How To Keep Your Eyes Healthy When You Use Screens A Lot
Do you use screens a lot? Even if you don’t work with screens for hours at a time, you’re sure to use laptops, tablets, phones, and TVs at some point during your day (maybe multiple times a day or for long periods), and it’s important to know how to keep your eyes healthy when you use screens a lot.
With the average person looking at screens for seven or more hours a day, it’s no wonder that eye strain has become such a problem for so many people, and the bigger problem is that this can lead to all kinds of other issues, like headaches, dry eyes, blurred vision, and even neck pain. So let’s look at how to keep your eyes healthy, as it’s sure to help.
Visit An Optician
Making an appointment to see a good optician is a great place to start if you want to keep your eyes healthy and get some useful advice about what to do and how to protect them in day-to-day life. Opticians can check your vision and your eye health, and although you might assume the best time to see your optician is when there’s a problem, preventative measures are far better, and regular appointments for a check-up can help a lot.
If you have regular eye exams, your optician will be able to spot potential problems much earlier on, and that can help keep your vision a lot healthier. Plus they’ll be able to give you specific and personalised advice when it comes to your screen habits and taking care of your eyes.
Follow The 20-20-20 Rule
One of the best ways to take care of your eyes when you use screens a lot (and one of the simplest as well) is to follow the 20-20-20 rule. It might sound complicated, but it’s really easy – every 20 minutes you take a 20-second break and focus on something at least 20 feet away from you. That might not sound long, but it’s enough to allow your eyes to relax and it reduces the stress on them that prolonged use of screens can cause.
Adjust Your Workspace
Something else that can work wonders when it comes to reducing eye strain and taking care of your eyes and health in general is to ensure that your computer screen is in the right place. Shouldn’t that just mean it’s in front of you? Well, that’s a start, but it’s not everything! To help your eyes, your laptop needs to be positioned at eye level, and it should be about an arm’s length away from you. Now of course, this might mean you need some extra equipment, like a platform for your computer and a separate keyboard so you don’t have to reach too far, but it’s worth it to keep your eyes healthier.
Use Blue Light Filters
Have you ever heard of blue light? It’s not exactly what it sounds like – it’s not a bright blue light that you can easily notice – and instead, it’s the light that’s emitted by screens, and it can be pretty disruptive to sleep patterns and it can cause eye strain too. Many devices come with built-in blue light filters these days, but if yours hasn’t got one, you can buy one online quite easily. Or, if you prefer, you can get blue light-filtering glasses, which do the same job. The end result, no matter which option you go for, is healthier eyes.
