What is myopia?

Myopia is the same as nearsightedness, you need glasses with minus powered lenses. Whether you develop myopia can be hereditary: you are more likely to develop myopia if it runs in your family. But your behavior can also mean that you need glasses more quickly. For example, it has been proven that if you look a lot up close, you are more likely to develop myopia. You can look closely for long periods of time when you read or look at your phone, computer screen or tablet.

Myopia among children has been increasing in recent years, because children more often than in the past look closely together for long periods of time and play outside less. You probably spend a lot more time on a screen than your parents used to! You can hardly imagine it, but your parents probably didn't have a mobile phone or game console (and certainly no tablet!).

What's wrong in your eyes with myopia?

When you look at something, your eye has to accommodate. This means that the muscles surrounding the lens of your eye will tighten or relax. This makes your eye lens more round or less round, which changes the power of your eye lens. When the muscles relax, the lens of the eye becomes flatter and you can see clearly at a distance. When the muscles tense, the lens becomes more round and you can see well up close.

When you look at something close to your eyes for a long time, the muscles have to be tense all the time to make the lens more round. In order to be less tense, the eyeball grows a little longer. So the muscles in your lens don't have to work as hard to get a sharp image. Unfortunately, this makes you see less clearly from afar! In myopia, your eye has grown longer. The higher your minus power, the longer your eyes have grown. In order to be able to see clearly, you must wear glasses with a minus power.

Is myopia bad for your health?

You would think: I pick out some nice glasses and then the problem is solved. It is true that you can see clearly again, but it is still very important to ensure that your eyes do not deteriorate further. Children with a high minus power (higher than -6) have a greater chance of becoming visually impaired or blind later on due to an eye disease. So your eye grows longer in childhood, but the nasty consequences only come later in life. In fact, myopia is likely to be the leading cause of blindness and low vision by 2050. Time to do something about it and help your eyes relax!

Prevent (worse) myopia with these two tips!

We recommend the 20-20-2 rule to let your eyes relax:

• After 20 minutes of looking close (for example on your phone or tablet) you look 20 seconds far away. This ensures that your eye muscles relax again after they have been tense for a while to look closely. They deserved that, right?
• Be outside for at least 2 hours every day, including breaks and, for example, walking or cycling to and from school. Did you know that outdoor light causes the chemical dopamine to be released in your retina? Dopamine blocks the lengthening of your eyeball and therefore ensures that you have less chance of a high min strength. So go outside a lot!