Digital Eye Strain: How to Tackle It Smartly

You wake up and the first thing you do is roll over to check the time on your phone. Then you scroll through your e-mails as you brush your teeth. Perhaps you take a quick brief of the news on the TV as you have your breakfast and then a glance at the phone before you leave for work. We’re no different. We live in the pinnacle of what we can call the Digital Age, where a screen is what we look at most of our time. If we take a total stock of the time spent looking at the screen, we spend more than 11 hours daily.

We might have molded ourselves as per this lifestyle but it does not imply that our health has too. Staring at the screen for too long can cause dry and irritated eyes, aching shoulders, backache, hurting neckbone, and more. Long screen-time can end up affecting your eyes in many ways. Such issues can be minor for some, but for some, a major health concern in the long run.

How does it affect your eyes?

Digital Eye Strain cannot go unnoticed because of the many symptoms that come along with it. Here are the common symptoms that you may experience with long eye exposure to screen-

• Headache
• Dry Eyes
• Eye Irritation
• Strained eyes
• Shoulder ache
• Neck pain

How you can prevent the Digital Eye Strain?

We reduce our per minute blinking by two-thirds each time we are gazing at any screen. Normally, we blink about 20 times per minute, which allows tears to evenly spread on our eyes. If you blink less, your eyes end up having a dry surface and hence are prone to irritation. But we can’t go without our devices in our daily lives. Here are some ways that can help you tackle the issue-

Upgrade your eyewear

You can’t ignore your screen. But you can always be smart about how you can save your eyes from the UV lights and glare coming from your digital screens. There are plenty of eyewear options that are designed to protect your eyes from the Digital Eye Strain. You can get eyewear that saves your eyes with their anti-reflective and blue light-filtering properties and also gives you magnifying feature.

Use the 20-20-20 rule

Give your eyes a much-needed 20 minutes break by looking away at something that’s 20 feet away after looking at your screen for 20 minutes. You could take a brief walk outside or station yourself next to a window at your workplace or take a break at the rooftop garden area like in our Worknest coworking space. This way, your eyes will have sufficient breaks to adjust back to a normal and natural light.

Take some time off

You always have a choice about what you want to do in your spare time. You can make a smarter switch like reading an actual book over an e-book, listen to podcasts over watching a youtube video, spending time doing things that can be done without looking at the screen. A lot of us watch TV or watch a series for long hours before going to bed. You can shorten the time you spend watching something on your device to give your eyes proper rest.

Take Precautions

There are other steps you can take. Ensure that the distance between your eyes and the screen is not less than 25 inches or an arm’s length. Turning off the overhead lightings can also help you reduce the digital glare. Increasing the font size on the screen is another way you can reduce or prevent your eye strain. Switching to fonts like Verdana and Arial will help you see things easily without straining your eyes much.

What about you? What are you doing to protect your eyes at your workspace? Feel free to share with us in the comments.