Riya can’t remember how many times she has rubbed her eyes in the past hour. The glare from her laptop feels almost blinding, but she can’t walk away, work deadlines aren’t interested in your tired eyes. If you have ever been in Riya’s shoes, then you know just how frustrating screen fatigue can be. That’s why looking into digital eye strain fixes is more than a luxury; it is essential in our technology heavy world.
Seeing Eye to Eye with the Contemporary Eye Problems
Digital eye strain, or computer vision syndrome, is a quick way of describing a situation where your eyes work a little too hard for you to be comfortable when viewing and processing content on your screens. Long hours concentrating on tiny text or images (particularly when reviewing articles, scrolling through social media platforms, or binge watching series) can lead to a whole assortment of features complaints including headaches, blurry vision, and even neck pain. Additionally, since the pandemic started, at least for those that are able to work remotely, online classes, and connect to the world at the click of a button, the opportunity for our eyes to rest has decreased dramatically.
So what are the solutions? Certainly, there are plenty of things to help you with your digital eye strain that are practical and easy to adopt when working with screens to achieve some comfort for your eyes without giving up function.
1. The 20-20-20 Rule: A Mini Eye Reset
The 20-20-20 rule is one of the lowest-effort, highest-impact ways to create that mini eye vacation from digital eye strain. Every 20 minutes while you’re using a screen, take a short break and look at something far away, such as the horizon. It works best if you concentrate on something that’s at least 20 feet away for around 20 seconds. This small break helps your eyes rest and lessens the tiredness from constantly focusing up close. You can even set a reminder on your phone so you don’t forget; think of it as a mini wellness break for your eyes.
If you want to go even further, try combining this rule with some short stretching activities during those breaks. Think about working your neck and/or shoulder. Stretching and moving those muscles helps with posture, and body movement and blood flow are advantageous for the overall health of our eyes.
2. Find Your Best Lighting and setup
Many bright lights are irritating or invasive on your eyes when looking at a screen. To combat this, as a rule of thumb, use soft, indirect light around you while looking at a screen or digital display. Make sure the brightness of your screen contrasts nicely with your physical surroundings. Your screens shouldn’t be more than your arm’s length, but ideally, your screens should be below your eye level. This position helps reduce the amount of strain and the distance the muscles have to work, in order to keep proper posture.
If you’re often staying up to work (push on, I believe in you!), turn on your devices’ blue light filter at night. This will help with the stimulating effect of blue light, which can affect your sleep quality. And sleep! Getting enough sleep is good for your eyes and also helps keep your whole body healthy.
3. Feed Your Eyes from the Inside
Eye care isn’t just from the outside; it’s from within as well. Vitamin A rich foods, omega-3 fatty acids based foods, and antioxidant laden foods all help keep your vision safe. This is similar to tips for how to improve gut health: a nutritious and balanced diet is going to benefit both your eyes and digestive system. Leafy and green foods, carrots, walnuts, and oily fish are a two for one deal.
Also, drink water! Ensuring you remain hydrated should be made a significant priority, for if you do not, it will make your eyes feel gritty and dry. You’ll find yourself drinking i.e. ward off that thirst feeling, so drink little bits frequently throughout the day!
Seeing the Bigger Picture
Working under the digital age poses way more stress on our eyes. Simple and painless habits such as the 20-20-20 rule, proper workspace setup, and a good nutrient rich diet will greatly help in relieving any kind of discomfort. Though a few quick Alice-in-Wonderland-style fixes exist for digital eye strain, these remedies are far more important than that; they are one of daily regular investments into your vision and quality of life.
After all, you only have one pair of eyes. If you treat them well, they will reward you with seeing life’s greatest moments, both screen time and off-screen.