Eyesight declining?

Question

I am sixteen and my eyesight has just gotten bad recently. I never had problems before last year, but now everything that is far away is blurry. Most people that I know (who are nearsighted) had their vision decline around the age of twelve. I was wondering what may have caused this to happen.

*Its not hereditary because non of my immediate family and only a handful of my extended family wears glasses.

I've had an eye exam and I know I need glasses. I am just wondering what caused it.

Answer 1

That's when it happened to me as well. I was a sophomore in high school. I remember having to do a project which required me to look at a lot of maps. One day I looked up and I couldn't read the blackboard anymore! I know some people say that it is a myth that doing a lot of reading/studying causes nearsightedness, but that's what seemed to have happened to me.

Answer 2

The lens grows as we get older. Our activities also change as we get older. By the time most are teens, school becomes a bit more work, more reading, more computer work. One doesn't become myopic, either you are, or your aren't. One doesn't become far sighted. But if one is far sighted or hyperopic, by the time one is in the mid to late teens, the work to read beyond the work required just to see far away (unconscious work of bending the lens to focus the image) takes a higher percentage of the total capacity and one gets tired earlier.

If you were nearsighted, you'd be focused at a point a certain distance in front of your eyes, and everything beyond that would blurr. If you relax your eyes TOTALLY, being nearsighted you'd still be focused at a near point or near distance.

If you were focused at a meter, you'd need a -1.00 lens to see at distance. If you were focused at a half meter, you'd need a -2.00 lens to move your focal point out to "optical infinity".

IF you were focused at a third of a meter, a -3.00
and so on...

My guess is that you are probably mildly hyperopic, or farsighted.

As long as you can see well, when corrected, with the right Rx. you have good eyes.

It's when you cannot be corrected with lenses that another problem exists such as a corneal opacity or scar. An opacity of the lens of some type (cataract), something within the vitreous or gel back in the middle of the eye. Or damage or injury to the center of the retina, the macula such as happens with age (Macular Degeneration) or those who think that looking at the sun or a welder's arc is a cool thing to do. (DON'T DO THAT!) Then there's damage or injury or disease of the nerve, or even further back...the brain (hard drive).

The people in your life that you remember or admire or value or respect....doesn't matter whether or not they wear or don't wear glasses. Bill Gates wears glasses, he's very nearsighted. Poor thing.

Answer 3

It's still not fully understood!

There *are* genetic factors, but there is some input from reading too close for too long *in some cases*.

Some people will never go short-sighted however much closework they do, some will go shortsighted if they never read at all, but for some care with closework can make a difference.
Keep the longest reading distance that is reasonable for posture and size of print: no leaning into computer screens or writing. Take a break from close work every 30 minutes and establish good long distance focus.
Rarely, apparent sudden nearsight is just the eye muscles cramping and locking into a reading posture (ciliary spasm). Make sure this has been checked for before giving in to glasses.

You have probably been going shortsighted for some time, but from a base of appreciable longsight. A shift from +2.00 to +0.50 you would probably not have noticed. From +0.50 to -1.00 you probably would have!

(on average, children are born about +3.00 and end up +0.50 by the time they've finished growing.)

(optometrist, retired)

Answer 4

It depends. Babies actually have terrible sight (about 20/200), but the eye then gradually changes and grants them good sight. In most cases. Some people have been myopic their entire lives. Most myopia (and the opposite of myopia, hyperopia, or long sightness) occurs in roughly school age and highschool age (such was the case with me). Eyesight stops changing at about age 21 (although it never stops changing with some people). Then, at the age of 40, the crystalline lens loses it elasticity, progressively diminishing the person's ability to focus up close, making people need reading glasses. This happens to everyone, as it is a normal process of aging, like white hair and wrinkled skin.

Answer 5

Your probably straining your eyes by using the computer too much or watching too much television.

Using computers puts a strain on your eyes.... contributing to the deterioration of your eyesight.

However, there are things that you can do to reduce this strain. These articles give some recommendations:

http://www.improvingmyeyesight.com/computers_and_your_eyes.html

http://www.improvingmyeyesight.com/Reduce_Eye_Strain.html

Hope this helps....

Answer 6

1

Answer 7

Get an eye exam-you just need glasses.