Francisco Martinez/Alamy
What exactly occurs in the eyes to make some people short-sighted and others long-sighted? (continued)
Tony Harding, Sarsfield, Victoria, Australia
Time spent outdoors may make it less likely that people become short-sighted because of exposure to different wavelengths of light, as a previous answer suggested, but I suspect the explanation is simpler than that.
I suggest that changes in eyeball shape that give rise to long or short-sightedness are a consequence of the growth spurt at puberty when the eye must enlarge but retain clear vision. If you are a reader, the eye adapts to provide clear vision at the…
