to see distant things clearly. I thought it might be because of the endless hours in front of a screen, but this theory would make just as much sense!
It's dependent on many factors, but there is actually adult-onset myopia progression which implies it can get worse at any age (although there is not much research for adults because it is less common).
It could also just be genetic, that was the time where my mom started to need glasses and now at 23 I just got my first set of glasses, and both of us spent a lot of time outside as children.
I've started developing blurry vision when I was about 10-11 years old. This was back in the mid-90's, so before computer screens and smartphones. I've always thought it was because I was reading a lot, but staying away from the sun (in a country famed for its nice weather, of all places) sounds like a plausible explanation.
In some countries, People don't care about children's health at all, they just push their child as hard as possible, I hate my childhood so much (~2010)
i think this can be, at least in part, attributed to both how parents raise their kids and because of suburban infrastructure. kids aren't ALLOWED to go just outside anymore, not without their parents' consent or taking them there; and a lot of parents are working, so thus can't be there to supervise their kids. i know this because i've just become an adult, and this is how i was raised. i used to have near 20-20 vision, but now i can't see road signs without assistance and my vision continues to worsen by the day. i also grew up in the american suburb, which is not typically close to anywhere that kids can just walk or bike to, besides maybe the park; but again, they can't go there without their parents' permission. i think technology became a sort of haven for us, to feel like we had freedom to "go" wherever on the internet. the technology isn't to blame, it's just what we turned to for entertainment because the outdoors wasn't available.
True and some neighborhoods are unsafe for a child to play without a parental supervision. Since they can’t go outside to play, they get bored and end up playing on their tablets/phones.
@@Lilly-ed5qx letting kids experience freedom is critical to their development. sheltering kids RUINS them. it makes them fragile and weak.. most people don't understand that weak people end up as some of the most dangerous and unhinged people. I'd rather let my kids face the dangers of bullying and rough characters than have them turn out weak.
Exactly. I'm always told to "go outside" or "stop looking at that screen all day", but what else am i supposed to do? draw? i need references. You could say to just go outside, but who will take me? i live in a kind of city but without tall buildings area so there ae cars eveywhere. It's not that easy to touch grass.
I spent almost my whole childhood indoors, doing a combination of reading and playing games. Now I'm indoors almost 24/7 playing games and studying computer science. My optometrist thinks my eyes have just continued to get worse since I was 12ish (when my vision was decent) because my eyes don't ever get exercise looking at things 20ft+ away and/or genetics. It always kinda scares me when I take my glasses off just how absolutely blind I am without them. I'm 22.
This is so interesting! Would you have to keep this up (= being outside more often) well into adolescence and adulthood? Because I spent a lot of time outside as a kid and had no vision problems until I was 17 when I started developing myopia... which makes sense because as an introverted homeboy, I don't go outside as much anymore😅
I always thought I was nearsighted because I often pointed my flashlight directly into my eyes. So thank you for this educating video. Of course this isn't always the case. For example my mother grew up on a farm and so was often exposed to sunlight, however she was still nearsighted at early age. Edit: Another explanation could be genetics. A recent study has shown that you have a 1 in 3 chance of developing myopia (short-sightedness) if both parents are myopic too. If only one of your parent is myopic, this figure decreases to a 1 in 5 chance. If neither of your parents is myopic however, you have less than a 1 in 40 chance.
Fun fact: Apparently, your eye will adapt to viewing digital screens if done frequently for long periods of time on a daily basis. It doesn't mean just your phone. The change is minor; however, there will be a brief moment where your vision slightly blurs before returning to normal.
Just about every time I donate blood plasma (45 minutes staring at my phone), I walk out with blurry vision, sometimes so bad that I wait a little bit before driving. It clears up within an hour, maybe two if it's particularly bad. I figured it was my eyes getting "lazy" during the screen time, but I wasn't sure.
This problem has literally just happened to me. I went my whole life thinking my vision was fine only to find out at the age of 20 that I need glasses - and I've been wondering, why? Thanks for the answer. Gonna send my kids outside a lot more whenever I get round to it.
Hmmm that's strange. Didn't the video say it's at age 6 that this happens? I thought, being well over 6, this time is over and my eyeballs won't grow more, since I have clear vision. So maybe I should still make sure I am getting enough light per day.
I’m nearsighted - none of my siblings do even though both my parents are also nearsighted. My daughter may become nearsighted (she’s 1) but an optometrist I went to said they are ways now to PREVENT nearsightedness. I was blown away! I wonder if it has something to do with the eyeball shape. Either way, I am going to do my best to get her outside more often, since there are so many benefits to being outdoors.
I always wondered why every single person I knew, who read on a daily basis for entertainment, wore glasses. I personally hated reading because people always attempted to force me into it
Yeah brings the fun out of reading like if you're going to force me to read it's not fun anymore. I don't understand why they don't get that. I actually was told also don't read in the dark it's bad for your eyesight but I never listened :')
This also relates to one of my questions: why do almost all "nerds" in school wear glasses. You: Sent something similar that almost solves this question
@@demihau not really you just have to find something you love, whether that's fiction book, non-fiction book,comics, newspapers etc. there's always something for everyone. The problem comes in when people pressure or force you to read. That's when reading sucks
This actually explains quite a lot about the types of kids that had glasses when I was growing up in the 90s and where some of those stereotypes came from. Or does it? 6 is pretty early in life.
I mean there's also the thing that someone with bad eyesight but is very physically active is just gonna naturally favor using contact lenses and therefore you won't really notice it if they have bad eyesight unless they tell you. But on the other hand someone who isn't as active is probably just gonna opt for glasses and not really want to go through the trouble of getting accustomed to contact lenses.
Not only was this very clear and informative, but it was quick and snappy too. Other youtubers would've spent double or more time explaining everything in a convoluted way. A big thank you for this video.
My brother needs glasses since birth but he doesn't care tho and never wears contact/glasses and he goes outside a lot but I dont and they say it's also because of the screen since i didn't have that when i was first born so yeah this video does make sense and I just turn up the brightness XD ok I'll try to go outside so my eyes fix themselves instead of getting worse and needing better glasses since they aren't really the cheapest... + Sunglasses Are WAY Cheaper than Polarized Glasses Liek Bro! And and I don't rlly wanna wear contacts cuz I'm a bit scared of having them stuck to my eyes 💀
Kid: Gets bullied and becomes depressed. Parents: It's the screens. Kid: Is now more depressed because they lost a valuable escape tactic. Parents: It's the screens. Kid: Spends more and more time indoors reading and studying because they have literally nothing else to do, causing them to become nearsighted, and even more depressed. Parents: ... It's the screens. Edit: Everyone please stop saying "YoU jUsT nEeD tO Go OuTsIdE mOrE". I'm not saying we don't. But if a person who's bullied doesn't have in-person friends, which they sometimes don't, there's goddamn nothing to do. Especially for people who aren't athletic or don't have an outdoorsy hobby. You're making us feel worse, not better.
nah its not that its just that people don't go outside as much anymore. means less real relationships with people, worse physical ability, worse health (and as this video explains eyes), worse mental health. but I get it. games and youtube and shit are literally designed to be as addictive as possible, but parents are right in that if you get rid of them u feel better.
This makes so much sense. Both my parents are only a little nearsighted. They never have to wear their glasses, just only at night when driving or watching TV. My parents were both very active outside as children. My brother and I, however, are horribly nearsighted. I have to constantly wear either my glasses or contacts. My dad was shocked when the eye doctor told him how bad my vision was, since nearsightedness isn’t that bad in my family. It’s very plausable to think that me hoarding inside as a child affected my eyesight this way.
This explains so much. Not sure if its the same thing, but sounds like it to me. I have eyes that are fairly sensitive to light so being in direct sunlight started to sometimes gives me headaches and makes me tired really fast. So I spent most of my time reading inside (when I wasnt forced outside). Then the pandemic came and I used it as an excuse to not go out at all. Surprise surprise, after the pandemic, I needed glasses. Still think it might be this with the fact our house didnt have very big rooms so I just didnt need to look at things from too far away for 1 and a half years
Me and my sisters had or still have school every day until 2:30 p.m. or longer. Luckily for us there was/is no homework, but children who have school for that long and then also get homework in every subject and then have to work on it until 4/5 p.m or even longer just don't go outside much because they simply don't have the interest or energy afterwards, and in winter there's no time at all for children to get sunlight.
Very interesting! So … does wearing things like sunglasses when you’re younger actually screw up your eye development? And what about the blue light glasses on the market fairly recently to use when using screens, I wonder how those effect eyes? I’ve got the latter and while it reduces eye strain stuff (great for long hours of uni work) the distance has become fuzzy (which is strange as gardening is a hobby of mine!).
From what I've gathered, getting the recommended amount of light into your eyes are important. So wearing sunglasses 24/7 (by this logic) mess up your eye growth.
That honestly makes sense, especially with the pandemic going on where you're literally not allowed to go outside. Our bodies and even our brains are going through actual biological and physiological changes because of the pandemic.
Don't get surgery unless you seriously need it because it can permanently ruin your eyes. What I mean is that unless you were born with deformed eyes don't get surgery. Very few people have deformed eyes from birth.
@@potapotapotapotapotapota The risk is extremely low, like dying from taking aspirin. LASIK has same spooky stories, but with PRK your cornea grows back perfectly. I never felt comfortable in glasses and hated wearing them.
Interesting. I was aware of a study done where they found a correlation between children spending less time outside having more problems with their vision and vice versa, but it couldn't difinitively say whether it was *because* of them not having enough sun or if the kids just weren't looking at enough things that were far away or what. Feels like I've uncovered another piece of the puzzle with this video.
That's fascinating. I had heard nearsightedness was related to a lack of sunlight, but I always thought it was because people who are indoors reading would probably notice changes in their vision before, say, someone playing basketball outdoors. I had thought perhaps the number of people with poor vision was the same across the board, but only people who use and strain their eyes enough would notice a need for corrective lenses.
I have nearsightedness (i cant see the far),and like half a month ago,i encouraged myself to tell my parents that i see bad (yes i hid that for 3 years). My dad said its because of those screens! But.. 1-he also has bad eyesight,had an eye surgery 2-i have an eye nerve condition 3-i once accidentally splashed perfume in my eyes and kind of started seeing bad after 4-Another condition,as taller as i get,the worse my eyesight gets (im 2meters),but with the help of doctors,its the opposite now (the taller the better) An advice from me,dont be afraid to tell your parents about your bad eyesight,if you dont,it might get worse ❤
You probably had your window open many times which let sunlight through, personally I love sunlight from windows in summer, because I have my air conditioner and the sun, just feels vibey
This makes more and more sense the more I think about it. I was always suspicious of the blue-light and/or display theory a bit, but wow. It also explains why the neighbourhood I used to live in (beautiful weather, warm, humid, by the ocean, tons of sports, public transit, always outside, etc etc etc) had seemingly barely anyone needing glasses compared to my current area (polar opposite). I always knew that applied to most health-related stuff (longer life expectancies too compared to the cold places) but never the eyes.
I actually started wearing glasses around 8-9 so I don’t think it had anything to do with staying indoors as my school was previously a school that hallways open to the outside and sunlight comes through and it’s connected to the play areas. Also the chances of getting it via genetics was higher for me as one of my parents are nearsighted.
Honestly same. I started wearing glasses on 1st year of elementary school. Both my parents are nearsighted so the chances of me being nearsighted is high
Bear in mind that humans have only built housing and explored beyond the 35th parallels for the last 400 out of 20,000 generations our kind have existed. Our natural norm is to get 8-14 hours of direct *tropical* sunlight every single day. Anything less than that, and we're pushing into the range of the unnatural. Adaptation is a slow process, and there's no guarantee that it's even _possible_ for our eyes to _fully_ adapt to living indoors without genetic engineering. Personally, I grew up in a temperate region, and went to a school with big windows in every classroom. Both of my parents are strongly nearsighted, and I am only lightly nearsighted. But no matter how much time I spent outside, I literally cannot possibly have been exposed to as much light as humans naturally are expected to, as that would require me to have lived at a lower latitude than I did. Is that why I'm nearsighted? Or is it purely inherited? There is literally no way for me to ever know, but odds are good that light is at least a significant factor. It's almost certain that there are multiple genetic and epigenetic factors. Perhaps even _myriad_ such factors. Each and every one of those factors could scale with light differently, and could have a completely different curve on how difficult they are to satisfy, and how much they affect vision if unsatisfied.
Same here I got diagnosed with astigmatism in both eyes in the first grade at 5-6 years old and now these UA-camrs are telling me I didn't touch enough grass in my youth. I can guarantee I was outside more playing sports and riding bikes more then half of these people causing more mischief then you're allowed to do today.
Ooohh yes I've actually heard that children need to go outside everyday to keep good vision but I didn't know the reason! This is so interesting and good to know
Thank you. I was feeling guilty that I had "caused this" (my nearsightedness) from my phone. You don't know how grateful I am to learn that it's not my phone - it's how much I go outside. ❤
i tought it had to do with the fact that the eye just gets used to not having to focus on things far away.. i noticed that my sight got a lot worse when i started watching tv series on my phone for hours, just staring at this small screen without looking away and training my eye muscles or at least taking some breaks. the light thing is very interesting but does focusing on something small close to you really not play a part at all? its hard to believe for me that it doesnt add to the problem
@@anywallsocket You're kinda right. The problem happens when the eyes keep a constant focus distance for a long period. So focusing too much on near objects causes crystalline muscle strain, and focusing too much on far objects keeps the muscles so relaxed that they don't "exercise". Both can affect the development of the eye (only in chlidren, not adults)
@@Rudxain use it or lose it! The idea that sun has to do with it is clearly a cofounding variable, i.e. lack of sun doesn’t cause nearsightedness, it’s just that there’s no sun indoors.
This actually lines up with my experience with nearsightedness. Before the pandemic everyday I go outside to go to school. My eyesight was okay back then but recently because of this pandemic our school implemented an online setup where we have school online meaning that I don't go outside at all. My eyesight kinda just got worse and more blurry until I needed glasses lol. Anyway after seeing this video I might go outside more but even if I did I think its too late for me now :(
Now that I looked closer into my journey of eyesight declination. I think me using my phone in the dark also contributed to my nearsightedness because I noticed that I am more sensitive to bright lights. I think I also have Astigmatism lol. I really need to take care of my eyes better.
u could go to your optometrist and get ur acomodative system examinated, its true that during pandemic time a really high ussage of screens made a lot of people have worse eyesight but a lot of the kids and young fellas just needed to "reeducate" their acomodative system that was forced to stay a lot of hours active, contrary to what byologically it was designed for,( its not a system designed to work at super short distances 24/7)
yes it actually is too late, because there is no way you can shorten your eyeballs back , the best solution to nearsightedness is to not get it in the first place, although if you can currently see 20/40 without glsses, u should definitely throw away your glasses and go outside more. Good luck
Me too, personally I have miopia but before I was around 2.2 and after the pandemic I got to 4.7!!! Recently one of my eyes went from 3.2 to 2.9!! From begging outside.
It kind of explains why both my parents needed glasses quite young, but having then immigrated to a country where there was a lot of outdoor sports, I myself don't need glasses way past the age my parents needed them.
My parents are always telling me that my eyesight has gone worse bcuz of screens (I literally started wearing glasses at 4), I wanna show this to them but they don't understand English :') Off-topic; when I switched my glasses, (2,5 degree to 4,5) I felt like my whole life was a lie (but I'm completely sure that my eye degree is around 5.25) That wasnt necessary but I felt like I had to write this lol
@@condorianonegdiffsgoku So he was a keyboard warrior at the age of 4? Damn bro you are not the smartest are you? I still use my mom's phone for Yt and a bit of gaming and spend most of my time studying since there isnt a place to go outside I didnt need glasses yet but my long vision is getting a tiny bit blurry and I probably need glasses You people really need to stop projecting
This makes a lot of sense. I had a lot of screentime after the age of 10 and throughout adulthood, but I don't need glasses. Prior to being 10, I had a lot of outside sun time.
There is also a connection with the scull growth and eyesight. If you have small maxilla (caused by lack of hard-to-chew foods and wearing braces) it will cause the lack of blood flow to the eye area giving you the slow loss of eyesight
This makes so much sense! I got glasses in 5th grade and haven’t changed lenses for a few years. Last year when I finally got my eyes checked, my eye doctor commented on how there wasn’t much difference in my prescription for 3 years since I first got glasses. The old lenses did cause a bit of a lazy eye for me and I’m going through treatment for it though
Doc said the same for me, however mine was 5 years not 3, also I seem to have avoided the lazy eye somehow, good luck with the treatment though, my mom has to have something similar, windows in her eyes are closing and they need to fix it before a certain time or else she'll go blind
now i know why i stil dont have glasses. Because when i was 6 i didnt hav phone and when i wanted to watch tv i had to ask and i had friends so i went outside to play football all the time
@@dihaozhan A lot of people on my father's side of the family also has near-sightedness and it seems to affect the men more than women, so it's possible that it is also genetic. I remember going outside lots as a kid but thats probably after my eyes finished growing
This is one of the main causes. I used to go outside tons when I was younger, since the UK promotes going outside in schools by forcing you outside for a lot of the day in the very young ages so you can play with other children. I was also constantly on days out, yet I'm still short sighted. There's still tons of unknowns about vision. This should help clear things up for the people who are like me and were outside so much as a younger child, but still need glasses
@@TheSmallDan it stabilizes till like 18 years of age right? since i use my phone less than my sister and also go outside more than her yet in a recent eye chekup her power barely increased while mine shot up, then i realised it might be since she's 19 and I'm 16
![Lp. Сердце Вселенной #60 РОЖДЕНИЕ ЛОЛОЛОШКИ [Финал] • Майнкрафт](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/YoR0pAV9FVQ/mqdefault.jpg)
Oh dang, this is a perfect example of correlation ≠ causation. People who look at screens more inadvertently stay inside more. But looking at screens by itself doesn't cause nearsightedness
But that is an example of causation because spending all day looking at screens causes you to be outside less.
@@Paul-A01 But it is an indirect and partial causality that can lead to incorrect conclusions.
@@PasciSch it's known as 'mediation', and can be complete (screens have no direct effect on eyesight, only sunlight exposure has) or partial (part of the effect is from screens directly, the rest goes 'through' sunlight exposure)
@@Paul-A01 It's only the going outside less. You could watch screens all day, but as long as you're outside when you do it you would be fine.
@@Paul-A01 *Nintendo switch has entered the chat*
How to tell someone to touch grass without being rude.
*big oof*
"Go outside to watch UA-cam videos"
@@The_Roman69 the dogs would interrupt u
@@gamercool92 what dogs??
In my neighborhood there's only one dog and it's tied by chains
@@The_Roman69bro lives in a cartoon 💀💀💀
"Don't read in the dark, it makes your eyes blurry."
My grandmother would always say this to me when I was a kid. Turns out she was right all along.
It's so true for me! Listen.. 2 years ago (I'm 17, since today) i met an online friend. We've written self-made stories through the night! And i always thought darkening my screen light would be better for my eyes..
One year later, while i was looking outside, i realized that i don't see as clearly as before.. I was confused. The mother from another friend of mine also told me i shouldn't turn the screen light so dark but i didn't listened. Since a couple of months i have glasses now. But until i realized that my dark screen is the reason all along.. That's now when i watched this video. I know it may not worth making drama but i love my eye sight. I'm so glad to be able to see! I think biology teachers should tell kids how all of this works!
Fun Fact
She’s a scientist while the “experts” in the news merely stole her research and said things without knowing the actual meaning.
Now she has nothing to do but looking after her family.
Yeah I regret doing my drawings in the dark now...
Same my vision is a bit blurry
Same 😅
I was lectured multiple times by school nurse and optometrists that it was screens. I was constantly telling them that it doesn't make sense because I have family members spending way more screen time with 20/20 vision and could it perhaps have something to do with one side of my family all needing glasses around puberty for generations?
They kept telling me it was the screens. Until my eyes suddenly stabilized at a point, and they noticed small signs of astigmatism (also genetic). I start getting asked if anyone in my family needed glasses at a young age and also have astigmatism, yes, over 20 of them. OHHHH, now the reason I need glasses isn't screens at all :/
"You are being affected by those evil screens!!!!!" * proceeds to beat the 5757886878798 level of candy crush *
Its the screens causing your genetic issue for sure
@@elomars_xd More like spend 12 hours of their rest day watching TV or shorts from any TikTok ripoff ass platform about aliens building pyramids or some similar shi. And then complaining about being tired and whatnot.
@Real_ilyaburec did a 5 year old write this?
She just didn't have the heart to tell you that it's actually because your brain wasn't developing at a normal pace so it was small and atrophied resulting in a lack back pressure on your eyeballs to prevent them from overstretching. She also would have had to tell you that this explains both the vision impairment as well as the stupidity.
It's kind of crazy how overlooked (no pun intended) this problem is just because it's so easily fixable. Half the time I forget just how bad my vision is but had I lived before corrective lenses I would be markedly disabled.
Or dead already.
No because at this time peoples were spénding much more time outside
@@dinamiteurdinamiteur2324 thats not the only reason people end up with bad vision. Its still entirely possible to have garbage eyesight back when most people still regularly spent their childhood outside.
Same. I'm shortsighted, with a prescription glass of -9; I'm unable to live without my glasses, nothing is readable further than half a meter away from me
@@dinamiteurdinamiteur2324 I mean I'm just saying hypothetically if my vision had somehow ended up just as bad as now. Obvs not a likely scenario but still interesting to think about. (I was also noticably short-sighted by age 1 so think it's partly genetics and my vision would at least have been a bit bad still)
I’ve been telling my 7 year old this for years as an excuse to drag him out on walks every week. Useful to get an update on the new science behind it and find out it’s to do with light, though, not enclosed spaces as I was taught at uni.
Well. You where close enough!
Enclosed spaces = not much sunlight so I guess there's some truth to that.
@@uniwolfgamer1094 One could be enclosed in a glass box.
@@lonestarr1490 is your house a glass box then?
The question is whether bright lighting indoors already helps or whether there is an important component in sunlight that's lacking from most other light sources.
My parents were always like "Don't look at screens so much, or you'll need glasses!"
Now I'm 22, still looking at screens a lot, and I am the only one in my family who doesn't need glasses. According to my last eye test, I even still have above-average eye sight in terms of how well I did on that test.
UPDATE: 24 now and still the same. Funnily enough, many people here are expecting I'd eventually become near sighted. But if anything, it's rather the near vision that gets SLIGHTLY blurry if I really push it
@@Deskapade Well, all I can say is that, as a programmer in full-time home office, I'm probably not out enough that it would justify my good eyes xD
People eyesight are weak because of genetics or adding pressure on eyes a lot like reading books of tiny letters.
But yeah disadvantage of screen time is , it’s make your eyes dry and make difficulties in falling asleep. I use blue light filter / night mode.
@@awakenedcrowl But maybe the time you were young, you were outside a lot since it is still a growing sight? or ur still a home boy?
@@juliane5632 I mean, scholl, yeah, but besides sometimes visiting a friend (with which I'd be usually inside, gaming), I never really had a "regular" outside activity. And later on, my way to work was quite long, but like 80% of it was in the subway. And where I am now, with Home Office and still living with my parents, I rarely NEED to go out, leaving my home rn is always a matter of "Dude, I really haven't been outside for too long now" and just aimlessly walking outside for a few minutes to hours. Which might sound sad, but my social life is still very much intact and I'm quite happy. I practically only go outside by choice for my health (and I gotta admit, I surely still do THAT too little, but I'm working on it)
bruh same everyone from my family has glasses apart from me
Ngl it was always obvious to me that digital screens weren’t the culprit when it came to making people blind because growing up I noticed people that spend a lot of time reading books also tended to need glasses. I always assumed it had to do with eye strain though but thanks to this video now I know that’s not the case and it has to do with lack of sunlight exposure, which makes perfect sense because people that spend a lot of time reading books also don’t tend to be the outdoorsy type
It's actually because these people's brains don't develop at a normal pace so they are small and atrophied resulting in a lack back pressure on their eyeball to prevent it from overstretching. This explains both the vision impairment as well as the complete idiocy we see today.
My family would read a lot of books.
But while on holidays camping.
So basically,
Introvert, glasses
Extrovert(travel type), none needed
@@Viscorlor you can be unlucky and be born with a blurry eye and one which can't see 2 ft in front of you and needed to surgeries to fix it
Not only that, think about the mole and other animals that live solely in darkness of the ground or most of the time in it. They either don't have eyes or their eyesight is bad in daylight.
I need glasses because of my nearsightedness (I can’t see far away) and some of my family members said things like ‘it’s because of those screens isn’t it?’ It isn’t. I went to the optometrist and I found out I have astigmatism. It was genetically given to me by some of the same family members who told me it was screens.
Same people say it screens but I have bad genes and my eyes were bad and a few hours a day would start to ruin my sight even a hour or two started the problem screens have a factor kind of but mine was already bad
My dad has glasses and lectured me when I FINALLY got glasses for my fucking horrible vision??? Like??
If you have myopia then it's cause is screens, books etc.. 🤦🏻♂🤦🏻♂
@@skvlsky I went and saw multiple specialists??? They all said it was genetic and had had just developed with age. Nice try diagnosing me but I’m pretty sure I know what’s wrong with my own eyes
@@t0adstoolll wtf nearsightedness is myopia XDD
Optometry student here, I just recently covered this topic. There are a few inaccuracies but overall this video is a decent simplification. Namely, the chemical signals regulating emmitropization (eye lengthening to match the focal point of the eye’s optics) are intrinsic to the eye and not from the brain. We know this because even when all nerves are cut off to off from the eye, emmetropization still happens. Light levels do have an impact on this though! Winter months see the highest rates of worsening myopia, because people are inside still.
So does this hormone need to be continually released throughout your life in order to prevent further lengthening of the eye, or is it something that only happens in children and your eyes, like most of the rest of your body, just stop growing eventually, hormone or no?
@@austinowens2061 I don’t believe the exact mechanisms are perfectly understood yet, my understanding is that the retina is capable of detecting a defocus that is in front or behind the eye, and chemical signals in that area promote lengthening or shortening depending on what’s required. When the point of focus and retina are matched, the signals indicating defocus should normally stop. That’s complicated by light levels, and a number of other things. The reality is it’s such a complicated process that a short explanation or video could never fully cover the intricacies. I’m not sure what signals are being released when the stop occurs.
@@ED-qt7en "my understanding is that the retina is capable of detecting a defocus that is in front or behind the eye, and chemical signals in that area promote lengthening or shortening depending on what’s required. When the point of focus and retina are matched, the signals indicating defocus should normally stop."
Could this possibly mean that kids that get glasses very early on could ultimately end up with worse vision overall - has there ever been a study on the connection between average age of corrective lenses and ultimate eyesight? Intuitively, I would presume that if there was an effect it would have to be pretty minor or else someone would've noticed; just anecdotally, I started wearing glasses later then mostly my peers, and it didn't seem to 've made any difference in the long run.
@@jared_bowden That's a great question, and I hope I have better answer when I finish my education! Normally glasses are not given to very young children, but there are a number of techniques optometrists use to prescribe to young children when necessary that keep these processes in mind. It is very important to not "over minus" a child when prescribing, which would be giving them a perception that puts the focus of the eye behind the retina. Doing so can induce worsening myopia in children, but is not a major concern in adults.
@@findingagain perhaps I made it sound too infrequent, there are many reasons why a provider may prescribe glasses to a child, and not wearing a prescription given for full time ware may negatively impact their vision. It is often case by case. When a provider prescribes glasses, they have a good reason for doing so. It so happens that most (not all) very young children would not benefit from corrective lenses. At very young ages most children are “hyperopic” or have a focus behind the eye. The lens in our eye naturally can accommodation and thicken, allowing that focus to come on to the retina when clear vision is required. This is the same mechanism that allows you to look at something close. As children get a little older, normal emmetropization makes the average error less hyperopic. I wouldn’t say 5-6 is an atypical age to get a first pair of glasses. For patients younger than that, I’d imagine a fairly large error is being corrected, or other factors are being considered.
I always thought about it this way. When you live in darker environments your eyes don't need to see very far, so they adapt to close range sight. In the wild you need to be able to see farther.
yes it's like moles
Makes sense
... to see further what? Surely you mean *farther, not further.
@@romanski5811 shut
@@romanski5811 Yes
*goes outside to watch videos*
Mosquitoes: HELL YEA WE HAVE A FULL COURSE MEAL TODAY
Thats your areas fault where mosquitoes are way to much.
@@6kittys147 well mosquitoes target certain areas, and certain people like me :(
"just go outside" is a little hard when kids are cooped up in school for 7 hours a day with only a few short breaks to play outside. Especially in more northerly countries like the UK, where daylight hours during the winter are very restricted. You can often only get a couple of hours or less of daylight outside of school hours
this is worse when you live in north america or similar places defined by car dependent suburbs, there is very little "outside" for someone at the age where this is important, and if there is, you can only do things if one of your parents agrees to drive you around.
@@backtrace8668 This!!! I wish I could walk to stores more and do my own thing but it requires a car. I’m too young to drive. I could at least use a bicycle but my parents won’t buy one yet.
Yeah the just go outside tip works way less well in the city and if i get home at 4:30-5 and take a shower I’m not going outside and walking to a park to be able to do stuff and then homework since most parents either want their children safe at home after dark or have to spend time following them outside
THATS THE POINT DUDE AND WHEN SOMETHING HAPPENS THEY SAY ITS ALL THESE PHONES FAULT
I mean you can sign your kid to do football or smth and they can be with their friends after school
crazy. ive never heard of that before. sounds wild actually. cant almost believe that that is how it works. amazing. thank you for that video. im born in 1990 and im the only one in my family without glasses. i have 130% on both eyes, even tho i started gaming when i was 5 and never stopped until today. but i guess i spent a lot of time outside before i was 12. thank god.
I had 130% and still couldn't see well at a certain distance. Never noticed, until my gf had some eyetest thing with magazine and I failed the easiest test haha. Headaches all the time everyday for years because my eyes were strained, trying to compensate. Even started to think the mild headaches was normal and the bad ones were just loss of sleep or something. Got glasses, headaches gone after 2 weeks.
Born in 1985, I'm also only one in my family sans glasses/contacts. And I likely still have the best vision among us, as most of them are all but blind unaided, but I did suffer two sudden deteriorations. The first time a few weeks before my 21st birthday (after my first six years or so of intensive PC use) and the second time a few weeks before my 33rd birthday (after my first six years or so of intensive smartphone use). The first time I came back from winter holidays at home and suddenly couldn't read the blackboard from the back rows at uni anymore. And after the second I would've had to move all the way to the front rows, but it only really affects me in everyday life when I watch something subtitled on TV. At normal book distances I can still read even really tiny script perfectly well. Of course it's just anecdotal, but my changes in nearest daily screen distance coincide so well, I have quite the hard time believing they weren't a major factor.
@Isorof do not look at the sun, ur eyes will die
@@squirtlett7369 No joke, I used to have a sun allergy as a kid, if I go outside for just a few hours my eyes would be burning for the rest of the day
@@blackheart5842 oh jeez, sun allergies sound extremely painful to deal with so I'm glad that it's a "used to" kinda thing
I'm in one of those 90% myopia countries, it's normalised, but still absolutely insane. I'm a millennial in the dial up era and never used screens all that much, but my Asian parents wanted me to read books at home rather than going outside and getting influenced by "bad friends", so I spent lots of time lazing at home. My myopia is real bad.
What country are you from? It's kinda weird how in my asian mother country only the higher educated and more privledged wear glasses but mostly everyone, educated or not grows up playing outside. I'm the only one in my family needing glasses and having very bad myopia and I'm the first of my close family born in America. Now thinking back I didn't really go outside much and play.
@@ahnafj416 I heard about this topic from a science news article where the Chinese government had funded a study to see whether nearsightedness was caused by distance, and instead found it's exposure to light. They funded this study because one generation ago, about 3% of Chinese people needed glasses, but now 90+% do.
yup, me and my older brother got our myopia diagnosis first, and it was almost always blamed to our affinity towards computers (dad bought an Amstrad computer early 90s). Then, ALL of our siblings got myopia diagnosis as well, even those who are not interested in computer or TV. Looking back, we weren't even allowed to play hopscotch with the kid across the street, and even forgoing after school clubs like choir because "it distracts us from our studies".
Ever read outside in the sun? Magical.
@Spider Man You forgot the hyphen between 'Spider' and 'Man'
He: we need to see more light
Me: starts staring at sun
*goes blind*
Worked perfectly! Now I see everything with the same clarity (none)
@@liran8799😂
TF
@@Sa1tCh1ps Problem solved the other way
I keep saying it, children are spending way too much time in school instead of playing outside. Like 75% too much time. I've not yet heard a compelling argument to the contrary. And the research on eyesight only adds to the growing list of problems.
Yeah! And it isn't only for eyesight either!
It would help if there were more things to do during recess other than soccer or the playground. Both get boring for introverts real fast.
@@HowlingWolf518 recess only exists to facilitate the mandatory breaks for teachers. Notice how basically as soon as you start to change rooms between classes that recess stops. (Because now they can schedule a period without kids to babysit as they do other work/rest)
It would be nice to have schools actually care about the children's well-being. I know that i didn't get glasses until well after i needed them because both the school and family doctor stopped doing eye exams and i didn't know better and just assumed my vision was normal until my dad realized his eyesight without glasses was better than mine. (I loved reading and games and didn't care for sports so i spent a lot of time inside and away from the "annoying" sun).
I absolutely agree! As a kid, I was often cooped up in school and when I'd get home I'd be inside doing my homework and studying, so I spent most of my time inside
It would have been nicer to have more time outside and in nature as part of regular schooling. Being outside isn't nearly as fun as being out in nature and exploring and learning. But schools aren't made for that. They are big blocks with lots of rooms on top of lots of concrete. Sure, you can go outside, but all you see is grey, not green. That's not stimulating to kids, of any age.
I wish I can show this video to every single patient with kids. Like I should just make it mandatory in my office lol. It's a great way to explain nearsightedness quickly with both audio/visuals.
You should also note-
>Most kids are in a school building for ~7 hours a day, 5 days a week.
>Things to do outside have drastically dropped since the 80s or whenever those parents were born
>Time to be home is 7-9pm (1900-2100) if we're lucky enough to have anything to do
>Try parenting us through TV and other technological marvels
"Man, I wonder why kids spend all day on screens."
Maybe because A. There's nothing to do outside and B. Bedtime is 8.
@@Not_interestEd-I’d say getting home around or before 5 PM is more accurate for most people, unless they have school clubs, making it closer to 6, and sleeping at 9 or 10 would be the earliest if the goal is to wake up around 5, 6, or 7 AM and start school around 7 or 8 depending on the school/state. It seems like kids these days don’t even use TVs, instead using an (perhaps unfortunately) ipad or phone from a young age to access the internet. If that’s the case, perhaps it wouldn’t be too difficult for kids to be outside for a few hours while viewing. It could be annoying for them, but not completely untenable.
@@cassusgames no absolutely, kids should be outside. The problem is parents nowadays think the TV or whatever device is used to browse the internet is a good replacement for doing a job as a parent.
It's... a weird thing to explain, but I see parenting as a task that goes both ways. Your kid learns to be, well, human, and you learn how to parent as the child matures. Both of you learn something. When you have a screen that does it for you, sure it's convenient, but neither you or your child learn anything, so who's benefiting from this?
This in combination with the fact that I've heard schools take a much lighter approach to education than they did 30-40 years ago just tells me kids aren't getting the wake up slap they need. The world revolves around them, and it's apparently up to the internet to teach them this isn't the case. Not good.
People really need to start actually raising their kids, yet no one is willing to listen to this hard fact because TV just does the job for them.
@@Not_interestEd- oh I totally agree, I’m probably going to delay exposure to the entire Internet and progress slowly over time, and hopefully I can find a school that can adequately challenge my future children. Most importantly though does come instilling good habits and practices for living and learning, and handing a very young kid an iPad as a substitute I fear would cripple the child’s future autonomy, as well as having negative impacts on hormonal and neurotransmitter reward pathways. It’ll probably still be many years until I have any children of my own, but it’s probably never too early to be thinking about how to raise your children once the time comes.
@@Not_interestEd-for me i always had to get home right after school and wasnt allowed out AT ALL like id get in trouble for going outside but i was allowed to watch as much tv as i wanted or use my laptop for hours...
Great vid.
One issue....
Kids are stuck in school for up to SEVEN hours a day with really short breaks (at least at my school) and then when we get home, we have LOTS of homework to do so we just don't have the time to go outside. And also, this issue has gotten worse because our outside time is now restricted bc of Covid, so we have BARELY any outside time, and it's not even our fault.
Agreed
It is a systemic problem and it requires a systemic solution.
But the thing is the hormone that stops the eyeball from getting longer is made at a very young age so its not about the schools since most kids this age won't even be going to school as they are too young.
@@JOHNSONNBOSSWtf ? Ofcourse they go to school
IN INDIA IT IS AGE 2 TO 3 @CandiedYandere
I actually expected something else to come out from this video, because about link between the light exposure and eyeball growing i read in multiple studies few years ago. I immediately knew the reason seem valid for me, since i start to spend a lot of time indoor at age of 11 and it was not long after when i noticed issues with sight.
In college I ended up taking a class about far eastern history. One of the things that stuck out to me was a record in China detailing the rise of near sightedness hundreds of years ago. China had a very desirable government worker system, and parents making their kids study hard to pass the tests required to get those jobs lined up with the rise of near sightedness. In hindsight we can say it's because the kids were inside studying rather than outside playing, that they became near sighted.
Could this the reason why people associate glasses with being smart?
@@joshsonofzeus4759yeah you're on to something. nice!
And what is worse, when you realise that you are not getting smarter (learning more) by staying all day inside reading/studying. I noticed this after developing chronic back pain by spending like 5 years sitting down all day in front of a computer screen. Then I noticed that other people who know much more than me actually have a social life, for example my university professors are married, practice sports and so on. Then I decided to immediately change my way of life but I guess it was a bit late.
@@User-jr7vf I suppose it will get easier as your new way of life becomes your normal way of life. Keep it up 👍
@@User-jr7vf It's never too late! Just give it time and try to force yourself into social events and eventually it'll feel more natural.
Nice video, but there is one minor mistake. The ciliairy muscles that influence the curvature of the lens can only contract to thicken the lens. Meaning they can work harder to look at object closer by. To look at object further away, the muscles relax, causing the lens to flatten more. There are no opposing muscles to the ciliary muscles, so the eye cant 'work hard' to look at object further away, it just gets fuzzy.
This is also why people get farsighted at age; the lens stiffens with age, making it harder to accomodate to objects close by.
EDIT: As some have pointed out, it's actually the lens becoming more rigid, not the muscles weakening! I changed that bit.
And in your comment there is also a small mistake: as people age, primarily the lens inside the eye gets stiffer. In lesser order do the muscles get weaker.
Does this mean nearsighted kids will get better vision when they get old?
@@jamesmnguyen yep
@@jamesmnguyen Probably not. I'm guessing it just means they will have a smaller visual range that, without glasses, is entirely in the middle distance part, without any ability to focus nearer or farther. I have worn glasses for distance since I was a kid, and in my late thirties now I have been warned by an optician that I will probably also need reading glasses sooner rather than later, so it looks like I will either have to learn to adapt to bifocals/varyfocals, or else end up endlessly apologising for having my wrong glasses on, as my late grandpa used to have to.
@@MrDannyDetail can you please tell us how wearing 'wrong' glasses affects one's eyesight
You know what? This makes so much sense. My vision was perfect until I was hitting puberty and was trapped in a dimly lit hellscape called school. I still went outside for sports plenty, but most of my life was inside either at home for the night or at school, with very little natural light. My eyes took a nosedive directly into extreme nearsightedness. My parents blamed my computer games, but it being the fault of a terribly lit space that I was stuck in for dozens of hours a week without stop… that makes more sense.
same
Another reason why schools need too be reformed, They only think about the crap stain we call "education" rather than focusing on the things that help us become wiser better people and our mental and physical health
@@MessiahVA Excuse me, but how do dimly lit schools and the education system correlate? Your argument is that we should reform schools just because they are dimly lit?
@@MessiahVA There's no relation here.
@@eliscips8833 As a guy who goes to a physics/math school (basically meaning I get taught more than an average kid) and has good grades I still hate school. I was never a bad student because I keep forcing myself to study to get good grades. Not only me but most of my friends are like this too. It's not about if you're good or not, some people just like studying school subjects and some don't.
This video is doing the work of the vision care industry for it (shifting attention away from the effects of the minus lens). Great job.
i took "if you stare at the sun, you will go blind" as "if you stare at the sun, you will instantly go blind" and disproved it multiple times by staring at the sun, and now i need glasses
I don't think staring at the sun can cause you myopia, rather it can damage your retina or cornea.
Staring at the sun doesn't cause myopia it will burn your retina or cornea
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This is why we need proper education, not the frying pan brain on drugs crap.
Man I thought I was alone in that. I started using glasses back at 5th grade, coincidentally it was around the same time that I tried myth busting that saying by staring at the sun, eyes wide open, in the morning walking to school a few times.
I'm in my late 20s and I've been through 6-7 pair of glasses. After uni, i've only ever gone outside twice a month just to buy some some snacks.
I wonder if the increased social pressure to work (or "increased productivity") in a lot of countries right now is related to this. If parents are too busy to take their kids outside, and there are not necessarily other organizations in place to ensure kids get outside, then kids will stay at home, or at aftercare at school. It seems like, in a lot of places, leisure time for working adults is being whittled away, and as the pandemic has taught us, there aren't organized efforts to ensure kids get the care they need if their parents are too busy to provide it.
It also goes for kids as well since the amount of time you need to spend on school and homework has generally increased which leaves the kids with less time and energy to go outside. It's not really a shock that a kid might not want to go outside when they are tired from spending 3 hours on homework. At the same time the things that used to inevitably get people to go outside have kinda disappeared in a lot of countries, mostly going to and from school, you need a car do that in a lot of places these days and kids can't just bike on their own so they don't even get that outside time. Also various organizations have found a direct correlation between a drop in participation in sports and toxic body images because kids are scared to really be in changing rooms because they feel self conscious about their bodies. Schools also rarely have interesting playgrounds and many kids live so far away from any interesting nature that the best option they have for going outside are gonna be fairly boring parks and backyards that aren't interesting at all. The things that kids actually like to do outside like climb in trees, catch bugs and just go exploring really isn't possible in many places and many parents are too overbearing to allow it, at the same time video games and other digital entertainment now offers these experiences in spades, BoTW is gonna be far more interesting than 90% of the outside a kid living in the US will have access to, and they can play it with friends as they chose.
@@hedgehog3180 When I was a kid in the winter it was dark by the time I was home from school and for a good portion of spring and autumn if I did my homework as soon as I got home like my Mum wanted (when my brain was tired from leaning all day and most needed a break) it was dark by the time I finished it and obviously I wasn't allowed outside to play after dark, plus it was freezing after the sun went down. Kids just aren't allowed time to play outside half the year in a lot of countries further from the equator.
@@hedgehog3180 I agree with most of what you said, BUT here in oregon, it's really easy to have fun outside, especially during the summer. Rest of the year? Not so much. XD
Just realised even tho I love nature and stuff I rarely go outside cause except from going to school cause i just watch it in documentaries and videos. Going outside is more wishful thinking for me rather than doing anything, which is probably my fault, but then again I think it could be a side effect of social media etc providing indoor entertainment so we don’t find it necessary to go out. But there r kids that do, i have a classmate who has to go for a run each day cause she doesn’t like staying indoors too much. Maybe it’s different environmental influences? Idk
@@dima97 lmao I live here too I feel your pain
New version of “go touch grass” could be “go shorten your eyeballs”
Go shorten your eyeballs!
Few days back I watched a 20 minute long video explaining the very things showed in this 2 minute video.
Great work.
I've heard that blurry vision can also be a genetic problem. You'll need glasses at a certain age which would be around the exact same age when your parent(s) got glasses
It is a genetic problem, I got glasses around 8 years old. My parents both also got glasses at a young age. Genetics is one of the causes for bad vision.
@@Basil-. I see
My parents don't have them
@@Basil-. I got glasses when I was 5😭
You are right, it is a genetic problem that either causes a lack of the hormone or too much of the hormone so really wether you are inside or not you eyes will be fucked 1 day
I remember hearing several years about studies done in China that showed a strong correlation between kids eyesight and how much time they spent outdoors. Since then I assumed this was because people who grow up mostly indoors never practice focusing their eyes on things far away. This has been true for me. I only ever need my glasses when I'm outside or in a very large room. I only have trouble seeing things around 20-30ft away or more, and most rooms are smaller than that.
It's interesting to learn that it seems to have more to do with our exposure to sunlight. That also makes a lot of sense.
The Chinese government funded a study that found this out that it's light level and not distance. They were wondering because one generation ago only 3% of Chinese people needed glasses but now 90+% do.
i honestly couldn’t stop laughing when i heard that most kids nowadays have “long eyeballs”, and it was even funnier for me when people thought it was their kids phones doing this to them.
the fact that i probably have "long eyeballs" is strangely unnerving to me
literally nothing funny about that
@@zyrgr2940 people have different senses of humour, there was literally no point in commenting that
@@zyrgr2940 long eyeballs
i mean believe it or not, phones and computer(worse for computer) contributes to people being indoor more and that makes their eye grow longer which then causes myopia so yes phones and computer are partially a problem.
A great PSA to make sure parents make time so their kids go out to play
How often ?
10 y.o me wearing glasses for the first time: “Yo, the world is this HD??”
But yeah, thank you for the knowledge man! Now I understand why eye problems are quite common to kids who likes to stay inside (that includes myself).
I dont know man i stay inside most of the time yet i dont have eye problemz
@@MOMAZOSPATO maybe you never turn off your lights at home
thats so relatable- MY FRIEND SAID IT TOO
LIFE LOOKS REALER NOW THAN LIFE LOOKS REAL
@@astrali0 then when we take off the glasses we're like "WHAT HAVE I DONE TO MY EYESSS!"
@@saucepan2342 i relate man, that's so exhausting to wear them anytime we gotta focus or like remove everytime we lay on bed or anywhere
*Requesting to watch UA-cam videos outside in the Sun was a twist I never expected to be honest!* 😁
How the hell am I the first reply
Bold of them to assume YT will be around for another generation
What if you wear sunglasses? Does it impact?
W
bold of you to assume it won't.
It takes a lot for a long established company giant to fizzle out. @@narfharder
Most parents: *”I’m gonna pretend I didn’t see that.”*
I'm gonna pretend I didn't *see* that.
I'm gonna pretend I didn't SEE that
I'm going to pretent I' did see that
what about hispanic and latino moms?
I showed this to my parents a while back and they just said "I don't care"
I was born with a rare eye defect called anisometropia, that later manifested around when I was 4. I already had trouble seeing things at age 2 as my mom told me, I took toys to my eyes really close, so my trademark was a constant eye patch wearing to train my shortsighted eye, then began developing alternating esotropia.My eyesight kept worsening, recenly began stagnating, though my eyesight is still sh!tty, thankfully I can still wear my glasses I had been wearing for 3 years(I had to get new lens every year). I will have to see a specialist to examine just how crooked my eyes are, and if they can be corrected.
This reminds me of how one of my teachers had told us that people needed glasses because they only looked at phones and it caused their eyes to feel like they don't need to know to see past that, but since I'm the only kid in that class with glasses, everyone looked at me. And while this video disproves that, my teacher was wrong in two ways because my glasses aren't even for things far away, they're so my eyes don't give me a miraine when I look at anything closer than like 2 meters.
farsightedness? dang😭
Farsightedness is so much worst than nearsightedness… your teacher was right except she assumed you were nearsighted
@@ceazria2499 no, nearsightedness is worse, not being able to see far clearly is worse than not being able to see near clearly. LIterally everyone outdoor who wears glasses have nearsightedness, whereas people with farsightedness only need to wear glasses in close up reading.
AQW Spart it depends if you have farsightedness that is more than 100 degrees, you can’t see what’s in front of you even if it’s your own hands. If you have 100 degrees of nearsightedness, things 5 meters away from you get a bit blurry. I know this from experimenter since one of my eyes are farsighted and one is nearsighted.
@@ceazria2499 no it doesnt depend, doesnt matter how many degrees each has, nearsightedness is more handicapped than farsightedness
"most babies are born with short eyeballs"
What a great sentence
Lol if they are then they how do they have bigger eyeballs at the front *I'm the average 9-10 yr old because I am*
My new fun fact when I’m meeting someone new
I had disabilities that prevented me from doing many outdoor activities that my four younger siblings could do. So if this video is correct, then it makes sense why I'd be the first one in my family to need glasses and why they'd be distance glasses (and why, since I don't do many distance activities, I don't really *need* glasses). It doesn't explain, now that everyone in my family except me uses glasses, why I'd have the least harsh prescription - maybe it's just because I don't use distance vision that much. Maybe my prescription is bad, but I don't need it as much so haven't really sought it out.
And before anyone suggests it, they all had glasses before 2020, so the pandemic lockdown didn't affect their outdoor time that way.
I had a similar problem recently though I don't think it had to do with being outdoors in this case. my long distance vision got worse and worse and although I could see far away I just wasn't focusing. it took hours
ended up turning out that a lack of fasting/fat fasting was leading by eye muscles to become in disrepair and red meat and eggs contains the nutrients to start repairingmy eyesight alot... Retinol also improved my dark adaptation to the point I could almost read in very dark conditions....
My optician kept trying to give me glasses. how odd...
Any more information on this? About wearing your glasses all the time causing vision to worsen? Ah, better phrased, the fact is I have glasses. The other fact is- I don't want my vision getting worse. And I wear them 24/7.@@kenpazaraki5781
@@kenpazaraki5781 Wrong causation. Just one example. You story is a prime example of irrelevance and bad "science".
Your eyes will continue to develop until around 25, then your eye sight will not change much until you are between 40 and 50 (typically)
So the fact that your eye sight did not change much once your reach 25 was expected.
@@57thorns Anecdotally, I don't find that to be true. I got glasses for the first time in my early thirties, and I know other people who got glasses in their thirties as well.
@@StarryEyed0590 Exceptions to the most general rule.
Also, with age many people start needing glasses, but that is generally not in their 30s.
I blame schools. Spend all day inside, gym was inside, class was inside, afterschool was inside, go home and spend time inside because nobody was in the neighborhood to hang (and when there was, had to be watched while doing the chores which meant... inside).
I've been staying in my house for like 3x how I used to for almost 2 years. Mum still blames it on the screens and I always thought the same. My great grandma also can't see far properly and when I use her glasses, the world goes into 4K Ultra HD. Thanks for letting me know something like this. Never knew it worked like this.
ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html
Thanks quarantine
Lol 4k ultrahd. My eyesight is ruined due to sunlight exposure as a baby. My mom said I was under sunlight too long even my skin darker than both my parents. But I still game on PC everyday without sunglasses QuadHD 32 inch 144hz so my eyes wont get tired.
u definitely see better than 4k ultra hd even without glasses
@@iamapokerface8992 I do close range but long range, things are so blurry. It's probably better than 4k ultrs HD, just that my eyes can't process it.
Simple solution: "go outside to watch your videos!"
Very nice explanation. Some of this is inheritance as well since my mom and her siblings also had to wear glasses.
Me too! It’s kinda annoying if it’s inherited though!
Genetic inheritance is definitely overlooked. I spent a lot of time outside as a kid (and also looking straight into the sun, which might be the cause of some of my vision problems) and I needed glasses in like the 3rd grade.
I inherited my mother's eyes
150% clearer vision than is average in each eye!
To be clear, this is only one reason for nearsightedness, so !) don't expect that hormone to fix the problem for everyone, and 2) while "go outside to watch your UA-cam videos is a fun spin of an easy solution, screens *do* also have other negative effects on your vision than just tempting you to stay inside.
While it doesn't immediately and permanently fuck up your vision, staying focused within a limited range for long stretches of the day does make the pupillary constrictor/iris sphinter muscles in charge of your pupil width lazy. This still doesn't mean you have to limit your screentime to a few hours or anything, but it does mean you should stay aware of long stretches of the day you spend in front of your screen, and take a few seconds every half an hour or so to look around and refocus your eyes back and forth on varying distances. This has been shown to long-term vastly improve the vision of children who do not have physical deformation of their eyes. Look up "Eye muscle exercise" to learn more - and focus on the ones that actually have to do with focusing on different distances; the ones that just move your eyes aren't very important for young people.
@@TheHadMatters how long did it take you type all of that? O-o
Also the simple solution was just me making a meme lol.
Screen time was probably one portion of my issue, since I've been exposed to screens since I was young, and now I'm near sighted. (I believe that's the one where you see near and farther objects are blurry) but definitely it had to be the fact that over the years I didn't get as much sunlight exposure.
Oof, big error at 1:05. Our relaxed lens posture for an emmetrope (someone with perfect vision) is set at infinity and a young person can focus in from there. There is no such thing as “focusing” the eye to look far away, only relaxing to reach that posture.
-an eye doctor here.
I can focus a second or longer to make the stuff that i see in the distance more crisp.
You are saying its impossible to focus on relaxation?
@@02artiom u dont need to focus, as in active focus when something is at 6+ meters away, ur relaxed eye can see just fine there.
thank god someone pointed it out xD
@@thisisatest6553 people with a minus perscription (nearsighted, myopic, etc) are relaxed when looking up close. in my case, (-4.00 DS) that is 25 cm. since I cannot relax further, everything beyond 25 cm is blurry to me without glasses
Thats very hard for people who live in very hot countries or kids who dont have a backyard or a garden near them, or their parents never let them go out
I was a kid like that, and now im 14 and i have 12/20 vision.
Very interesting topic, would like to see more studies about this
Make sure you check out the references in the description!
Make sure to go outside to see that
@@StellarVoid_134 😂
@@StellarVoid_134 🤣
they will, of course, have to be no farther than the middle distance
wow my dad was right. he's probably the only adult around me whose comment about kids these days needing glasses is because of lack of sunight. instead of the usual you play video games too much. he used to told me to stare at the sky. jokes on me and my glasses for not listening then.
My father said the same thing but with night skys. And yes jokes on me as well
there's an old saying in my culture that goes "look at the greens (trees) to heal your eyesight". I thought it literally means looking at the trees in pictures and videos but it turns out it's advising us literally to go outside and see the nature.
I mean there's probably a heavy genetic component to it, All of my family has always spent a significant amount of time outdoor,and we live in an area with hotter climate (aka. a lot more hours of light in a day compared with a northern country) but everyone's eyesight is bad, like very bad.
I think that the "not enough sunlight" argument can only work if the kid isn't already genetically predisposed to get myopia.
A teacher in high school told us that looking at the sky each morning is good for better eyesight. I did that for two years and did notice that I see better.
@FreakyAzumi without. I never wore glasses
So does this hormone have to be continuously produced in order to prevent lengthening. For example if you spend all of your life outdoors in childhood then as an adult spend most of your time indoors will the adults vision deteriorate. Also does this mean that cold climate populations wear glasses more often than warm climate populations because of there being less light in winter months?
Im pretty sure no. Since im assuming once it stops it stops but thats just my assumption. I have near super human vision and bearly went outside durring covod. My eyesight hasnt demonished even a bit. I get this is anecdoteal evidence but just my idea recommend you do more reaserch.
pretty sure hot climates end up having more glasses wearers because it's too hot to go outside... e.g. China and India
I heard that it can still get worse once you are an adult and spend every second indoors but it happens much slower than as a kid. Not sure though
@@potapotapotapotapotapota And on the other hand, people in cold areas recieve little to no sun throughout the whole winter. I think there would be far more people in colder areas wearing glasses.
@@potapotapotapotapotapota
That's not true.
Asian countries are the most who wear glasses, but European also have have high number of prescription glasses:
Finland: 66%
Norway: 65%
Belgium: *70%*
Switzerland: *68%*
Imagine insulting someone with glasses by saying “your eyeballs are so long” 💀
🤓err...yeah your right
At least today wearing glasses are completely normal.
When i was teenager, some of my classmates loves to bully people with glasses. Resulted me not to have one and slowing my learning process in middle school.
I'm sorry that something like this happened to you.
Contact lenses have become so good that it's no longer a problem to wear glasses. At least as long as you have the money for it.
@@TheRaven123 Keep in mind that this is coming from someone rather ignorant of the whole subject. . .
But the idea of shoving pieces of glass, or for that matter, any foreign object into my eyes just feels off-putting.
@@Steelpoly3dJ316 I also don't like the idea of contacts. The added benefit is that you can take your glasses off to reduce the strain required to see close objects.
@@Steelpoly3dJ316 Contacts are made of silicone, not glass 🤣.
Playing games: 2 hours
Online school: 7 hours
parents: it's because you're always playing games on that damn phone!
There must also be some genetics involved too. I was a super outdoorsy kid, but my whole family has glasses, and my prescription is super weak (-.75 on both eyes if you're curious). So, like in most of biology, genes must also play a role in how much light is required to have Normal vision or if you have another eye abnormality that effects vision.
Since it's a hormone, it's production is also dictated by your genes. So it definitely plays a part.
@@user88926 -*.*75 there is a decimal point in there, or if you'd like me to write it differently, -0.75, although it literally doesn't make a difference. Please, it's right there, double check before you make "UMM ACHTUALLY-" comments
@@user88926 "hey bud" ? "But nice story" ? You're trying to tell me you were *NOT* trying to be patronizing when you 1) allegedly intentionally just disregarded a decimal point, 2) FUCKING CALLED ME BUD??? Go back and read your first comment!
Also, just ignoring the 0 before a decimal point is really fucking common. If there's nothing before a decimal point, it's going to be a 0. I tend to type as I speak so because I say "negative point seven five" I type out "- . 7 5" and I've literally never had a problem with anyone, ANYONE, family, friends, or doctor alike, taking issue with the way I write or say my glasses prescription (or any other decimal). Literally no one assumes I mean -7.5 or anything like that. Its only been you *BUD*.
Next time, how about you don't assume anything, especially how your tone is going to read, because I can tell you, *BUD*, you don't come off in any amicable way. "You get what you give" and all that jazz.
@@user88926 listen, if your first thought was -75, when there is a decimal point and realistically you know that's not a prescription, why not at least assume I was saying -7.5? You could then say like "Hey did you mean -7.5? That's not a great eyesight realistically" because it's not, but that's not you saying "YO BUD YOU'RE LYING BUT GOOD STORY!" Also then I can answer saying "Oh hey, thanks for asking! No I have a -0.75, but because I type fast I just exclud the 0 because it's implied." Then this WHOLE mess doesn't have to happen. If you're unsure of something, Just ask!!! And don't call people BUD, it's fucking annoying. I'm not your bud, I'm a stranger on the internet, keep it that way.
@@user88926 but like you said, tone is important, and tone changes drastically between word choice. If I say "Come with me" that's a different tone then "Please, follow me." Effectively the same thing was said, but one is polite, the other is a command.
If you think something should be corrected, ask "is this what you meant?" Or "Did you mean...?" I promise you it will (usually) come off a lot better then saying "You may want to correct that number" because my number is very much correct, it's not my fault that you misinterpreted it at 2 am. If you want clarification, that's fine, but ask for that, don't assume *I* need to fix something. Sometimes maybe I do, but that's not for you to dictate.
Maybe keeping kids inside to learn mostly unimportant stuff for 8 hours a day wasn’t the best idea. When I was a kid my parents wouldn’t let me leave the culdesac we lived on when I played outside and there was not much to do so I barely played outside. The sad thing is that’s more freedom than most kids are given now.
"Go outside to watch videos."
The sun: I'm gonna dim this person's whole screen.
Get True Tone screen.
Old devices don’t have that, but new phones do and it’s very useful. 👍🏻
@@MP-vc4nu omg is that what it’s for??
@@MP-vc4nu what's true tone skin?? I'm hearing it for the first time ngl
*screen and i just googled it, sucks it's only for iOS devices
@@MP-vc4nu Only Ios devices do
not all new phones
Oh my goodness - is it possible for this to happen in your 20s??
After over a year almost entirely indoors (because of covid) I got to the point where I need glasses to see distant things clearly. I thought it might be because of the endless hours in front of a screen, but this theory would make just as much sense!
Without enough dopamine from sunlight, your eyes can continue lengthening into your 20s
My doctor told me something like eyes can stop growing as late as age 25.
It's dependent on many factors, but there is actually adult-onset myopia progression which implies it can get worse at any age (although there is not much research for adults because it is less common).
@@SushiPat Great, that could help hyperopic people like me ^^
It could also just be genetic, that was the time where my mom started to need glasses and now at 23 I just got my first set of glasses, and both of us spent a lot of time outside as children.
I've started developing blurry vision when I was about 10-11 years old. This was back in the mid-90's, so before computer screens and smartphones. I've always thought it was because I was reading a lot, but staying away from the sun (in a country famed for its nice weather, of all places) sounds like a plausible explanation.
In some countries, People don't care about children's health at all, they just push their child as hard as possible, I hate my childhood so much (~2010)
i think this can be, at least in part, attributed to both how parents raise their kids and because of suburban infrastructure. kids aren't ALLOWED to go just outside anymore, not without their parents' consent or taking them there; and a lot of parents are working, so thus can't be there to supervise their kids. i know this because i've just become an adult, and this is how i was raised. i used to have near 20-20 vision, but now i can't see road signs without assistance and my vision continues to worsen by the day. i also grew up in the american suburb, which is not typically close to anywhere that kids can just walk or bike to, besides maybe the park; but again, they can't go there without their parents' permission. i think technology became a sort of haven for us, to feel like we had freedom to "go" wherever on the internet. the technology isn't to blame, it's just what we turned to for entertainment because the outdoors wasn't available.
True and some neighborhoods are unsafe for a child to play without a parental supervision. Since they can’t go outside to play, they get bored and end up playing on their tablets/phones.
@@Lilly-ed5qx letting kids experience freedom is critical to their development. sheltering kids RUINS them. it makes them fragile and weak.. most people don't understand that weak people end up as some of the most dangerous and unhinged people. I'd rather let my kids face the dangers of bullying and rough characters than have them turn out weak.
The suburb I live in doesn't even have sidewalks!
Suburban infrastructure because we wanted to make room for tons of cars and parking lots. They paved paradise and put up a parking lot.
Exactly. I'm always told to "go outside" or "stop looking at that screen all day", but what else am i supposed to do? draw? i need references. You could say to just go outside, but who will take me? i live in a kind of city but without tall buildings area so there ae cars eveywhere. It's not that easy to touch grass.
I spent almost my whole childhood indoors, doing a combination of reading and playing games. Now I'm indoors almost 24/7 playing games and studying computer science. My optometrist thinks my eyes have just continued to get worse since I was 12ish (when my vision was decent) because my eyes don't ever get exercise looking at things 20ft+ away and/or genetics. It always kinda scares me when I take my glasses off just how absolutely blind I am without them. I'm 22.
S A M E
We have to agree that this video was very insightful on shedding light on this topic
This is so interesting! Would you have to keep this up (= being outside more often) well into adolescence and adulthood? Because I spent a lot of time outside as a kid and had no vision problems until I was 17 when I started developing myopia... which makes sense because as an introverted homeboy, I don't go outside as much anymore😅
I always thought I was nearsighted because I often pointed my flashlight directly into my eyes. So thank you for this educating video. Of course this isn't always the case. For example my mother grew up on a farm and so was often exposed to sunlight, however she was still nearsighted at early age.
Edit: Another explanation could be genetics. A recent study has shown that you have a 1 in 3 chance of developing myopia (short-sightedness) if both parents are myopic too. If only one of your parent is myopic, this figure decreases to a 1 in 5 chance. If neither of your parents is myopic however, you have less than a 1 in 40 chance.
Yeah and also idk if your flashlight was very bright because often exposure of bright light can cause permanent damage to the retina
I do that sometimes but it makes my iPad get like, dead in just 30 minutes
@@Numbergamer2025 bro wtf. Don't put flash into your eyes for 30 mins
Ummmm I meant that I play it outside. But when I do that, the brightness goes very high and it makes the battery go down faster.
Well it seems I got the 1 in 40 chance. Yay....
Fun fact: Apparently, your eye will adapt to viewing digital screens if done frequently for long periods of time on a daily basis. It doesn't mean just your phone. The change is minor; however, there will be a brief moment where your vision slightly blurs before returning to normal.
so it exists but is really just a temporary effect or is it permanent if done too much?
@@Kyonari Kinda permanent
nerd
Yep, just happened to me rn
Just about every time I donate blood plasma (45 minutes staring at my phone), I walk out with blurry vision, sometimes so bad that I wait a little bit before driving. It clears up within an hour, maybe two if it's particularly bad. I figured it was my eyes getting "lazy" during the screen time, but I wasn't sure.
This problem has literally just happened to me. I went my whole life thinking my vision was fine only to find out at the age of 20 that I need glasses - and I've been wondering, why? Thanks for the answer. Gonna send my kids outside a lot more whenever I get round to it.
ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html
Covid: am I a joke to you
@@shashigoodyiue yes
@@shashigoodyiue bro you can still go outside lmao covid isn't just in the air everywhere you go
Hmmm that's strange. Didn't the video say it's at age 6 that this happens? I thought, being well over 6, this time is over and my eyeballs won't grow more, since I have clear vision. So maybe I should still make sure I am getting enough light per day.
I’m nearsighted - none of my siblings do even though both my parents are also nearsighted. My daughter may become nearsighted (she’s 1) but an optometrist I went to said they are ways now to PREVENT nearsightedness. I was blown away! I wonder if it has something to do with the eyeball shape. Either way, I am going to do my best to get her outside more often, since there are so many benefits to being outdoors.
I always wondered why every single person I knew, who read on a daily basis for entertainment, wore glasses.
I personally hated reading because people always attempted to force me into it
Yeah brings the fun out of reading like if you're going to force me to read it's not fun anymore. I don't understand why they don't get that. I actually was told also don't read in the dark it's bad for your eyesight but I never listened :')
This also relates to one of my questions: why do almost all "nerds" in school wear glasses. You: Sent something similar that almost solves this question
@@demihau not really you just have to find something you love, whether that's fiction book, non-fiction book,comics, newspapers etc. there's always something for everyone. The problem comes in when people pressure or force you to read. That's when reading sucks
@@-_lIl_- i am on a technical shool and my class is only what you would call "nerds". few have glasses so that argument doesnt work out.
@@SimonBauer7 People still use the word "nerds" unironically? But my school is just as worse I guess people start drama just because
This actually explains quite a lot about the types of kids that had glasses when I was growing up in the 90s and where some of those stereotypes came from. Or does it? 6 is pretty early in life.
I mean there's also the thing that someone with bad eyesight but is very physically active is just gonna naturally favor using contact lenses and therefore you won't really notice it if they have bad eyesight unless they tell you. But on the other hand someone who isn't as active is probably just gonna opt for glasses and not really want to go through the trouble of getting accustomed to contact lenses.
@@hedgehog3180 Were lenses a popular thing in the 90's, or even existed, though?
There are also those born with severe nearsightedness like my aunt who was basically blind without glasses since she was a baby
@@bluefox5331 They existed but they sucked, were uncomfortable, expensive, and kids didn't use them.
@@bluefox5331 my dad had lenses as a kid and he's in his 50s now. They were pretty uncomfortable though
Not only was this very clear and informative, but it was quick and snappy too. Other youtubers would've spent double or more time explaining everything in a convoluted way. A big thank you for this video.
So your telling me that I wear glasses because I don’t go outside enough
Precisely
Maybe because you have it in your family? Like for me, my whole family wears glasses, so from the start, they knew i was gonna wear glasses
Same.@@starportolko
My brother needs glasses since birth but he doesn't care tho and never wears contact/glasses and he goes outside a lot but I dont and they say it's also because of the screen since i didn't have that when i was first born so yeah this video does make sense and I just turn up the brightness XD ok I'll try to go outside so my eyes fix themselves instead of getting worse and needing better glasses since they aren't really the cheapest... + Sunglasses Are WAY Cheaper than Polarized Glasses Liek Bro! And and I don't rlly wanna wear contacts cuz I'm a bit scared of having them stuck to my eyes 💀
It makes sense slot now
Kid: Gets bullied and becomes depressed.
Parents: It's the screens.
Kid: Is now more depressed because they lost a valuable escape tactic.
Parents: It's the screens.
Kid: Spends more and more time indoors reading and studying because they have literally nothing else to do, causing them to become nearsighted, and even more depressed.
Parents: ... It's the screens.
Edit: Everyone please stop saying "YoU jUsT nEeD tO Go OuTsIdE mOrE". I'm not saying we don't. But if a person who's bullied doesn't have in-person friends, which they sometimes don't, there's goddamn nothing to do. Especially for people who aren't athletic or don't have an outdoorsy hobby. You're making us feel worse, not better.
Hey, stop summarising my life so far! XD
nah its not that its just that people don't go outside as much anymore. means less real relationships with people, worse physical ability, worse health (and as this video explains eyes), worse mental health. but I get it. games and youtube and shit are literally designed to be as addictive as possible, but parents are right in that if you get rid of them u feel better.
@@greg1439 lol the world is devolving
But always studying and reading isn't a bad thing? If you take appropriate measures while reading you won't be much affected by those disadvantages :)
@@M1551NGN0 minus the depression... Idk about you, but if I spent all my free time studying, I'd be really depressed.
This makes so much sense. Both my parents are only a little nearsighted. They never have to wear their glasses, just only at night when driving or watching TV. My parents were both very active outside as children. My brother and I, however, are horribly nearsighted. I have to constantly wear either my glasses or contacts. My dad was shocked when the eye doctor told him how bad my vision was, since nearsightedness isn’t that bad in my family. It’s very plausable to think that me hoarding inside as a child affected my eyesight this way.
This explains so much. Not sure if its the same thing, but sounds like it to me.
I have eyes that are fairly sensitive to light so being in direct sunlight started to sometimes gives me headaches and makes me tired really fast. So I spent most of my time reading inside (when I wasnt forced outside). Then the pandemic came and I used it as an excuse to not go out at all. Surprise surprise, after the pandemic, I needed glasses.
Still think it might be this with the fact our house didnt have very big rooms so I just didnt need to look at things from too far away for 1 and a half years
bullshit, you just read too much
Me and my sisters had or still have school every day until 2:30 p.m. or longer. Luckily for us there was/is no homework, but children who have school for that long and then also get homework in every subject and then have to work on it until 4/5 p.m or even longer just don't go outside much because they simply don't have the interest or energy afterwards, and in winter there's no time at all for children to get sunlight.
Very interesting! So … does wearing things like sunglasses when you’re younger actually screw up your eye development? And what about the blue light glasses on the market fairly recently to use when using screens, I wonder how those effect eyes? I’ve got the latter and while it reduces eye strain stuff (great for long hours of uni work) the distance has become fuzzy (which is strange as gardening is a hobby of mine!).
From what I've gathered, getting the recommended amount of light into your eyes are important. So wearing sunglasses 24/7 (by this logic) mess up your eye growth.
I've heard the blue light glasses don't work and I've heard that they can make your eyes more sensitive to light
@@agent_lunxr4327 where’d you get this? I’m curious.
@@justarandompersoniguess one of those TikTok doctors
What about those 1ho have blue eyes the always wear so glasses when they go outside
That honestly makes sense, especially with the pandemic going on where you're literally not allowed to go outside. Our bodies and even our brains are going through actual biological and physiological changes because of the pandemic.
You are wrong. You are allowed to go for walks outside.
@@romanski5811 Not everyone was doing that before covid hit, most people only went out for necessity.
There is no correlation of data that can be made with covid since this subject is so recent.
skill issue
Who was stopping you from going outside, just don't go to another building
Getting corrective eye surgery was one of the best things I've done in my life.
Going outside wasn't an option as a teen.
"you should go outside"
*How about eye surgery*
(this is a joke)
Don't get surgery unless you seriously need it because it can permanently ruin your eyes. What I mean is that unless you were born with deformed eyes don't get surgery. Very few people have deformed eyes from birth.
@@HideFromIt Going outside doesn't help once your eyes are already deformed.
@@potapotapotapotapotapota The risk is extremely low, like dying from taking aspirin. LASIK has same spooky stories, but with PRK your cornea grows back perfectly.
I never felt comfortable in glasses and hated wearing them.
@@potapotapotapotapotapota easy to say when you can legally drive without glasses or contacts
Him: “you need more light”
Me: *aggressively turns on all the lights and turns my laptop’s brightness to 100%*
Interesting. I was aware of a study done where they found a correlation between children spending less time outside having more problems with their vision and vice versa, but it couldn't difinitively say whether it was *because* of them not having enough sun or if the kids just weren't looking at enough things that were far away or what. Feels like I've uncovered another piece of the puzzle with this video.
ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html ...
2:10 one small issue, I don't want to get robbed.
Worse
I live in a desert
I'm probably gonna die of overheating
worst of all
leage of legend
POV: latinoamerica
Worser
I live in an apartment on the 7th floor
@@Automaton_unitYou could sit inside, by a window
That's fascinating. I had heard nearsightedness was related to a lack of sunlight, but I always thought it was because people who are indoors reading would probably notice changes in their vision before, say, someone playing basketball outdoors. I had thought perhaps the number of people with poor vision was the same across the board, but only people who use and strain their eyes enough would notice a need for corrective lenses.
I have nearsightedness (i cant see the far),and like half a month ago,i encouraged myself to tell my parents that i see bad (yes i hid that for 3 years). My dad said its because of those screens! But.. 1-he also has bad eyesight,had an eye surgery
2-i have an eye nerve condition
3-i once accidentally splashed perfume in my eyes and kind of started seeing bad after
4-Another condition,as taller as i get,the worse my eyesight gets (im 2meters),but with the help of doctors,its the opposite now (the taller the better)
An advice from me,dont be afraid to tell your parents about your bad eyesight,if you dont,it might get worse ❤
I look SO MUCH on screens, back then and now, and I am actually far-visioned. I couldnt explain why, I never got outside that much :)
ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html
You probably had your window open many times which let sunlight through, personally I love sunlight from windows in summer, because I have my air conditioner and the sun, just feels vibey
@@hrithikbharadwaj5936 My parents will never let me open my window 💀
maybe because of your food intake?
genetic surely !
This makes more and more sense the more I think about it. I was always suspicious of the blue-light and/or display theory a bit, but wow. It also explains why the neighbourhood I used to live in (beautiful weather, warm, humid, by the ocean, tons of sports, public transit, always outside, etc etc etc) had seemingly barely anyone needing glasses compared to my current area (polar opposite). I always knew that applied to most health-related stuff (longer life expectancies too compared to the cold places) but never the eyes.
I actually started wearing glasses around 8-9 so I don’t think it had anything to do with staying indoors as my school was previously a school that hallways open to the outside and sunlight comes through and it’s connected to the play areas. Also the chances of getting it via genetics was higher for me as one of my parents are nearsighted.
Honestly same. I started wearing glasses on 1st year of elementary school. Both my parents are nearsighted so the chances of me being nearsighted is high
Bear in mind that humans have only built housing and explored beyond the 35th parallels for the last 400 out of 20,000 generations our kind have existed. Our natural norm is to get 8-14 hours of direct *tropical* sunlight every single day. Anything less than that, and we're pushing into the range of the unnatural. Adaptation is a slow process, and there's no guarantee that it's even _possible_ for our eyes to _fully_ adapt to living indoors without genetic engineering.
Personally, I grew up in a temperate region, and went to a school with big windows in every classroom. Both of my parents are strongly nearsighted, and I am only lightly nearsighted.
But no matter how much time I spent outside, I literally cannot possibly have been exposed to as much light as humans naturally are expected to, as that would require me to have lived at a lower latitude than I did. Is that why I'm nearsighted? Or is it purely inherited? There is literally no way for me to ever know, but odds are good that light is at least a significant factor.
It's almost certain that there are multiple genetic and epigenetic factors. Perhaps even _myriad_ such factors. Each and every one of those factors could scale with light differently, and could have a completely different curve on how difficult they are to satisfy, and how much they affect vision if unsatisfied.
Same here I got diagnosed with astigmatism in both eyes in the first grade at 5-6 years old and now these UA-camrs are telling me I didn't touch enough grass in my youth.
I can guarantee I was outside more playing sports and riding bikes more then half of these people causing more mischief then you're allowed to do today.
I love videos which explain things like this in a brief and simple way
Ooohh yes I've actually heard that children need to go outside everyday to keep good vision but I didn't know the reason! This is so interesting and good to know
ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html
Me too and we all mostly learn it on school about this
Thank you.
I was feeling guilty that I had "caused this" (my nearsightedness) from my phone. You don't know how grateful I am to learn that it's not my phone - it's how much I go outside. ❤
OMG I am the first reply
@@urvi_adri_rai_rituand.. still the first reply
I actually found this out a few months ago when I went outside and my vision became clearer than usual. And this video confirms it.
That’s is very true! once I go out my vision is like almost cleared up
ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html
@@MJMJ11 ua-cam.com/video/rTvzLB-ZakA/v-deo.html
Or your eyes just adjusted to seeing further away.
Bad eyesight doesn't just fix itself like that.
If you listen, the hormone will not shrink your eye, it will prevent more stretching or whatever, so no, this is just how your eyes work.
i tought it had to do with the fact that the eye just gets used to not having to focus on things far away.. i noticed that my sight got a lot worse when i started watching tv series on my phone for hours, just staring at this small screen without looking away and training my eye muscles or at least taking some breaks. the light thing is very interesting but does focusing on something small close to you really not play a part at all? its hard to believe for me that it doesnt add to the problem
That's cool! Does that mean if a child is outside but still watching stuff at close distance, their eyes will be fine?
Yes, I believe they said that at the end of the video. 'Go outside to watch your UA-cam videos."
no you have to focus on far things to see far things well lol, and vice versa, so sunlight is not enough compared to experience.
@@anywallsocket lol no.
@@anywallsocket You're kinda right. The problem happens when the eyes keep a constant focus distance for a long period. So focusing too much on near objects causes crystalline muscle strain, and focusing too much on far objects keeps the muscles so relaxed that they don't "exercise". Both can affect the development of the eye (only in chlidren, not adults)
@@Rudxain use it or lose it! The idea that sun has to do with it is clearly a cofounding variable, i.e. lack of sun doesn’t cause nearsightedness, it’s just that there’s no sun indoors.
This actually lines up with my experience with nearsightedness. Before the pandemic everyday I go outside to go to school. My eyesight was okay back then but recently because of this pandemic our school implemented an online setup where we have school online meaning that I don't go outside at all. My eyesight kinda just got worse and more blurry until I needed glasses lol. Anyway after seeing this video I might go outside more but even if I did I think its too late for me now :(
Now that I looked closer into my journey of eyesight declination. I think me using my phone in the dark also contributed to my nearsightedness because I noticed that I am more sensitive to bright lights. I think I also have Astigmatism lol. I really need to take care of my eyes better.
u could go to your optometrist and get ur acomodative system examinated, its true that during pandemic time a really high ussage of screens made a lot of people have worse eyesight but a lot of the kids and young fellas just needed to "reeducate" their acomodative system that was forced to stay a lot of hours active, contrary to what byologically it was designed for,( its not a system designed to work at super short distances 24/7)
yes it actually is too late, because there is no way you can shorten your eyeballs back , the best solution to nearsightedness is to not get it in the first place, although if you can currently see 20/40 without glsses, u should definitely throw away your glasses and go outside more. Good luck
Me too, personally I have miopia but before I was around 2.2 and after the pandemic I got to 4.7!!! Recently one of my eyes went from 3.2 to 2.9!! From begging outside.
@@euniqia4139 wait so that means it’s semi reversible or at least it can be improved slightly?
Thank you so much for this video. It really helped me understand why it’s so common nowadays! Only thing is, I was quite an outdoorsy kid…
It kind of explains why both my parents needed glasses quite young, but having then immigrated to a country where there was a lot of outdoor sports, I myself don't need glasses way past the age my parents needed them.
My parents are always telling me that my eyesight has gone worse bcuz of screens (I literally started wearing glasses at 4), I wanna show this to them but they don't understand English :')
Off-topic; when I switched my glasses, (2,5 degree to 4,5) I felt like my whole life was a lie (but I'm completely sure that my eye degree is around 5.25)
That wasnt necessary but I felt like I had to write this lol
I understand you lol, that time when I got that perfect lens on my eyes I was flabbergasted....like wait, the world is that beautiful, holy shit right
And they are right. You should have went outside and touch grass instead of locking yourself in your room to watch youtube 23 hours a day.
@@condorianonegdiffsgokuprojection? maybe didn’t watch the video, perhaps? clueless, even? i think so.
@@RagingInsomniac The video tells keyboard warriors to touch grass. I am not projecting.
@@condorianonegdiffsgoku So he was a keyboard warrior at the age of 4? Damn bro you are not the smartest are you?
I still use my mom's phone for Yt and a bit of gaming and spend most of my time studying since there isnt a place to go outside
I didnt need glasses yet but my long vision is getting a tiny bit blurry and I probably need glasses
You people really need to stop projecting
This makes a lot of sense. I had a lot of screentime after the age of 10 and throughout adulthood, but I don't need glasses. Prior to being 10, I had a lot of outside sun time.
Me too, except when I started to have that much screentime my eyesight went down and during quarantine it worsened pretty badly.
Same
There is also a connection with the scull growth and eyesight. If you have small maxilla (caused by lack of hard-to-chew foods and wearing braces) it will cause the lack of blood flow to the eye area giving you the slow loss of eyesight
0:04 hey ...That's pokemon eevee...in wild.
There's an Aipom as well.
Hey I love that Pokemon
This makes so much sense! I got glasses in 5th grade and haven’t changed lenses for a few years. Last year when I finally got my eyes checked, my eye doctor commented on how there wasn’t much difference in my prescription for 3 years since I first got glasses. The old lenses did cause a bit of a lazy eye for me and I’m going through treatment for it though
Doc said the same for me, however mine was 5 years not 3, also I seem to have avoided the lazy eye somehow, good luck with the treatment though, my mom has to have something similar, windows in her eyes are closing and they need to fix it before a certain time or else she'll go blind
Same ever I got glasses my eye sight is the same even now I I look at screens a lot
now i know why i stil dont have glasses. Because when i was 6 i didnt hav phone and when i wanted to watch tv i had to ask and i had friends so i went outside to play football all the time
@@dihaozhan A lot of people on my father's side of the family also has near-sightedness and it seems to affect the men more than women, so it's possible that it is also genetic. I remember going outside lots as a kid but thats probably after my eyes finished growing
Hope you get better m8
The timing of this video is near perfect for a friend of mine, thanks!
Same for me when i have covid and can't go outside!
Son shows this video:
Moms: takes a slipper, *_how dare you outsmart me_*
This is one of the main causes. I used to go outside tons when I was younger, since the UK promotes going outside in schools by forcing you outside for a lot of the day in the very young ages so you can play with other children. I was also constantly on days out, yet I'm still short sighted. There's still tons of unknowns about vision. This should help clear things up for the people who are like me and were outside so much as a younger child, but still need glasses
yo nezuko chan
Maybe its genetics as becoming nearsighthed is either lifestyle or genetics
As u did good things for ur eyes but ur still myopic so its prob gens
@@milkyios7375 none of my family wear glasses, it’s just me, so I have no idea
@@TheSmallDan it stabilizes till like 18 years of age right? since i use my phone less than my sister and also go outside more than her yet in a recent eye chekup her power barely increased while mine shot up, then i realised it might be since she's 19 and I'm 16