Protecting Your Valuable Vision From Eye Strain Caused By Too Much Technology

With all of today’s technology, screens are everywhere and available in all sizes, from our huge big-screen televisions to our tiny, handheld devices. While our parents may have warned us against sitting too close to the TV set as children, now it seems that we can’t get away from the many screens that surround us and feed vital information to our brains through our eyes.

Although plopping ourselves precariously close to the television won’t blind us, too much screen time can cause eye strain, temporary blurry vision and other eyesight issues. Too much technology can also lead to dry eye syndrome, which according to GRF (Glaucoma Research Foundation), has proven to be a factor in 40-50% of people who were diagnosed with glaucoma.

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TWENTY SOMETHING

One of the problems associated with too much computer time is dry eyes from not blinking often enough while staring at the screen. Called the 20-20-20 rule, it’s recommended that users look away from their computers (or other screens) every twenty minutes, at an object twenty feet away for at least twenty seconds. This is almost like a re-boot for your eyes and experts tell us that it takes a full twenty seconds for our eyes to rest and refocus.

GET UP & GET A DRINK

Another way to assist the health of our eyes is by moving around and staying hydrated. At the twenty minute mark, you should also get up and get a drink of water. Steer clear of caffeine and sugary drinks that can cause your body to become even more dehydrated. If you can’t leave your workstation, then consider keeping plenty of water on hand and looking out the window or across the room to refocus your vision.

GLARE GALORE

It’s not only glare coming from on our computer screens, these bouncing beams can come from finished surfaces on tables, desks and even shiny, glossy painted walls that causes even further problems. Solutions can include:

• Reducing or eliminating too much exterior and interior lighting

• Painting walls darker hues with a matte finish

• Installing anti-glare screen on computer screens

CHANGE SETTINGS

Make some minor adjustments on your computer’s display settings that can have some major results on minimizing damage to vision and eyesight. Adjust the brightness of your monitor so that it more closely resembles your surrounding environment, which usually means you’ll be decreasing the brightness of the display. If it’s too gray or dark, bring it up a notch and vice versa if it’s too bright. Also try adjusting the text size and contrast to fit your comfort level.

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OTHER DISPLAY DILEMMAS

Keep your screen clean since fingerprints, debris and dust can cause even more strain to already stressed eyes. Also, if you have an old-school, tube-type display, called cathode ray tube or CRT, with the newer LCD (liquid crystal display) screens. The old-style CRT screens cause a flicker effect, which contributes to a major part of eye strain and fatigue, especially in the workplace. Usually it’s immediately noticeable, but eventually we just become accustomed to it and it will continue to plague our vision in the future if not corrected.

In closing, be sure to have regular, comprehensive eye examinations by a qualified professional who can diagnose subtle changes in vision that can also cause excessive stress and strain on our eyes. Since our valuable vision is irreplaceable, we should safeguard and protect it at all costs.