Excessive screen time causing nearsightedness in Swedish children: media

Swedish doctors have warned that excessive screen time is causing a surge in myopia (nearsightedness) among children, with levels having increased by 400 percent since the mid 1940s, according to local media on Monday.

The human eye is not made for watching the small screens of smartphones and tablets, doctors told Swedish media.

Seventy years ago, between 8 and 9 percent of Swedish children were nearsighted. Now, the figure is 40 percent.

So-called false nearsightedness, or pseudomyopia, where the ciliary muscle in the eye's middle layer is not relaxing properly and the lens does not adjust to provide proper focus, has increased, too. In those instances, children feel like they are experiencing shortsightedness.

The fact that children are spending more time in front of screens is believed to be one reason behind the dramatic increase is nearsightedness. The muscles gradually adjust to watching screens at a short distance and the eye is negatively affected in the long run.

"Our ability to control our eyes is stronger when we are doing something in 3D since the brain receives more stimuli then. So when we're watching a tablet or a phone, that might not be what we were cut out to do," Rune Brautaset, a lecturer at the Karolinska Institute's Department of Clinical Neuroscience, told Swedish Television. "We were made to do things in 3D with our hands -- to knit, create a shape or a tool." Endit