Living in a digital age comes with many perks, and the opportunity to find any piece of info promptly is surely one of them, but, on the other hand, there are some disadvantages. People are highly dependent on their phones, laptops, iPods, PCs, etc., and we usually get carried away and forget about other important things in life, but this is just one downside of it all, and the one that can be easily solved. What troubles most people is that feeling when our eyes are worn out, as they do most of the work. Now, even though we are not physically active while looking at the screen, our eyes are working at the highest speed, and if we are not careful enough, it can lead to many health problems.
It’s something we have all experienced before, and, oddly enough, we also tend to look for a solution online. The first thing to mention here is that there is no need to worry, as there are certain things we can all do to protect our eyes.
We all spend far more time in front of our screens than we should. Most people probably know that doing so isn’t great for our eyes, and frankly, our sleep patterns, but it’s an addiction most of us can’t shake. Yes, we need to do so mostly because of the job, but let’s be honest, we also spend way too much time looking at our phones just for fun.
Most of us reach for our smartphones the minute we awake and then travel to work while still viewing them. We then start our workdays in front of a screen or two, and many revert back to our mobile devices at lunch. Then we return home and commonly watch television on an additional screen before, unwisely, viewing our phones in the minutes and hours before we sleep. All of this has a tremendous effect on our eyes and our health in general because studies have shown that these habits affect our sleep, and since it all starts from that much-needed resting time while we sleep, it means that it affects our whole behavior.
The amount of time we spend in front of our screens is a real concern for most of us. Not only is that amount of time not good for our mental wellbeing, but it’s also particularly damaging to our eyes.
Staying safe and healthy when spending long periods in front of your screen, be that a work computer, the tv, or, most commonly, smartphone, is crucial for your health, and there are a number of things you can do to mitigate any risks.
The Damage to Your Eyes
Screen time can be incredibly damaging to your eyes, especially if you spend long periods uninterrupted in front of them. Staring at screens tends to lead to you not blinking as well as the movement of the screen leading to your eyes trying harder to focus and take in all the information that is present.
Additionally, people tend to sit too close to the screens, and this is especially problematic when a mobile device is held too close to your face.
Here are a number of issues that can result in overexposure to screens.
Loss of focus – This is something that usually happens with age, but a loss of focus flexibility is more pronounced in those who spend excessive periods in front of their screens
Eye Fatigue and Dry Eyes – If you spend hours on end in front of a screen, then you will tend to suffer from double-vision and difficulty concentrating. This can also lead to headaches and dry and irritated eyes.
Damage to Retina: You can sustain damage to your retina from exposure to blue light emitted from screens. Macular degeneration may follow, and in older people, this can even lead to the loss of eyesight.
Nearsightedness: As most of our screen time occurs indoors, where there’s a lack of natural light, you can develop nearsightedness, and this is especially the case with children whose eyes are still developing.
How to Stay Safe
We should try to reduce the time we spend in front of screens and take regular breaks. We also need to make sure to sit within a decent distance from desktop computers and hold our phones at arm’s length. Proper distance and regular breaks can help us prevent many problems with our eyesight.
Have You Considered Using Blue-Light Glasses?
One way to battle against the effects of too much screen time comes in the form of blue-light glasses, which offer protection from the light emitted from them. Blue light blocking glasses such as glassesusa.com are incredibly popular, and although there isn’t a great deal of scientific evidence proving their effectiveness, there are still plenty of people who use them with confidence. Many people claim that they feel instant relief when they put them on, and since there is no proof that they can do any damage to our eyes, there is no reason to avoid them.
How to Stay Safe
As it’s likely that avoiding our screens for long periods isn’t an option, there are many ways to stay as safe as possible, and we will mention them in this text to make things much easier for people who need some help.
Take Breaks
One of the best possible solutions is to try to take regular breaks from the screens. That is even more important at work, as our seating could also be leading to other physical issues. Besides that, it can sometimes be pretty challenging to take a break while working, so we need to find a way to do that.
Try to avoid spending more than an hour at a time looking at the work screen and when it comes to the smartphone, try to keep this down to ten or twenty minutes. Give the eyes something else to focus on, and you’d be surprised how they can better focus.
Stay a Safe Distance
Make sure you are at least 28 inches away from the screen, and if it seems like it is necessary to be nearer, then it’s likely that it is time to book an eye exam. It should also be below our eye line so that we are always looking a tad downwards, which means that putting it high on the wall is not recommended.
Get a Regular Eye Exam
Sometimes the additional focus our eyes perform when looking at a screen is a sign that our eyesight isn’t what it used to be. Because of that, we need to take regular exams to make sure that all is in order. It is the only way to detect any possible problem and try to fix it in time before it is too late.
Adjust the Lighting
Try to make sure that the screen isn’t too bright and look to balance out the light from them with the light in the room you are watching them in. That means if the light in the room is too bright, it is necessary to increase the brightness of the picture to make it much easier to watch it. Besides that, it is important to increase the contrast to help make it easier for the eyes. Also, try to avoid glare as this can also put added strain on your eyes which may feel pretty uncomfortable.
Any issues suffered due to overuse of screens can be reduced greatly by adopting some of these suggestions, which can save our eyesight in the end. The crucial thing is to try not to avoid the issue, and if we do little to reduce the potential damage, then we may end up with eye damage that is impossible to correct. Our eyesight is something we want to save as long as possible, and it is necessary to be careful, especially today when we are all addicted to our mobile phones, computers, and TVs. All of these devices have screens, and spending too much time in front of them can leave some severe consequences, so it is much better to prevent them than to try to fix them once they occur.
