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If you were ever caught reading in low light or using a flashlight under the bedcovers to read after lights-out, your parents might well have warned you that straining your eyes would damage your eyesight. Or perhaps you used to hear that it’s easy to spot the studious children at school because they were the ones who had spent so long with their head in a book that they had to wear glasses.
Whatever you heard, the warning that people shouldn’t read regularly in dim light is a familiar one. While permanent damage to our eyes cannot be caused by reading in the dark, it can lead to short-term effects which are completely avoidable – such as headaches and eye strain.
Let’s look at the basics first. Short-sightedness or myopia means that a person can easily see things that are close up, but objects in the distance such as the number on a bus or the menu board in a restaurant look blurry. Wearing glasses or contact lenses solves the problem, but it doesn’t answer the question of why some people develop short-sightedness in childhood while others don’t.
Our eyes are cleverly designed to adjust to different light levels. If you are trying to read in the gloom your pupils dilate in order to take in more light through the lens onto your retinas. Cells in your retina, called rods and cones, use this light to provide information to the brain about what you can see. If you are in a dark room, for instance, when you just wake up, this process allows you to become gradually accustomed to what initially feels like pitch-black darkness. If you switch a light on, it feels unbearably bright until your pupils have had time to readjust once more.
The same happens if you strain to read a book in dim light. Your eyes do adjust, but some people find the strain gives them a headache. Likewise, when you look at something close-up like a book or some sewing, the eye adjusts, muscles lengthen the area known as the vitreous chamber – the gelatinous bulk of the eyeball that lies between the lens and the retina.
With that in mind, here are a few reading environment tips to take into consideration for children and yourself.
To ensure your child’s eyes are kept in good health for reading and other developmental activities, make sure to book regular eye appointments with your optometrist.