How to protect your eyes

Your eyes are getting no rest from screens. Here’s how to protect them

An average Indian office-goer spends 6-8 hours daily looking at computer, mobile or television screens, says P. Suresh, consultant ophthalmologist at Fortis Hospital, Mumbai. “The figure is worse for IT professionals or people who use computers for work, as they spend 12-16 hours in front of screens .” That’s more than half a day spent gazing at a screen, glued to a laptop or a smartphone.

“It is like running on a treadmill all the time. You’re not giving any rest to the muscles of your eyes”

Dr P. Suresh

Continuously gazing at a screen causes stress, “leading to eye fatigue and strain, with symptoms like headaches, itching, blurred vision, red eyes, burning sensation, heavy eyes and, sometimes, difficulty in focusing”, says Parul Sharma, senior eye surgeon at Max Eye Care, Delhi.

If you think taking a break from your computer and WhatsApping will make a difference, it won’t. The closer you are to the screen, the more you strain your eyes.

So what should you do?

Symptoms of the long stare

Before we tell you how to avoid eye strain, it would help to understand what this strain does to your body. The most common symptom is dry eyes, a compound result of reduced blinking and sitting all day long in air-conditioned offices, which leads to the evaporation of natural tears and results in dryness of the iris, says Dr Suresh.

Moreover, if you are in front of a computer, chances are you are also harming your body, sitting or slouching while staring at the screen. “You are likely to experience back pain from long periods of sitting, muscle tension due to stress, carpal tunnel syndrome because you’re using the same set of muscles and nerves of the wrist and hands in the same way, and stiffness in the neck and shoulder,” says M. Vamshidhar, medical director, Dr Agarwal’s Eye Hospital, Hyderabad.

And though research hasn’t proved this yet conclusively, your eyes could be ageing prematurely, says Nikhil Sardar, ophthalmologist, Nanavati Super Speciality Hospital, Mumbai. “It’s only after 30-40 years that we will find if the high-energy light emitting from the backlit digital screens we gaze at all the time will age our eye muscles spectacularly or not,” he says.

Go orange and green

To strengthen your eye muscles, include fish oil, flaxseeds and sunflower seed oil in your diet. “All of these contain omega 3 fatty acids which protect the eyes from dryness and muscular degeneration,” says Shikha Sharma, founder and managing director of Nutri-Health Systems, a holistic health clinic in Delhi. “Add in vitamin C-rich foods like oranges, lemons, berries and grapefruits and lutein- and zeaxanthin-rich green leafy vegetables like spinach, kale and broccoli to reduce the risk of cataract and macular degeneration.”

Do the 20

Eye strain, medically called “accommodative fatigue”, is the tiredness you feel if you stare at near objects for far too long, explains Dr Sardar. As you focus constantly on nearby or close-up objects, the inner eye muscle becomes used to close-up work and loses the flexibility to focus on distant objects, says Dr Vamshidhar. “The more you do close-up work, such as using the computer or using smartphones, the more the distance vision declines, until all you see is a blur,” he says.

Take a break, follow the 20-20-20 rule, suggest the two doctors. Every 20 minutes, take a break and gaze at something more than 20ft away and blink voluntarily for 20 seconds.

Lower your screen

If working on a laptop or computer, keep the screen 20 degrees below eye level, says Dr Sardar. “You look down on the screen with half-closed eyes. This way, the surface area of the eye where water is evaporating and drying is lesser.” Don’t keep it too low or too high though, as that will lead to eye strain, says Sharma. “Your eyes become dry and irritated because this forces you to constantly keep the eyes wide open and blink less frequently,” she says. Keep the centre of the screen about 4-5 inches lower and at a 20-28 inches distance from the eyes.

Dim the brightness

Eye strain is often caused by excessively bright light around a screen, be it from sunlight or from harsh interior lighting, says Dr Vamshidhar. “When you use a computer, your ambient lighting should be about half as bright as that is typically found in most offices,” he says, suggesting you draw the drapes, shades or blinds over windows, switch off florescent lights and opt for lower-intensity bulbs and tubes. 

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