Everyone needs a break: 7 ways to relieve eye strain after a computer

If you are reading this article, you have a computer, smartphone or other gadget and most likely you are familiar with the issue of screen eye strain. We hasten to assure you: you are not alone. Almost every person who spends more than two hours in a row at a computer sooner or later feels that his eyes are tired of the monitor – but he does not always attach importance to this. As a result, you have to experience various unpleasant consequences, and this is not only dryness and fatigue of the eyes, but also headaches, pain in the back and neck when working or playing for a long time without a break, and the image your eyes transmit to the brain become blurry, which is not only distracting, but also interferes with orientation in the world around it. Maybe you also had this (we have – yes!), Agree, this is very unpleasant. There is even a name for it – computer vision syndrome, and many people suffer from it – according to various estimates, from 40 to 60% of the total number of those who use certain electronic devices. These are office workers, gamers, and those who for one reason or another work or study remotely, and only people who have smartphones.

The good news is that the problem we have described is much easier to solve than you might think. There are very simple ways to relieve eye strain after a computer, smartphone or television, and these methods do not require special technical or medical training. Plus, you don’t have to use them all at once – even one or two will make your life a little easier.

In a room where you work in front of a computer, the lighting may be too bright or too dim, which strains your eyes not so much because of the screen itself, but because of the contrast between its brightness and the brightness surrounding lights. Try rearranging the monitor so the windows are to the side, not behind you or behind the monitor. Draw the curtains, see if you’re comfortable. If the room has an alternative light source, lower the intensity of the lighting, this may be the case. In the office, due to the many fluorescent lamps, it can be too bright – discuss with your colleagues the possibility of turning off a part, after all, colleagues also experience eye strain after working with a computer.

Sunny Bunnies are beautiful, but not when they glare at you, keeping you from working. Anti-glare glasses, an anti-glare screen coating, maybe even a simple repositioning of the monitor on the table or the table itself will help.

Dry, tired eyes on a computer can easily be the result of incorrect settings. If possible, set your monitor’s refresh rate to a higher refresh rate than the default (60Hz) – between 70 and 85Hz is best. Adjust monitor brightness, set maximum resolution. The larger the monitor, the more comfortable it is to work on it, so if you are planning to update your workplace, look at the monitor more impressively. And, of course, it should be flat – old CRT monitors, of course, are comfortable for cats, but it is more useful to choose newer technologies for work. From your eyes to the screen there must be 50-70 cm.

At least once an hour you need to get up from the computer, stretch, rest your eyes. It is good not only for vision, but also for back and neck health.

Use special drops (artificial tears) or blink more often. Usually, when we look at the monitor, we blink about two to three times less often than necessary (and the average blink rate is around 18 times per minute), hence the dryness. In addition, the air in the room where your computer is located should not be too dry either – it is useful to periodically ventilate or install a humidifier (the simplest and cheapest are a small towel immersed in a container of water at one end, or a damp cloth over a hot radiator) .

To relieve eye fatigue, gymnastics is very useful. The simplest is, for example, “20-20-20”. Every 20 minutes of computer work (you can download special apps that will remind you of this or just set a timer) for 20 seconds, move your eyes to an object about 6 meters (20 feet) away from you. Then you can continue to work. The second simple exercise is to look at something far away for 10-15 seconds, then look at something close for the same 10-15 seconds, repeat 10 times. This reduces the risk of accommodation spasm, a condition where your eyes cannot see near and far clearly.

Suppose that none of the methods described above helped you. In this case, it may very well be that computer eye strain is the result of vision problems in general. Contact an ophthalmologist, check your eyesight, tell us about your symptoms. Maybe you’ll be prescribed special glasses for your computer (and you can immediately order an anti-reflective coating for those), or maybe they’ll give you some extra tips on how to minimize eye strain.

Now you know what to do if your eyes get tired. In addition to the above methods to solve the problem, you can also try drinking vitamins – for example, fatty acids, vitamins A, B2, C, D, E are useful for the eyes. Watch your posture – can Perhaps the fatigue is caused by the fact that you are seated incorrectly, too close or too far, the screen is placed in an awkward position, which further strains the eyes. If you need to compare the printed text with what is on the screen, place the paper on a stand next to the monitor and shine a light source at it so that the brightness of the paper and the screen is approximately the same, so the eyes don’t have to adjust to a new mode of lighting each time. We hope our tips help you!