The Bottom Line: Glasses Don’t Make Myopia Worse, But the Wrong Glasses Might

This myth has hurt a lot of people. Afraid their prescription will climb, they avoid getting glasses, struggle along with blurry vision, and end up letting their myopia progress even faster.

Let’s set the record straight.

Myth 1: “Wearing glasses makes your eyes dependent, so the prescription just keeps getting stronger”

This is false.

Myopia is caused by elongation of the axial length (the front-to-back length of the eyeball), which has nothing to do with whether you wear glasses. Once the axial length increases, it doesn’t shrink back — this is an irreversible structural change.

The real drivers of myopia progression:

  • Prolonged near work (lots of daily reading, phone use, and computer screens)
  • Not enough time outdoors (studies show 2+ hours of outdoor activity per day can slow axial elongation)
  • Genetics (when both parents are myopic, a child’s risk of myopia is about 6 times higher than average)
  • The wrong prescription (more on this below)

Wearing glasses itself is not a cause of myopia progression.

Myth 2: “Wearing glasses less often keeps myopia from getting worse”

This isn’t just false — it can actually backfire.

The retina needs clear image stimulation to develop normally. When you go without glasses and view the world through blurry vision, the eye’s accommodative system stays in a prolonged compensatory state, and some research suggests that chronic undercorrection (too weak a prescription, or no glasses at all) is actually associated with faster myopia progression.

This matters especially during childhood and adolescence, when the visual system is still developing and clear visual input is critical.

Myth 3: “My prescription goes up every time I get checked — it must be the glasses’ fault”

This one needs to be broken down.

There are a few possible reasons myopia progresses:

  1. You’re simply in a natural progression phase: Myopia before age 18 tends to progress on its own — this is a normal part of eye development and has nothing to do with your glasses.
  2. Overcorrection: A prescription that’s too strong keeps the eye focused at an unnatural distance long-term, and some research does link this to myopia progression.
  3. Visual habits haven’t changed: You got good glasses but you’re still staring at a screen 10 hours a day — of course the myopia keeps advancing.

Key point: The wrong prescription (especially overcorrection) really can accelerate myopia progression. This is exactly why a thorough subjective refraction matters more than a quick autorefractor reading — autorefractor values tend to run too strong, and using them directly can cause overcorrection.

So What Actually Keeps Myopia From Getting Worse?

Visual habits

  • For near work, follow the 20-20-20 rule: every 20–30 minutes, take a 20-second break and look at something 20 feet (6 meters) away
  • 2 hours of outdoor activity per day (not using your phone outside — actually looking into the distance in natural light)
  • Keep your reading distance at 33 cm or more

Prescribing strategy

  • Make sure the prescription is not overcorrected: a subjective refraction should fully relax accommodation (fogging test) rather than simply copying the autorefractor value
  • Get re-examined regularly (children every 3–6 months, adults once a year)
  • Consider defocus-design lenses: some research suggests they may slow myopia progression in children (suitability must be assessed by an optometrist)

Children’s myopia tracking

For myopic children aged 6–14, Beyond Visual Optometry (Xinzhuang) provides vision assessments and prescription-change records every 3–6 months, helping parents keep track of how their child’s vision is developing.

FAQ

Q: Can adult myopia keep getting worse?

For most people, myopia stabilizes after age 18–25. But habits involving prolonged near work can cause some adults to continue progressing slightly. An annual re-exam is the safest way to confirm.

Q: My child’s myopia is progressing quickly — is there any way to slow it down?

Yes. Research-supported approaches include: increasing time spent outdoors, low-concentration atropine (requires a prescription from an ophthalmologist), and fitting defocus-design lenses. Beyond Visual Optometry offers children’s myopia tracking and defocus-lens assessments.

Q: Can myopia return after laser surgery?

Laser surgery corrects the refractive prescription — it does not change axial length. If your visual habits stay the same after surgery, the axial length could in theory keep increasing, but in practice most adults’ axial length is already stable, so cases of myopia returning after surgery are relatively rare.

If you have concerns about how fast your child’s myopia is progressing, or you want to confirm whether your own prescription is correct, you’re welcome to book a full visual assessment at Beyond Visual Optometry in Xinzhuang.

No. 419-1, Zhongzheng Rd., Xinzhuang Dist., New Taipei City | +886-2-2206-6700 | Book online