General EYE ADVICE

Myopia

The most common adaptive change is myopia (short-sightedness). See section A for a description of myopia. The eyes become "set" in such a way that less demand is placed on the focussing system when performing close work, i.e. less effort is then required. This would allow for more prolonged reading with less fatigue on the nerves and muscles involved in accurate focussing.

The beneficial effect of this adaptive change is defeated when distance (myopic) glasses are indiscriminately worn for close work as well. The expected result of this is that the process of adaptation to prolonged work at short distances will start all over again. This would lead to more short-sightedness after each time that stronger distance glasses are obtained and indiscriminately worn for prolonged close work. This type of work should be carried out with a reduced strength if the amount of short-sightedness is such that it necessitates too close a working distance when no correction is worn.

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