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Comment by dd36 | Hacker News Reader

OT the most introverted people I know are also the most near-sighted. It got me to wondering if introversion is a protection in nature for near-sightedness.

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more likely the opposite, nearsightedness is related to a lack of exposure of the eye to sunlight during childhood.

introverted people are more likely to spend time indoor (away from the UV of sunlight) which lead to your observed correlation.

I have high myopia and I had plenty of outdoor time in my childhood on par or even higher than my buddies who did not developed myopia.

Less anecdotal evidence is prevalence of myopia in south-east Asia where people have more exposure to bright sun than in Europe.

My pet hypothesis about myopia is exposure to high glycemic food like white rice or white bread that simulate growth just little bit too much that is enough to develop the eye few microns too big and cause myopia. But that hypothesis also has a lot of issues.

What? None of the near-sighted people in my family spent more than normal time indoors. Likely the opposite. We were always outside.

Do you have any sources on this?

Not sure about the correlation with being introverted, but the sunlight-nearsightedness correlation is pretty well established [0], specifically light in the near ultraviolet range [1].

There was a really interesting article on HN years ago about this, but I can't find it. The researchers suggested this effect was a good reason to mandate outdoor recess for children during the school day – maybe in Australia?

[0] https://insights.osu.edu/health/myopia

[1] https://www.thelancet.com/journals/ebiom/article/PIIS2352-39...

I would have throught this would be the case because introverts are more likely not needing to look far due to staying indoors most the time (and in my case, staring at monitors). Which means the eyes won't be getting "exercised" to look far.

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