Does long periods of near vision alter sight?

Question

If you spend long periods of time in front of the computer or a book for example, does it give you or help to give you lens faults? I'm not talking about the radiation and stuff just whether it will cause you to need glasses.

Answer 1

Sort of. If you're very young, like under 10, this probably does contribute to nearsightedness. Experiments with monkeys and chickens have confirmed this. Cultures that put a high value on school achievement seem to produce a far higher proportion of near-sighted kids, compared to older generations that grew up in a more agrarian society.

You might want to try wearing low-powered reading glasses (+1 to +1.5), or get a prescription for "computer glasses", and see if that makes for less eyestrain.

Answer 2

Yes and no. Near vision is achieved using the accomodation in the lens of your eyes, think of it as your "zoom" function. If that becomes tired, or if your accomodation has tendency to "lock", there may be some temporary effect. This is part of a condition known as pseudomyopia, which you can Google. There is some evidence that people with a tendency to myopia may have it increase faster if they do a lot of close work, and other theories that computers can aggravate astigmatism. But in practice, people who have normal vision can usually do close work for many hours a day, for many years with no lasting damage.

Answer 3

Depends on person to person.