It’s nearly impossible to overestimate the role of eyes in our lives. And with the digital revolution, our eyes got even more daily workload. The more advanced techs are, the more time we spend staring at screens, putting our eyes under strain. Eye strain is not something you want to experience, let alone aggravate it. It can cause plenty of unpleasant symptoms like dryness, redness, headaches, and fatigue. People used to fix it via tons of medication. While medications can be pretty affordable thanks to discount platforms like CharityRx, preventing this condition is much better than trying to cure it when it has already developed.

But it doesn’t mean that we have to abandon watching and reading the things we love. Refusing modern tech to lower eye strain is like refusing to walk because your legs might get hurt. There are no good or bad things – it’s all about finding the balance between rest and work. This way, you get the best of both worlds. How does one find it? In this article, we’ll share some practical tips for preventing eye strain and protecting your precious vision. Let’s take a closer look at them 🧐

What Is Eye Strain?

Let’s start with the basic concept. Eye strain occurs if your eyes are constantly overwrought. When does it happen? Basically, after anything that involves focused watching, like reading, writing texts, or watching Netflix for too long. The longer the task – the more severe eye strain you get. Besides, there are plenty of side factors that tire your eyes even more. For example, staring at a bright screen in a low-lighting room.

Eye strain symptoms may vary from person to person. But, in general, they include dry, itchy, or irritated eyes, blurred or double vision, headaches, neck & shoulder pain, and fatigue or tiredness. Some might think it’s not a big deal. As if having tired eyes is something a person can withstand with no struggle. In fact, if you leave eye strain untreated, it can lead to even more severe conditions like myopia, aka nearsightedness, and astigmatism.

Eye strain is becoming increasingly widespread for obvious reasons – our minds have adapted to digital routines, but our physical bodies have not. So we keep straining our eyes until they start hurting. In most cases, it’s about using devices like smartphones, computers, tablets, and TVs. In this particular case, the biggest issue is blue light emission, which contributes to eye strain, disrupts sleep patterns, and causes long-term damage to our eyes.

Besides, the notorious COVID-19 pandemic forced many people to remote work and online learning. It increased screen time and made eye strain even more prevalent. With getting all the cutting-edge stuff digitized, we should not give it up but properly adapt.

Tips to Prevent Eye Strain

Sure thing that you can’t 100% protect your eyes unless you don’t use gadgets at all. It will only happen after humans make a breakthrough in bionics. However, you can optimize your routine in a way that your eye strain will be recovered by your body. There are some tips on it.

Adjust Your Work Environment

First and foremost – create a comfortable and well-lit workspace. You can’t move on without this step. Poor lighting conditions severely accelerate your eyes’ fatigue, so make sure your workspace has sufficient lighting. Of course, the best option is to have plenty of natural light, but even artificial light sources do a great job.

The distance between you and your working screen does also matter a lot. To cut down any eye strain, make sure your screen is about arm’s length away from your face. Such a setup makes your eyes less stressed.

Also, keep your computer screen free of glare by placing it away from windows or adjusting the blinds. Any visual distractions will force your eyes to focus even harder on a point.

You can make your life easier by picking the proper hardware. Ideally, your monitor already has an anti-glare coating and a blue light filter as a hardware solution. However, it does require some hefty investment. If you are ready to invest in a good monitor, pay attention to the monitor’s resolution as well. 4k (2160p) monitors are very crisp picture-wise and easy to work with text.

Take a Break

Taking a break is essential in any aspect of our lives. For example, don’t sit for too long or don’t consume too much coffee/sugar/TikTok videos. Working with devices is no exception. Experts recommend the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, you take a break to watch something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This fancy trick reduces eye strain and improves your eyes’ focus.

In addition to this rule, you can enrich your daily routine with some eye exercises. Which ones? You can do rapid blinking or roll your eyes in a circular motion. These exercises relax your eyes’ muscles and reduce strain.

Practice Healthy Habits

We have mentioned that eye strain can and should be recovered by your body. It’s true, but your body relies on the fuel you pack. Therefore, your diet should be rich in vitamins and nutrients, such as leafy greens, fish, and citrus fruits. The better your nutrition – the more stuff your body has to fix the problems. Also, make sure to drink enough water to reduce eye dryness and irritation.

Our bodies are rather a clock mechanism than a bunch of standalone parts. This means if you smoke and drink alcohol a lot, even your eyes are not okay with it. It can lead to eye problems like irritation, dryness, and other. Quitting bad habits helps your eyes and body overall.

And, of course, you should rest well and stress less. Lack of sleep and high stress levels might cause eye strain, not to mention dozens of other health problems. Sleep enough to wake up without a bad mood and practice stress-reducing activities like meditation.

As you can see, the mentioned tips are not that hard to follow. If you manage to incorporate them into your daily routine, you are safe for the digital future we are stepping in. So keep your eyes rested, and good luck!