Fluctuating vision?

[CoolStuff]

I do use the computer way too much, in fact, by playing games, that's how I see that my vision is better. Terrible I know. But anyway, yesterday I ate no meat at all, lots of fresh fruit and veggies, 4 or 5 meals, and went out at night from about 6:00 to 11:30, I stayed out late and I was tired (eyes were even bugging me a little from being tired), but I didn't look at screens closely at all.

Do you think my problem is staring at screens too much? If so how can I reduce it? (other than the obvious, cut down on usage.) Take a break every half hour? I do keep at least 21 inches away from the screen.

I do have bad vision, I wear glasses, which I think was caused by playing too much video games, even though it might partially be genetic.

[Bing Wu]

Hey CoolStuff,

I have read about vision improvement a lot in the past. Yes, staring at screens is not good for your vision, especially if you are pre-disposed to being near-sighted (and if you are already near-sighted, you are pre-disposed!). The precise mechanism for this happening is not perfectly understood, but it has something to do with the fact that as you focus on objects that are close to you, the ciliary muscles surrounding the lens in your eye have to contract to make the lens more concave. Over time, it is believed that the eye will grow longer in order to adapt to your constant focus on near objects.

In the short term, however, your ciliary muscles may spasm, i.e. not return completely to its resting state, so your eyes stay semi-permanently focused on close-up objects, thus you'll notice that your distance vision can become blurred when you're staring at the computer screen for a long time.

A number of books have suggestions for improving your vision. "Improve your vision without glasses or contact lenses" is a good one that I've used - I halted the progression of my nearsightedness (I was -1.00 at the time) at the age of 14, and reversed it to -0.50 (I can see about 20/25), although I didn't stay with the program long enough to get further improvements. Nevertheless, I'm glad to still be able to function without glasses!

They're not really big on nutrition tips in that book, but generally you should constrain your consumption of sugar, salt and oily/greasy foods.

[CoolStuff]

I'm about -3!!! I'll take all that I can get.

My mom is the only one who's had a vision problem like mine (can't see far), I don't even think her mom or dad had any vision problems. My other side only had vision problems cuz of old age.

Any general tips before I pick up "Improve your vision without..."?? I remember seeing that I think when I first got glasses, but I never looked into it.

[CoolStuff]

I'm beginning to suspect computer use is a problem. Which would explain why things are a bit better in the school year. I'll start keeping track of my usage.

I suspect this because I have bags, even though I'm getting almost 8 hours a night, and I have sensitivity to light when I go outside for about 10 minutes, then it goes away, and comes back if I spend too much time in an area with little light.