Protecting Your Eyes & Body in the Digital Age

It’s normal to feel tired after a long day of work. But have you noticed after spending hours at your laptop that your back, neck, and eyes are sore? The problem may not be simply your office chair or one too many video calls; you may be suffering from digital eye strain.

Treating Digital Eye Strain

Our clinics and staff are ready to diagnose and treat your digital eye strain symptoms, including dry eyes. At your appointment, your eye doctor will determine a specific treatment plan for you.

One of the most effective treatments we rely on to treat digital eye strain are specialty glasses. Specialty glasses are designed to maximize your eye comfort by optimizing your prescription for your digital devices and blocking harmful blue light.

What Is Digital Eye Strain?

Our bodies aren’t built for long days spent sitting and looking at a screen. In addition to body strain from sitting still at our desks, we also move our eyes more than normal while working at a computer. We also blink less often while looking at all these screens.

As a result, our eyes, eye muscles, and body become stressed and fatigued. This is computer vision syndrome or digital eye strain.

Symptoms & Causes of Digital Eye Strain

Digital eye strain often causes dry eyes, blurring, and eye fatigue. But it’s also common to experience neck pain, back pain, headaches, and even trouble focusing on the task at hand. When you’re dealing with digital eye strain, your productivity suffers as well as your body.

The Trouble with Blue Light

Most digital displays emit significant amounts of blue light. While we know that intense blue light from the sun can cause eye damage over time (that’s why wearing sunglasses is so important), it’s unclear whether artificial blue light from our devices can cause damage.

What we do know is that exposure to artificial blue light, especially at night, can make it tough to fall asleep and get a good quality sleep, resulting in feeling tired the next day. On top of that, when we spend the next day in front of screens, we’re taking in more blue light. This blue light is harder for your eye to focus on, which can result in eye strain.

For some people, blue light-filtering lenses may be helpful. To find out if they’re right for you, talk to your optometrist at your next appointment.

Digital Eye Strain May Contribute to Myopia in Children

Myopia (or nearsightedness) had been on the rise in kids in recent years. Some scientists believe this is due to kids spending more time in front of a screen and less time outside.

How to Reduce Digital Eye Strain

Unless you can stop using digital displays altogether, you probably can’t completely avoid digital eye strain. But if you apply the following strategies at home and work, you can significantly reduce the strain and find comfort again.

Specialty Glasses

Investing in computer glasses may be a good way to reduce the impact blue light has on your eyes. Specialty blue light lenses are designed to filter out blue light, meaning the time you spend in front of your screen has less negative impact on your eyes.

At InFocus, we carry a range of specialty glasses to help reduce your digital eye strain symptoms. Brands such as EyeZen & Digitime, can maximize your eye comfort when working on digital devices.

Step Away from the Screen

Just like any muscles, the muscles in your eyes need a break every so often. The 20/20/20 rule is a good way to give them a quick rest:

Every 20 minutes, look off in the distance (say, 20 feet or more) and blink regularly for about 20 seconds. Focusing at this distance relaxes your eyes while the blinking rewets them. Now you’re ready to go for another 20 minutes.

Office Ergonomics

You can optimize your workspace to lessen the chance of digital eye strain.

Ensure your monitor is positioned an arm’s length away from you without any glare to interfere with your vision. Your head, neck, and torso should be aligned in a straight line with your elbows relaxed and close to your body. The top of your screen should fall just below eye level.