Today, more and more children around the world are developing myopia, or nearsightedness — especially in East Asia, where prevalence among school-aged children can reach up to 70%. Can simply spending more time outside in daylight help protect children from developing myopia? In this episode, our guest Asst. Prof. Raymond P. Najjar (National University of Singapore) breaks down: - What we know about the link between light exposure and myopia in children - Why kids aren’t spending enough time outdoors (and no — it’s not just because of tablets!) - How we might be able to rethink indoor lighting in schools to better support healthy visual development Links and resources related to the episode’s content: The influence of lifestyle and the environment on myopia: https://doi.org/10.1186/s40101-024-00354-7 Outdoor activity reduces the prevalence on myopia in children: 10.1016/j.ophtha.2007.12.019 Prompting parents to make their kids spend more time outdoor: https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamapediatrics/fullarticle/2796425 More info on the LightSPAN project: https://eyenbrain.com/project-lightspan/ Timestamps (00:00) Intro and questions to kids (02:37) Guest introduction (03:30) Understanding myopia: causes and prevalence (06:58) The role of light and the environment (11:45) Challenges in increasing outdoor time in kids (16:27) Improving indoor lighting for myopia control: the LightSPAN project (23:09) Behavioural interventions with parents (27:14) Light exposure and myopia control in adults (29:30) Conclusions (31:07) Outro with more kids snippets