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It'd be interesting to see if children raised with outdoor preschools had better eyesight. There's a strong correlation between time spend indoors during childh

It'd be interesting to see if children raised with outdoor preschools had better eyesight. There's a strong correlation between time spend indoors during childhood and nearsightedness. [1] [1] https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/scin.5591830323 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/scin.559183...

war1025 7y ago
I haven't looked into it enough to know how "out there" this idea is, but I think I've read that there seems to be a correlation between lack of UV exposure and myopia. Glass blocks UV. Which means people are getting next to zero UV exposure indoors, even if the room is brightly lit. The past few years, we've been keeping out windows open basically from the time it's warm enough in the spring to when it starts getting too cold in the fall. We ran our AC for maybe a week total this summer. Anyway, where I'm getting at with this is since our windows are open, we should be getting significantly more UV exposure, even when indoors. I wonder if the rise of air conditioning did a double hit to people's eyesight by both 1. Keeping them inside more often and 2. Leading to people closing their windows, which blocks UV exposure. Anyway, a though I had the other day.
- dmurray 7y ago
  Most windows don't let in much more UV when open. Maybe if you have big sliding doors or similar.
- FooHentai 7y ago
  Anecdata Alert: I got my eyes checked last time I was back in the UK because it's cheaper to get new glasses there than in NZ. My prescription has dropped from about -5 to -4 since the last checkup. The optometrist was surprised as 'that never happens', but her theory is that a decade of living in a country with higher UV exposure is the cause. There's other quality-of-life improvements I could peg on catching more sun (better mood, alertness) but there's downsides as well (melanoma risk++).
  - jeffwass 7y ago
    Out of curiosity is the fraction of time you spend indoors vs outdoors similar between the UK and NZ? (Asking as someone living in the UK noticing his eyesight getting a little worse every year)
    - FooHentai 7y ago
      No, I generally spend more time here outdoors. Mostly because spring/summer/autumn has a greater portion of time where being outdoors is easy, versus a shorter period in the UK. On top of that though, I'm spending less time in built-up/shaded areas just because there's fewer of them to be found here. All of it's nudging-the-needle kinda change, my lifestyle isn't vastly different to how it was.

war1025 7y ago

I haven't looked into it enough to know how "out there" this idea is, but I think I've read that there seems to be a correlation between lack of UV exposure and myopia. Glass blocks UV. Which means people are getting next to zero UV exposure indoors, even if the room is brightly lit. The past few years, we've been keeping out windows open basically from the time it's warm enough in the spring to when it starts getting too cold in the fall. We ran our AC for maybe a week total this summer. Anyway, where I'm getting at with this is since our windows are open, we should be getting significantly more UV exposure, even when indoors. I wonder if the rise of air conditioning did a double hit to people's eyesight by both 1. Keeping them inside more often and 2. Leading to people closing their windows, which blocks UV exposure. Anyway, a though I had the other day.

dmurray 7y ago
Most windows don't let in much more UV when open. Maybe if you have big sliding doors or similar.
FooHentai 7y ago
Anecdata Alert: I got my eyes checked last time I was back in the UK because it's cheaper to get new glasses there than in NZ. My prescription has dropped from about -5 to -4 since the last checkup. The optometrist was surprised as 'that never happens', but her theory is that a decade of living in a country with higher UV exposure is the cause. There's other quality-of-life improvements I could peg on catching more sun (better mood, alertness) but there's downsides as well (melanoma risk++).
- jeffwass 7y ago
  Out of curiosity is the fraction of time you spend indoors vs outdoors similar between the UK and NZ? (Asking as someone living in the UK noticing his eyesight getting a little worse every year)
  - FooHentai 7y ago
    No, I generally spend more time here outdoors. Mostly because spring/summer/autumn has a greater portion of time where being outdoors is easy, versus a shorter period in the UK. On top of that though, I'm spending less time in built-up/shaded areas just because there's fewer of them to be found here. All of it's nudging-the-needle kinda change, my lifestyle isn't vastly different to how it was.