Spending too many hours at the computer can cause even the best eyes to become irritated, blurry and dry, but there are things you can do to clear your eyes and get you functioning at peak levels once again.
Computer usage causes a variety of annoying and sometimes painful eye conditions including dry eyes, red eyes and blurred vision. Collectively, these symptoms are often called computer vision syndrome.
Fortunately, computer vision syndrome is a temporary condition that goes away when you spend some time looking at something other than a computer monitor, but you can also reduce the symptoms when you’re at the computer by taking some simple steps.
Here are three things you can try that just might help clear your dry, blurry, irritated eyes:
1. Use Eye Drops
Nothing can solve computer-related vision symptoms quicker than eye drops. While saline drops and artificial tears sometimes work, most people who use a computer frequently also suffer from dry eyes, and there are special drops on the market for this condition.
Drops formulated for dry eyes contain oils or other ingredients that help lubricate your eyes with every blink. Try several brands because they can cause additional blurriness if they’re too oily for you.
2. Don’t Just Close Your Eyes, Look Away Too
Closing dry, irritated eyes helps them return to their normal moisture levels, but when eyes are strained from focusing too long at the same distance, nothing makes them feel better than focusing at a different distance.
The next time your eyes feel strained, look at an object at least 20 feet away, like a clock or a painting. Then, look more closely, attempting to examine every detail. Focusing on distant detail relaxes eyes strained from looking at a computer up close.
3. Consider Low-Power Reading Glasses or Computer Glasses
Even if you can see perfectly most of the time, special computer glasses or low-powered reading glasses can help you.
Computer glasses are often tinted to reduce eye strain from bright monitors and to slightly adjust the color spectrum to make images easier to look at over long periods of time. They are sometimes quite expensive, but you may find that lightly tinted sunglasses help just as much.
Low-power reading glasses with magnifications of +1.00 diopters or less can help reduce eye strain by giving your close-up vision a little help — even if you see perfectly. These readers extend the length of time you can look a monitor before you feel the symptoms of computer vision syndrome.
Wearing glasses of any type can help in offices or homes with fans or air vents that blow directly in your face. Reducing the wind in your eyes can help alleviate dry eye problems.
Don’t Let Things Spiral Out of Control
Computer-related eye problems can be frustrating because the pain, irritation, dryness and blurriness caused by looking at a computer monitor can keep you from completing your work. Work that doesn’t get done piles up and creates stress, which in turn leads to other physical problems.
It’s not unusual for people with computer vision syndrome to become physically ill from the worry caused by not being able to function, but taking some simple actions can keep the downward spiral from happening.
These three simple steps can help you make sure your computer-related eye problems don’t derail your life.
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