#near-sighted

[basicallyanotherwitchesthing]

Gondel, magazine, May 1969

[sciencenewsforstudents]

Scientists Say: Myopia

Myopia is nearsightedness, where people have trouble seeing far away objects. This happens if someone’s eyes are slightly oval, instead of perfect spheres.

Myopia (noun, “My-OH-pee-ah”)

This term describes a condition called nearsightedness — when someone has trouble seeing objects that are far away. Usually, someone with myopia can read a book or smartphone without trouble. But they might view objects even an arm’s length away as fuzzy and out of focus.

When light enters the eye, it passes through the outer layers — the cornea — and then through a lens. The lens focuses the light to a point on the back of the eyeball in an area called the retina.  There, nerve cells process the information and pass it on to the brain.

When the eyeball is a perfect sphere, the light becomes focused on just a small point on the retina. That produces perfect vision. But if the eyeball is slightly too long from front to back, the light will focus to a point before it hits the retina. Then, the light spreads out again. The more the light spreads out before it hits the retina, the fuzzier the image will appear to the viewer. A too-thick cornea will also make the light focus too early. Both of these changes can produce myopia.

Glasses and contact lenses can help people with myopia. These objects help focus light when the eyes aren’t quite up to the job.

The eye on the left is a perfect sphere. When light enters, it focuses, or narrows, to a point on the retina at the back of the eye. This produces normal vision. The eye on the right is slightly elongated. When light enters, it focuses in front of the retina, then it spreads out again. This produces a fuzzy-looking image to the viewer. The person on the right would have myopia.National Eye Institute/NIH/Flickr (CC-BY-2.0)

In a sentence 

Spending time outdoors as a kid might help reduce the risk for myopia.

Check out the full list of Scientists Say.

[meepmrp]

The protagonist enters… and quickly exits

[sspacegodd]

It's a wonderful thing when the person you're growing old with is far-sighted, too.

[educatedsavage]

There’s no reason to get dressed UP today (Samhain/Halloween) but I thought the least I could do was GET DRESSED properly instead of just yoga pants and a tank top, being a holiday and all, and.... My near-sightedness is at that point where I really shouldn’t do my eye make up using just the bathroom mirror since there’s a whole sink the way and REALLY need to use a hand mirror instead, so it’s nice and close. I mean, it was always inevitable, but it snuck right up on me!

[hazeltail]

It seems like my vision in my right eye is getting a lot worse. I have astigmatism and I'm near- sighted, I have contacts and glasses, but recently I noticed that it seems worse than it was last time. I thought it might be my contacts, but it's the same with my glasses. I have an appointment with my eye doctor in a couple weeks. I can't wait to be able to see again.

[muohtti]

If you're worried people with glasses are gonna cheat, just take their glasses.. If they are near-sighted, it's no problem.. If they are not, it will be very funny to read their answeres..

[neferukaen]

uggh glasses vent

When you find a new big scratch on your glasses and you kinda need them and its right in your line of sight, and you havent been paid to go get new ones...and so your trying to use the 2nd pair that was never quite right until you can replace them, like its not horrible and still better than scratched glasses i guess...but ugh...the timing sucks!