Eye Strain
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What is Eye Strain?
One health issue that can occur after using computers for a long time is eye-strain (tiredness of the eyes).
This is caused by looking at a monitor which is a constant distance away. The muscles that focus your eyes do not move, and so get tired and painful. Eye-strain can also cause headaches.
eye strain is a common and annoying condition. The symptoms include tired, itching, and burning eyes.
Eye strain is rarely a serious condition. Common sense precautions at home, work, and outdoors may help prevent or reduce eye fatigue.
What are the Symptoms?
Sometimes eye strain is a sign of an underlying condition that may need medical treatment. If eye strain persists despite taking simple precautions, see your doctor. This is especially important if your eye strain is associated with headaches or with eye problems such as:
What are the Causes?
One health issue that can occur after using computers for a long time is eye-strain (tiredness of the eyes).
This is caused by looking at a monitor which is a constant distance away. The muscles that focus your eyes do not move, and so get tired and painful. Eye-strain can also cause headaches.
eye strain is a common and annoying condition. The symptoms include tired, itching, and burning eyes.
Eye strain is rarely a serious condition. Common sense precautions at home, work, and outdoors may help prevent or reduce eye fatigue.
What are the Symptoms?
Sometimes eye strain is a sign of an underlying condition that may need medical treatment. If eye strain persists despite taking simple precautions, see your doctor. This is especially important if your eye strain is associated with headaches or with eye problems such as:
- Discomfort
- Double vision
- Significant change in vision
- Sore or irritated eyes
- Difficulty focusing
- Dry or watery eyes
- Blurred or double vision
- Increased sensitivity to light
- Pain in the neck, shoulders, or back
What are the Causes?
- Causes of Eye strain Any activity that requires intense use of the eyes -- such as extended amounts of driving or reading -- can cause eye fatigue. These include extended periods of:
- - Reading
- - Writing
- - Driving
- Exposure to bright light or straining to see in dim light can also cause eye strain.
One of the most common causes of eye strain is staring for long periods at digital devices such as: - - Computer screens
- - Smartphones
- - Video games
- computer vision syndrome
- This type of eye fatigue or eye strain is sometimes known as computer vision syndrome. It affects about 50%-90% of computer workers. Some estimates say computer-related eye symptoms may be responsible for up to 10 million primary care eye examinations each year. ( 2015,WebMD)
The problem is expected to grow as more people use smartphones and other hand-held digital devices. Research shows that people hold digital devices closer to their eyes than they hold books and newspapers. That forces their eyes to work harder than usual as they strain to focus on tiny font sizes.
Digital devices may also be linked to eye fatigue because of a tendency to blink less often when staring at a computer screen. People usually blink about 18 times a minute. This naturally refreshes the eyes. But studies suggest that people only blink about half as often while using a computer or other digital device. This can result in dry, tired, itching, and burning eyes.
- Get a comprehensive eye exam - According to the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), computer users should have an eye exam before they start working on a computer and once a year thereafter.
- Use proper lighting - Eye strain often is caused by excessively bright light either from outdoor sunlight coming in through a window or from harsh interior lighting. When you use a computer, your ambient lighting should be about half as bright as that typically found in most offices.
- Minimize glare - Glare on walls and finished surfaces, as well as reflections on your computer screen also can cause computer eye strain. Consider installing an anti-glare screen on your monitor and, if possible, paint bright white walls a darker color with a matte finish.
- Upgrade your display - If you have not already done so, replace your old tube-style monitor (called a cathode ray tube or CRT) with a flat-panel liquid crystal display (LCD), like those on laptop computers.
- Adjust your computer display settings - Adjusting the display settings of your computer can help reduce eye strain and fatigue. Generally, these adjustments are beneficial:
- Brightness. Adjust the brightness of the display so it's approximately the same as the brightness of your surrounding workstation. As a test, look at the white background of this Web page. If it looks like a light source, it's too bright. If it seems dull and gray, it may be too dark.
- Text size and contrast. Adjust the text size and contrast for comfort, especially when reading or composing long documents. Usually, black print on a white background is the best combination for comfort.
- Color temperature. This is a technical term used to describe the spectrum of visible light emitted by a color display. Blue light is short-wavelength visible light that is associated with more eye strain than longer wavelength hues, such as orange and red. Reducing the color temperature of your display lowers the amount of blue light emitted by a color display for better long-term viewing comfort.
- Blink more often - Blinking is very important when working at a computer; blinking moistens your eyes to prevent dryness and irritation.
- Exercise your eyes - Another cause of computer eye strain is focusing fatigue. To reduce your risk of tiring your eyes by constantly focusing on your screen, look away from your computer at least every 20 minutes and gaze at a distant object (at least 20 feet away) for at least 20 seconds. Some eye doctors call this the "20-20-20 rule." Looking far away relaxes the focusing muscle inside the eye to reduce fatigue.