Look around yourself. What do you see? A lot of gadgets lying around. The world has made advancement in the field of technology to a great deal. We just cannot deny the importance of technology that has taken over our lives.
As people age, they experience difficulty to constantly look at a computer screen for a long time. They experience blurred vision. For people with computer jobs, this becomes very difficult. They also start experiencing eye strain and back and neck pains.
This situation is could be the symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome. So, what is Computer Vision Syndrome exactly?
According to CCOHS:
“Computer Vision Syndrome is also known as Digital eye strain; it refers to a situation where a person finds difficulty while working on computer screens (mobile phones, laptops, and tablets) due to strain in his eyes.”
Now, a thought might pop up in your mind, “Are you a victim of CVS?”
Well, here are some of the symptoms of CVS:
- Eye strain
- A headache
- Back pain
- Neck or shoulder pain
- Dry or irritated eyes
- Blurred visions
Causes of these symptoms are:
- Working for a long time on the computer
- Glare on computer screens
- Bad computer display settings such as brightness and contrast
- Working in poor lighting
- Bad sitting posture
Our eyes are a blessing for us. Without them, we would be unable to enjoy the beautiful sight around us. Eyes are very delicate.
We should take care of our eyes. Now, in today’s mechanical life we focus very less on ourselves.
Here, are some tips, which you can follow to treat your digital eye strain easily.
1. Have a Medical Eye Checkup
American Optometric Association, elaborates: “About 50% of the adult population requires their vision to be corrected.”
By the age around in 50’s most of the people experience difficulty in having a clear vision. About at the age of 60 or above age people having some health issues should have an annual medical eye checkup. Vision becomes affected by the age, this may be due to a number of other health problems such as diabetes etc.
Normally, people should have a yearly medical checkup including eye checkup. Most of the people with affected vision do not upgrade their glasses’ number and continue to use the older suggested glasses number.
It may be harmful because using the corrected sight number is essential for the health of the eye.
Now, when do you know that you need a medical checkup for your eyes?
Optometrists recommend that healthy adults aging between 18 to 60 should get their eye exam done by eye specialist yearly if they do not experience any health problems or wear contact lens. While having your eye exam done, make sure that you discuss your computer usage with your doctor so that he could recommend you accordingly.
But wait, there’s more:
You must get an eye checkup before you get involved in a computer job or use a computer daily. After every year from that go for a medical eye exam.
2. Use Computer Glasses
Wear computer glasses before you do any computer related task and make this your habit if you have any computer-related job.
Now you might be wondering, “What are computer glasses?”
Computer glasses are specially designed prescription glasses which are to wear before performing any computer related task. They allow to maintain focus on the screen and minimizes the eyes strain make you work comfortably.
What’s more?
People who spend a lot of time on computer experience many ee related difficulties. Most common of them is a blurry vision. This may be due to constant staring at the computer screen for a long time. Computer glasses minimize glare on the screen and allows you to work on the computer more comfortably.
Check out our buying guide for the best computer glasses on today’s market.
3. Adjust Your Sitting Posture
Your seating posture is very important and is connected to your vision.
Buffer Social explains:
“While working on the computers the most common pain areas are a shoulder (38%), lower back (63%), neck (53%) and wrist (33%)”.
The placement of any digital screen from your eyes describes a lot of your sitting posture. If you are sitting bent towards your monitor’s screen, a lot of stress and pressure would be on your back and neck. This may lead to back and neck aches.
To avoid these you must adjust your sitting posture so that you may focus at your computer screens more comfortably.
4. Use Proper Lighting
Lighting is very important for relieving eye strain. If you work at night with the only computer screen, your eyes require and put a lot of pressure to look or to stare at the screen. Even if you are using computer glasses.
Many users also claim to experience difficulties while look or working at a computer in too bright light or sunlight coming towards them or on screen. In this situation, your eyes put an excessive effort to maintain their focus.
They tend to work less efficiently with bright light.
The workplace lighting related eye strain problem’s statistics are alarming,
According to American Optometric Association:
“More than Ten Million people visit doctor annually due to Computer Vision Syndrome”
The computer’s backlight must not be too bright or too dim. It should be just moderate so that your eyes do not have to put an extra effort to focus.
5. Change Your Computer Display Settings
By now, it is clear that lighting does affect your vision, especially while working on computers. You may adjust the computer display setting so that it may reduce eye strain and fatigue while working on computers.
Adjust the Brightness
Brightness is one the factors which are responsible for maintaining the focus on your screen. If your computer screens are a way to bright then it would be difficult for you to maintain your focus on the screen. Your eyes may start to pain or irritate in some cases.
If the brightness of your monitor’s screen is to dim then, eyes would pressurize on the screen to focus. While working on computers we continuously need to focus and refocus. This process would become hectic if the brightness is way too dim.
Adjust your computer brightness to a moderate level so that you may work easily and your eyes do not fall a prey to excessive stress.
Adjust the Contrast
Adjusting the contrast also plays an important role. If the contrast level on your monitor’s screen is too high then words and colors on the screen would sharpen which may ultimately cause your eyes to irritate.
So you must,
Set the contrast on your monitor’s screen to a moderate level which allows your eyes to work at ease on computer’s screen.
Text Size
Make text size to a moderate readable size which does not put a strain on your eyes while the focusing. Especially when you are reading something from your computer’s screen or writing a long draft.
You may adjust all the setting on your computer screen from the control panel.
6. Give Rest To Your Eyes
Your eyes need rest. We blink about 15 times per minute. That is a lot of blinking for a minute.
Ever thought why eyes blink?
The answer is simple. Eyes can not stare at a thing continuously, they need rest. They need some little rest gaps by blinking. It kind of refreshing procedure for them.
Sadly, eyes blink less while working and they blink even less when you are working on a digital screen. It means they do not get enough of rest.
All About Vision says that:
“Blinking is very important for eyes. It prevents eyes from getting dry. It moisturizes eyes and avoids the irritation of eyes”
We should blink more often especially to avoid dry eyes. If you experience the symptoms of dry eyes it is better to consult a doctor.
Give your eyes an exercise of blinking your eyes about 10 times every 20 minutes. Blink slowly as if you are falling asleep. It will prevent your eyes from getting dry eyes.
7. Do not work Continuously
Working continuously always leave you with the fatigues and unwanted body pains. Your minds need to freshen up.
According to a research of American Optometric Association, you get more tired while working on a digital screen as compared to when you are doing some written task. They say that “55% people felt discomfort in their eyes after their eyes were exposed to screen“.
While working 8 to 9 hours daily on your computer continuously, you would not be more productive. Your mind needs to relax and it takes time to freshen up.
It is recommended that you should not work continuously. Take a gap. Go out for a run or walk after as a break. Eat something or drink fresh juices to make your body revive the freshness.
Meditation could also help. Meditate about for 15 minutes it will relax your mind and your eyes.
It would give great benefits when you continue your work your eyes will be relaxed and mind will be fresh and you can work more productively.
Also, it will relax your eyes and you will not experience any eye strain or fatigue.
8. Give Exercise To Your Eyes
Giving exercise to your eyes can also prove very beneficial for your health.
As we have discussed already, eyes are a delicate organ. They need extra care. Giving exercise to your eyes while working can prove to be very helpful.
Fatigue could also prove to be a cause for eye strain, to avoid this give your eyes the right thing which it needs. Eye exercises are helpful in following ways:
- Eye exercises strengthen our eye muscles.
- They improve the focusing of our eyes.
- Improves eye movements.
- They also help in maintaining the vision of center in our brain.
If we perform eye exercises on a daily basis, many of the eye related problems can be avoided. They may also prove beneficial for improving eyesight.
Firstly, talk to your optometrist regarding the eye exercise. He would recommend you with a number of exercises that would be suitable for your according to your eyes.
Some of the eye exercises are mentioned below:
- Rub your hands until they feel warm and then put your palms on your eye region. Repeat this step a number of times.
- Massage your eyes for 1 to 2 minutes.
- Practice zooming in and out with your eyes.
- Imaginary make the figure eight with your eyes.
- Practice patterns eye movements.
9. Minimize Glare
Looking at the glare on the walls, windows, shiny furniture and metal objects can also prove to be a cause for eye strain. Avoid the glare contact as much as possible. Glare causes your eyes an unwanted focus which damages the eye a lot. Your eyes need to focus a lot more while looking at glared objects. Ultimately, it results in eye strain.
Cover your monitor with an anti-glare protection screen – it will reduce the glare on the monitor’s screen. Cover the windows with curtains, at the time the sunlight passes through the windows and produces a glare on your house’s wall and even on the floor.
So it is better to keep your windows all covered up.
Paint your house walls with a dark color because the effect of glare reduces at the darker shades. It is recommendable to paint the walls with a matte finish. Same goes for your house furniture.
10. Modify Your Workplace
Your workplace should be ideal for your eyes. The lighting and everything must be in such a way that they do not disturb your vision.
Inappropriate lighting at your workstations for your computer work can prove to be a major factor that results in visual discomforts like blurry visions, itching in eyes, irritated eyes, headaches and eye strain.
The light should be appropriate should not be too much that it produces glare while reading or writing. It should not be too dim that your eyes have to put a lot of pressure to focus on the screen.
It should be adequate so that you may see the words on the screen comfortably.
For an optimum condition for getting light, following factors must be kept in mind.
- The amount of the light.
- The constant of the light with the environment.
By adjusting these two factors according to your eyes comfort, on your workstation will help in avoiding eye strain.
Wrap Up
Eye strain is becoming day by day all around the globe. Frequent usage of digital screens affects our eyes a lot. These digital screens including mobile phones, laptops, desktop, and tablets have become a major cause eye strain which ultimately causes Computer Vision Syndrome.
Eye strain can be avoided to a great deal if we follow the above-discussed tips.
