How to Take Care of Eyes in the Digital Era

For many of us, the day starts and ends with a screen. We grab our phones the first thing we wake up, go to the office to work on our laptops, come home to watch TV, and go to bed relaxing with some light Insta reels scrolling—that’s a lot of eye strain all day long. So how can you take good care of your eyes to prevent damage in the digital era? 

Adjust your posture

Let’s start with something pretty easy to fix—your posture while looking at the screen. The best position while working at the computer is to keep the screen 20 to 25 inches away from your face, and your eyes in line with the upper edge of the screen (looking slightly down at your screen). Tilting your screen an inch or two back will make it more pleasant to work. 

Adjust your screen

The light from your screen has the strongest effect on your eyes. Screens can be very bright, and when combined with the surrounding light, they can cause a lot of damage. However, working in insufficient light can also cause strain. So what should you do? Strike balance by making both your screens and your ambient lighting equally bright, but not too much. You can also change the background color from white to gray or off-white—these are much cooler for your eyes. Additionally, make sure to adjust the text size and, when possible, choose larger text to minimize strain. 

Adjust your glasses

Just like you update your tech and gadgets, you also need to update your eyewear. See an ophthalmologist and do a thorough test to see whether you need to adjust your prescription. Even if you don’t need a new prescription (or don’t need glasses at all), you might want to consider grabbing new glasses with anti-reflective lenses with a coating that blocks blue light that’s emitting from the screens.

 

Get laser surgery

In case your prescription has become too bothersome for you, you can consider laser eye surgery that will correct your vision. In big urban centers like New York, you can find amazing clinics. When looking for LASIK surgery in NYC make sure to choose a place with the best doctors and best tech, so you can have just a quick and painless treatment. With this, you won’t need a prescription anymore, and taking good care of your eyes will be much easier. After LASIK, you can pick out glasses with blue-light blockers and different protective coatings without having to consider whether they will fit well with your prescription. 

Grab a bottle of eye drops

When you look at the screen, you tend to blink much less frequently than usual. This is not a good habit because it can leave your eyes dry and uncomfortable. Luckily, there’s a simple solution for this—blink more and rest your eyes. Besides these simple changes in your routine, you can also grab a bottle of artificial tears for those times when your eyes feel especially dry. These provide extra moisture and give a lot of relief. 

Follow the 20-20-20 rule

Screens are indeed hypnotic, so if you often spend hours working without taking your eyes off the screen, it’s time to adopt a 20-20-20 routine. This easy-to-remember rule requires you to take a 20-second break every 20 minutes. During this break, it’s important to look at an object that’s (at least) 20 feet away. With this exercise, you will relieve the pressure from the eye muscle, allow your eyes to change focus, and hopefully reduce the long-term negative effects of prolonged screen time. Use this break to snack on some foods full of nutrients crucial for eye health. 

Create a good work environment

When positioning your screen and desk, make sure to consider the surrounding light sources. Many lighting fixtures can compete with your device screens and cause additional strain on your eyes. Also, bright sunlight can cause a lot of glare and discomfort when working. Make sure to position your screen to reduce glare, add proper task lighting instead of classic overhead sources, and install blinds or curtains to your windows so you can block overly strong sunlight. 

Your eyes take you through life and provide you with the primary source of information in today’s world, so make sure to take good care of them. Once you start seeing the benefits of the tips above, you will quickly turn them into habits and ensure the long-term health of your eyes.