Long screen time: How to care for your eyes
Due to longer working hours during work from home, we have been spending a lot of time staring at the screen over the past couple of years. Too much screen-time can cause digital eye strain and thus be a recipe for discomfort and complications.
Humans usually blink around 15-20 times per minute. But researchers have found that we blink much less when looking at a screen -- making our eyes drier than they should be. Also, the contrast of text against the digital background, the glare, and flickering are hard on the eyes.
These may be the reasons behind one's eyes feeling dry, tired and vision being blurry by the end of the day.
It is advised to cut unnecessary screen-time to keep eyes healthy. But there are also ways to keep your eyes healthy even with all the essential staring at the screen.
Here's what we can do:
Make sure the computer screen is at least an arm's length away from the face.
Follow the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes during working on a digital device, look at an object at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.
After every two hours on your device, take a longer break of about 15 minutes.
Doctors sometimes advise use of artificial tears to refresh eyes when they feel dry. You can also try putting a humidifier in the room where you most often use a computer or other devices.
Make sure the lighting in the room is bright enough so that your device is not brighter than the surroundings.
If you wear contact lenses, give your eyes a break by wearing glasses while using a digital screen.
As per doctor's advice you might use a different pair of glasses when working on the computer to keep your eyes safe from the damaging blue light of digital screens.
Get your eyes checked regularly.
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