Keeping up with lifestyle modifications for myopia control while traveling

How my son maintained lifestyle changes to control myopia progression while traveling - the flight  

Before leaving on a family vacation trip last week, my wife and I thought about how to increase my son’s daylight exposure while minimizing excessive screen time before the trip. 

We packed card games, colored pencils, and some of his favorite novels to keep him busy during the travel. I also learned some new hand games. And we packed his new set of lego.

In this post, I’d like to share our findings, what worked, and some afterthoughts.

At the airport and taking the flight

Our flight was early in the morning. After checking in and arriving at the boarding gate, the sun was up, shining through the large tinted window by the boarding area. 

My son pulled out his smartphone with a lux meter and started searching for spots with more than 3,000 lux like a beach treasure hunter with a metal detector. 

Since it was still 45 min before boarding, we picked a good spot and sat down. We snacked, played some thumb wrestling, and wondered what a family of five at the next boarding gate would do after arriving at their destination. Time went quickly, and my son accumulated some daylight time.

On flight was more difficult. Even though he was sitting by the window, the brightness never exceeded 300 lux. So he couldn’t get any time banked at all. 

With the understanding that excessive screen time may worsen his myopia, my son accepted that we would do our best to limit watching movies on the small back-of-the-chair display and play some games or draw instead. We made it through the first six-hour flight, only watching one movie. And we rest our eyes every 30 mins for 30 seconds during the movie.

After landing at the transiting airport, we racked some more daylight time after my son picked some bright spots by the windows to have lunch, play games, and imagine other travelers' stories.

The second overnight flight was similar to the first – it was not bright enough. Our aim was still to limit the screen time as much as possible. We barely made it through with three hand games, two different card games, the lego, some drawing, and some silly games we had to make up as we got bored with what we had. 

Afterthoughts

Trying to get enough daylight exposure and limiting screen time at the same time is extremely challenging during a trip with a long flight time. 

Since most airports have large windows by the departing gates, going to our gate early helped us find good bright spots – more than 3,000 lux.  

The light in the plane’s cabin was not bright enough, even if by the window, so we aimed to avoid excessive screen time instead. 

Drawing and Lego on the plane were not easy – the tray was too small. Card games still strained our eyes, and we paused to rest periodically.

We enjoyed hand games, and we could do them anywhere – at the gate, on the plane, or riding in a car. My son and I enjoyed playing Chopsticks and Odds and Evens as they are fun and require some strategy. (click on the links to see how to play these games)

Other ideas that came to me during the trip were trivia games and audiobooks.

And most importantly, we spent a great deal of quality family time talking about our upcoming trip, including what fantastic food we would have or amazing places we would go.  

Want to stay connected on the newest happening? Join me @

Facebook group: www.facebook.com/groups/myopia/ 

Pinterest board: https://www.pinterest.com/clearsightcorner/