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HYPOTHESIS AND THEORY article

Front. Med.

Sec. Ophthalmology

Volume 12 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fmed.2025.1481209

Myopia and Daylight: A Combination of Factors

Provisionally accepted
Richard HobdayRichard Hobday1*Mariëlle AartsMariëlle Aarts2Christian CajochenChristian Cajochen3,4Lenka MaierovaLenka Maierova5Mirjam MünchMirjam Münch3,4Werner OsterhausWerner Osterhaus6Manuel SpitschanManuel Spitschan7,8,9Oliver StefaniOliver Stefani10KATHARINA WULFFKATHARINA WULFF11,12
  • 1Hobday Research, Cwmbran, United Kingdom
  • 2Department of the Built Environment, Eindhoven University of Technology, Eindhoven, Netherlands
  • 3Centre for Chronobiology, University Psychiatric Clinic Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 4Transfaculty Research Platform Molecular and Cognitive Neurosciences, University of Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 5University Psychiatric Clinic Basel, Basel, Switzerland
  • 6Vicariate General of the Catholic Archdiocese of Paderborn, Paderborn, Germany
  • 7Technical University of Munich, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
  • 8Max Planck Institute for Biology, Max Planck Society, Munich, Bavaria, Germany
  • 9Institute for Advanced Study, Technical University of Munich, Garching, Germany
  • 10Lucerne University of Applied Sciences and Arts, Lucerne, Switzerland
  • 11Wallenberg Centre for Molecular Medicine, Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Västerbotten, Sweden
  • 12Department of Molecular Biology, Faculty of Medicine, Umeå University, Umeå, Västerbotten, Sweden

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The incidence of myopia among school children has risen markedly over the last three decades. In urban areas of South and East Asia, as many as 80-90 percent of young adults are now myopic. This trend is occurring elsewhere around the world. During COVID-19 lockdowns children in many countries were confined indoors and spent an undue amount of time exposed to the screens of televisions, computers and mobile devices. This resulted in an acceleration in the incidence and progression of the condition. Myopia is a major public health issue as it is a leading cause of blindness and other vision problems. Yet the underlying mechanisms that produce the condition remain elusive. Pseudomyopia has recently been proposed as an independent risk factor for myopia. We hypothesise that pseudomyopia induced by prolonged close work, stress and anxiety combines and is further amplified by chronically low ambient light levels. If time spent outdoors in daylight is restricted the effects worsen and together may play a significant part in myopia epidemics.

Keywords: pseodomyopia, Near work, Anxiety, Posture, daylight, Intensive education

Received: 23 Oct 2024; Accepted: 14 May 2025.

Copyright: © 2025 Hobday, Aarts, Cajochen, Maierova, Münch, Osterhaus, Spitschan, Stefani and WULFF. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

* Correspondence: Richard Hobday, Hobday Research, Cwmbran, United Kingdom

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

Supplementary Material