Lighting May Cure Nearsightedness
January 17, 2022
The SERI Singapore Eye Research Institute and Seoul Semiconductor Co., Ltd. have collaborated on a research project involving light and its effect on improving myopia (i.e. nearsightedness).
To prove the correlation between health and “SunLike” – a natural lighting technology developed through years of R&D – Seoul Semiconductor has conducted experiments with Seoul National University, Basel University, and Harvard University since 2017. Its recent work with Singapore SERI tested the effect of natural lighting on improving myopia.
For this experiment, chicks, whose eyes are similar to humans’, were exposed to different lighting and then the length of their eyeballs (the cause of myopia) was monitored. First, one eye of the chicks was covered with a myopia-causing cover for 14 days to induce myopia. After that, the cover was removed, and Group 1 was exposed to a conventional fluorescent lamp at 4000K, and Groups 2 and 3 were exposed to the SunLike at 4000K and 6500K, respectively.
The measurements indicated that chicks in the fluorescent lighting group had myopia worsen because the length of their eyeballs grew longer continuously, while the eyeball length of chicks in the SunLike lighting group was restored to the normal size. According to the research, this was indirect confirmation that myopia can be improved to a degree close to normal when using SunLike lighting. This experimental result on the correlation between SunLike lighting and myopia was published in bioRxiv, an online journal specializing in life sciences.
“We found that the use of lighting with SunLike technology accelerated the recovery of myopia in the experimental group,” said Dr. Najjar of the SERI in the thesis. “For eye growth and emmetropization, we confirmed the importance of using a lighting with a sunlight-like spectrum.”
Added Kim Seung-hyeon, a professor of ophthalmology at Korea University, “I think that myopia can be surely improved if growing children use sunlight-like lighting. These days, we spend a lot of time indoors, and it is theoretically possible that the type of lighting given to children may alleviate vision loss caused by myopia to some extent, but more follow-up research is needed.”
Seoul Semiconductor is hosting a “SunLike Instagram Event for the New Semester” as part of a myopia-prevention project for Korean children. Winners will receive a SunLike desk lamp or SunLike children’s room lighting as a prize.
