Protect Yourself from Screen-Related Eye Strain with 4 Very Simple Tips

If you frequently experience eye strain, you aren’t alone.

Many more jobs involve computers than in the past, and you may even be stuck in front of yours all day long. If you’re here, you’ve no doubt already experienced some troubling symptoms. Eye strain can express itself as migraine headaches, light sensitivity and in a myriad of other ways.

Restoring your comfort at the computer is fortunately, quite easy. Except for the first one on our list, all of these helpful changes can be practiced right at your desk.

Keep your prescription up-to-date

If you haven’t had an eye exam in a while, you can schedule one here at our Kelowna optometry clinic.

Your prescription is one of the biggest factors in computer eye strain, even though you might assume they were completely unrelated. It’s true that a bad prescription doesn’t change the strain that you feel when looking at a screen, but that’s not the whole story. A bad prescription causes significant amounts of eye strain on its own, even before you ever sit down at your computer.

When you stress your eyes even more by adding screen strain onto that, you’re probably going to find yourself among the people experiencing the most problems overall.

Adjust your monitor settings to reduce strain

Your monitor settings can be adjusted to significantly reduce your eyestrain. Every monitor will have different options, so you may want to check with your IT department to determine which ones would be the most helpful. You can almost be sure that department has some tips on reducing eye strain. They may recommend one of the many small apps available that are designed to adjust settings automatically.

If you don’t want to get too technical, you should focus simply on whatever adjustments make it easier for you to read. More or less brightness, increased text sizes and adjusted colors can all make a big difference depending on what’s bothering you.

Take frequent breaks

As much as you can do to make your screen easier on the eyes, nothing is going to be as effective as simply stepping away from the computer. It need not be a long time, either. As long as it takes you to stand up and get a cup of coffee can be enough time for your eyes to relax and readjust. Try to take a break from looking at the screen every hour or so.

When breaks are difficult to schedule, use exercises instead

Not all jobs are friendly to a need for frequent walking. Many people can expect to be stuck at their station for most of the day. If that’s your situation, there are some ways that you can improve the situation without moving. Try these exercises:

           Simply close your eyes: That’s all you need to do. Just 20 seconds to one minute of closing your eyes can reduce the symptoms of eye strain. Even if you don’t feel any eye strain, closing your eyes for

            Gentle massage: While your eyes are closed, slowly and gently rub the area around your eyes. You’ll know you’re doing it right if you feel a growing relief.