How Screen’s take a Toll on Your Eye’s

Screens are ubiquitous, and staring at one for a large chunk of the day is commonplace. So, can a heavy screen habit hurt your vision? The answer is yes, and though the dangers aren’t life threatening, they aren’t benign, either.

 

Here are some of the most common screen-related eye problems, and easy ways to protect against them.

 

The most frequent complaint is eye strain, which happens when we squint too much, blink too little and our eyes get tired, wrote Dr. Matthew Alpert in a media report. 

 

Strain can result in dry eyesand a headache at the end of a long screen-filled day. The symptoms aren’t permanent, but the problems can recur and become chronic if ignored, easy to do when we’re absorbed in whatever is happening on the pixels in front of us.

 

One of the best ways to ease eye strain is simply to blink more. 

 

A more serious concern is exposure to blue light, which does have a cumulative effect. This type of light, which is emitted by smartphones, tablets, computers and TVs, reaches one of the deepest parts of the eye and can damage the retina. It has also been associated with the development of age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, wrote Dr. Ronald Melton in the Review of Optometry.

 

The sun emits blue light, too, but the sun sets. Screens can run all night long. So can compact fluorescent bulbs, which also radiate this harmful blue light. If you’ve ever sat in a room illuminated by a CFL bulb after dark and worked on a computer or read on a tablet, your blue light exposure has gone up.

 

So, potentially, has your risk of eye problems. Some eyeglasses can filter blue light and reduce exposure. Short of that, cutting back on screen time before bed can make a difference.

 

A third concern is overusing eye muscles, which, just like in the body can lead to muscle aches, Dr. James Sheedy told Forbes. Reading on a computer screen can be uniquely exhausting because of the angle of the screen relative to the eyes. Reading on paper can be less straining for the eyes because you can easily move the paper to the most comfortable position.