It is commonplace in today’s age to hear about the negative effects of digital screens on a person’s eyes. We have all experienced eye strain and fatigue after a long day at the office staring at our computer screens, but can real damage occur from this?
According to The Vision Council, a recent survey of more than 10,000 adults found that 65% experienced “digital eye strain symptoms” at one point, including dry, irritated eyes, blurred vision, eye fatigue and headaches while using computers, smartphones and other digital devices.
Studies have shown that 2 or more hours per day in front of a computer screen can help contribute to CVS (Computer Vision Syndrome). Symptoms of CVS include:
• Headaches
• Loss of focus
• Burning eyes
• Tired eyes
• Red eyes
• Double vision
• Eye twitching
• Blurred vision
• Neck and shoulder pain
Computer eye strain and computer vision syndrome are caused by our eyes and brains reacting differently to characters on a computer screen versus how they react to printed characters. Our eyes have little problems focusing on printed materials that have dense black characters with well-defined edges. Characters on a computer screen don’t have the same contrast or definition, combined with other factors of computer screens that differ than printed pages, give vast more reason for eye difficulties in the long run.
Computer screens comprise of tiny points (pixels) of light which are more difficult for our eyes to maintain focus on, causing our eyes to want to drift to reduced levels of focusing which leads to flexing of the eye muscles. This helps directly cause eye strain and fatigue. Long-term exposure may lead to damage of the eye muscles.
What are some ways we can cut down on eye strain?
There are many steps that we can take to reduce the amount of strain our eyes can encounter over long periods of time. These can include the following:
1. Give your eyes regular resting breaks – taking on a 20-20-20 practice of giving your eyes 20 seconds of breaktime by focusing on something 20 feet away every 20 minutes.
2. Keep monitors 16″ away from your eyes – including smartphone screens. If small text is an issue, increase the size of the text to accommodate.
3. Reduce the glare on your eyes by avoiding sunlight shining on your computer monitors.
4. Reduce the brightness of the monitors to avoid brighter lights emitting from the screens.
5. Adjust the color of the monitors to avoid having many bright colors on the screens for long periods of time.
6. Moderate your other office lighting to alternate bright and dark times throughout the day.
7. Consider using tinted lenses through the day that will help reduce the amount of light entering your eyes to more comfortable levels.
8. Adjusting your posture while sitting at your desk to keep monitors level and just below your eye levels through the day.