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I stare at a computer for entirely too many hours a day more than Id care to think about and by the end of the week, I feel it. At least, my eyes do.

Eye strain from staring at a computer is so common it has its own name: computer vision syndrome. And its pretty widespread, though estimates of its prevalence vary. The symptoms will probably sound familiar: blurry vision, headaches, dry eyes, watery eyes, and tired eyes.

For most people, these symptoms are temporary

For most people these symptoms are temporary, and if you stop using a computer for a while, theyll go away. The bad news is that these symptoms can occur if youre looking at a computer for two hours. If youre like me, you look at computers a lot more than that.

Computers are harder on the eyes than printed pages in part because we blink less. Our blink rate drops by a third when were reading on screens, leaving our eyes dry, according to the University of Iowa. There are some other reasons, too, the American Optometric Association says: the contrast between characters isnt as strong on a screen as in a book, and letters are less precisely rendered. All of these things make the eyes work harder, leaving them tired. Staring at the screen from a less-than-ideal angle only exacerbates the discomfort. Ideally, you should be looking slightly down at your screen at a 15 to 20 degree angle and it should be placed about 20 to 28 inches from your eyes.

It helps to take rest breaks. Every 20 minutes youre on the computer, take 20 seconds to stare at something 20 feet away optometrists call this the 20-20-20 rule. After two hours of continuous computer use, take 15 minutes away from the screen to rest your eyes. Some people who dont ordinarily wear glasses may also benefit from getting computer-specific specs. These glasses reduce glare and increase contrast, so your eyes dont have to work as hard when youre working with spreadsheets or writing fire tweets. Working at a computer also gets more difficult as you age and your eyes are less flexible. Contact lens wearers may deal with more dryness and blurriness, because you already blink less while wearing contacts. I often wear my glasses instead of my contacts I find that helps. I also use lubricating eye drops, so my eyes dont feel as parched.

If youre having trouble after a long day of staring at the computer, it might be worth saying hello to your eye doctor people with undiagnosed alterations in their vision are more at risk for eye strain. But the good news is that your vision is probably going to be fine in the long run. Just try to be kind to your eyes.

More:
You aren't going to go blind from staring at a computer too long - The ... - The Verge

This entry was posted on February 19, 2017 at 6:45 am and is filed under Eye Sight & Vision. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed. |