Computers Hurt Kids' Eyes

At residence and at bookish, children are glued to computers -- getting eye fatigue that could cause premature nearsightedness, or myopia, says one organization of researchers.

Optometrists at eight centers across the country analyzed 253 children, systematic them roughly computer habits and eye fatigue symptoms -- headaches, eye soreness, and blurry vision. They along with checked the children' eyes subsequently various visual acuity and focusing tests.

"We found that 25-30% of the children we tested were at risk for computer vision problems," says Cary Herzberg, OD, a private practice optometrist in Aurora, Ill.

The consider, led by a theoretical from the University of California, Berkeley, has not yet been published.

Just taking into account adults, children obtain eye fatigue once they stare at a computer too long, Herzberg tells. "But because kids are as a outcome modifiable, they won't complain roughly it."

Nearsightedness is not always the after effects of eye fatigue, he says. "But a number of studies have shown that the more close do its stuff a child does, the more it leads to nearsightedness."

At the heart of the agonized is what vision specialists call "becoming accustomed," Herzberg explains. "When you position of view a cassette, your eyes are not for all time looking at the in addition to-door word in the sentence. They will jump from one allocation of the sentence to substitute. Each era your eyes make that jump, they have to refocus, accommodate for the estrange. That causes eye fatigue."

With computer accomplish, eyes have to make more extreme changes in focus. "When you see at a screen, you don't focus lonesome in the region of speaking the screen. You focus at the in the back it a lot of the grow earliest." The eye fatigue that comes from that constant switch -- from 16 inches away to 20 inches away -- causes what's become known as "computer vision syndrome," says Herzberg.

To prevent eyestrain, the child might craving specially coated protective eyewear -- "computer glasses," he tells .

It's legal, eye fatigue is a common millstone considering computer use, says Evelyn Paysse, MD, hypothetical of ophthalmology and pediatrics at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston. She the entire to comment concerning Herzberg's psychoanalysis.

But it's the vibration in the cheaper monitors that bothers eyes most, she tells.

"Look slanting at the image upon a cheap monitor, and you can flavor the vibration. Your eyes are dealing taking into account this tiny bit of rework in the image clarity, going pro and forth, without the brain knowing it. That's what causes eye fatigue."

Whether eye fatigue will mitigation to nearsightedness, "is inconclusive, it's not been confirmed in the ophthalmology literature," Paysse says. "Most of us don't meet the expense of that it does."

However, she admits, "subsequent to you heavens at cultures ... where people don't habit in, there's enormously tiny myopia. And in cultures where there is more education, there's more myopia. So there may be some small bit of sealed to it, but it's not been proven."

Will special computer glasses serve eye fatigue? "I just don't think in view of that," says Paysse. "The toss around is an event of the computer monitor air. Try and invest in the best setting monitor you can acquire. A flat-screen monitor is best."


Also, it helps to allocate a five-minute interruption all hour to flaming your eyes, she says.

Herzberg's advice:

Don't sit too oppressive to the screen. Two feet away is best.
Sit going on straight.
Make in contract the screen is knocked out eye level, for that marginal note eyes will focus dexterously.