Your eyes are a vital part of your body as it serves as the lamps that show you the physical world, and therefore lets you live, move, and have your being. Your eyes are precious as it is more than just windows for your soul.
With the advancement of technology nowadays, our generation utilizes an increasing amount of electronic technologies such as computers, laptops, cellphones, tablets, etc., either for work or leisure. Most people who use these technologies have a common complaint, eye fatigue, or eye strain. As you can see, these people can’t help themselves from spending long hours on electronic technologies.
Some of them spent time using laptops or computers for work-related activities, which take more hours in their daily routine. While other people spend a lot of time occupied on their screens watching videos, playing video games, posting updates on different social media platforms, or whatever else may be related.
Too much exposure to digital gadgets like computers can cause you eyestrain. If you are not taking it seriously, it can be dangerous and ruin your visual tasks, making you less productive and effective. So, what do you need to do?
Treatment
In general, treating eyestrain could start with making changes in your daily habits. However, people with severe conditions need a further diagnosis for treatment.
For some people, they can wear some protective eyeglasses like anti-radiation prescribed for computer activities and others. Protective eyeglasses help reduce eyestrain.
Your doctor may also suggest that you need to take regular eye breaks. This helps your eye to have some rest.
Lifestyle and Home Remedies Treatment
1. Adjust the lighting
You can get eyestrain that is caused by excessively bright light. So, when you are watching television, it is advised that you keep the room softly lit. When you use a computer, ensure that the brightness should be about half as bright as that typically found in most offices.
It would be best to have proper lighting behind you that directs your laptop while doing close work. Use a shaded light positioned in front of you while reading at your desk, the shade will keep the light of the computer or laptop from shining directly into your eyes.
You can also reduce interior lighting by using fewer light bulbs or lower intensity fluorescent tubes.
If you are working with your computer, a good tip to make your eyes feel better is to avoid working with overhead fluorescent lights. If possible, you can use floor lamps that provide soft light.
2. Take Breaks
To reduce the risk of eyestrain, take a screen break during your workday. Make sure that your eyes have enough rest from computers, cellphones, or laptops. You could take at least a 10-minute break every hour.
During these breaks, you can stretch your arms, legs, neck, back, and shoulder in order to reduce some muscle fatigue.
3. Limit screen time
Besides taking breaks during the workday, limit your screen time using digital gadgets like android phones. Make your child understand to limit their time on watching videos on YouTube. They have no idea that they could get eyestrain from extensive viewing or using digital gadgets. Remember that our eyes need to rest regularly.
4. Use artificial tears
Artificial tears are beneficial in terms of preventing and relieving dry, worn-out eyes. You can use artificial tears to keep your eyes well-lubricated and prevent a recurrence of symptoms.
If you want to have the best eye drops for your eyes, ask your doctor for a recommendation. Your doctor would be the best option when asking for appropriate artificial tears, remember to follow the prescriptions given in using eye drops.
A useful tip, do not use eye drops with a redness remover because it can only worsen dry eye symptoms.
5. Improve the air quality of your space
A humidifier can help you prevent dry eye symptoms, you can also adjust the thermostat to reduce blowing air and avoiding smoke.
And it is also advised to those who do smoke to quit smoking because it can be dangerous not just to your health but also to your eyesight. It is also good to move your chair to a different area to reduce the amount of dry moving air on your eyes.
6. Choose the right eyewear
The best option to deal with eyestrain is to have the right eyewear, you can visit optical eyewear stores that are near you and ask for a recommendation.
Doing your work on a computer or even too much exposure to your smartphones can damage your eyes. So, it is good to invest time and money to get the proper glasses designed specifically for computer work.
Tips to protect your eyes from computer work
Too much exposure to a computer is the main reason why people get eyestrain. If you work using your laptop, make sure you consider these simple tips to avoid eyestrain.
1. Blink often
Your eyes need refreshment, so make sure to blink often. Many people working on a computer get dry eyes because they blink less, by simply blinking your eyes produces tears that can moisten and refresh your eyes. Make it a habit to blink more often when you’re working on your laptop.
2. Take eye breaks
You can try the 20-20-20 rule: Every 20 minutes, you can look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Your eyes need a break so it can relax and refresh. Make sure you have enough break by looking away from your work.
3. Check the lighting and reduce glare
It is difficult to work on your monitor if it has bright lighting and too much glare. You can strain your eyes from light sources above you, including fluorescent lighting. What you can do is to turn it off and use an adjustable desk lamp.
Do not place your monitor in front of a window or a white wall. Make sure to close blinds or shades. Place an anti-glare cover over the screen.
4. Adjust computer screen settings
If you know how to adjust your computer display settings, you can do it yourself. Adjusting your computer’s screen settings offers a great benefit to help you reduce eye strain and fatigue.
First, adjust the brightness of your computer. You can set the brightness of the computer approximately the same as the brightness surrounding your workstation.
Second, adjust text size and contrast. It gives comfort to your eyes, reading, or writing long documents when the text size and contrast are appropriate. Tip: The best combination of comfort is using a black print on a white background.
Make sure that you adjust your computer screen to settings that are comfortable for you.
5. Adjust your monitor
Proper positioning of your monitor could also benefit your eyes. You can position your monitor directly in front of you, about an arm’s length away so that the top of the screen is below your eye level. It is also a great advantage to have an adjustable chair.
6. Use digital eyewear
Doing your work using computers could cause eyestrain. Digital computer eyewear eliminates the constant refocusing effort that your eyes go through when viewing the monitor. It can also help you minimize the adverse effects of artificial lighting like fluorescent and reduces irritation of the eyes like dry eyes, tearing, and tired eyes.
So, if you spend a lot of time using a computer, digital eyewear will protect you.
FAQ’s
- About 75 percent of all jobs in the U.S rely on computers
- 82 percent of Americans frequently work with their laptops or computers
- 90 percent of school-age children in the United States use a computer and other devices at home for at least four hours a day
- Nearly 90 percent of those who have computers suffer vision problems associated with computer-related eye strain
Make sure that you follow those simple tips that are mentioned above so that you can prevent eye strain. If you are a professional, business owner, student, or programmer, and you are tired of computer eye strain, it is also important to regularly visit your doctor. Take care of your eyes before it is too late, as you might damage your vision, or worse yet, lose your eyesight altogether.