computer vision syndrome or digital eye strain is probably something you've experienced especially
if you work on computers all day long it can cause blurry vision dry red itchy eyes
eye strain headaches neck and back strain in this video we're going over the top three
tips to help you with your digital eye strain plus a couple bonus tips as well let's focus in
hey howdy everybody this is Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy with a show that keeps your eyes healthy
and your vision clear and I do videos all about the eyes especially videos like this one
that can give you tips to help keep your eyes top notch
so consider subscribing for my future videos now let's focus on computer vision syndrome now really
important before we go over the tips make sure that you have had an eye exam your eye doctor
will be able to tell if you have astigmatism farsightedness maybe some eye teeming issues
that all might contribute to digital eye strain and just by having glasses or correction alone
may help you with computer vision syndrome so important get your eye exam first now tip
number one relates to your eyes accommodation or your eyes ability to focus on something
up close now when you look at something up close your eye muscles flex and they hold that flex to
keep your vision clear and just like any other muscle in the body if they have to hold that
flex for a long period of time they can get tired fatigued ache and eventually may cause something
called accommodative spasm where your eye muscles won't work right and cause blurry vision and may
actually lock those muscles to the point when you look away from your computer look far away
it might take a long time to transition your focus and may cause your vision to be blurry
even in the distance now this is something that your eye doctor may be able to help you with
is they actually can prescribe specific computer or near glasses with your prescription even if you
have astigmatism or anything like that they can put an additional magnification power in there to
help with your near viewing and that will take the demand off of the eye muscles to keep them
from fatiguing retiring out towards the end of the day now if you don't require glasses don't have
astigmatism or anything you may still benefit from computer glasses even over the counter reading or
computer glasses now you can get these glasses anywhere grocery store or off of amazon now your
eye doctor can find the exact power that you would need for close-up there's also a rough
estimate based on your age of what near power you might need and i'll put that up on the screen
so you can find what power that you might need also i'll put it in the description below so you
can check that out and try on over-the-counter glasses that might help you with the computer
bonus tip if you spend a lot of time reading from a kindle ipads or on your computer screen
try the white on black background setting this can help reduce eye strain especially in low light
conditions now this doesn't work for everybody but definitely worth a try now tip number two
relates to dry eyes now while you're looking at the computer screen or your phones or tablets
it can significantly increase the symptoms of dry eyes the biggest reason for this is
your blink rate goes way down normally we are supposed to blink about 15 to 20 times per minute
when you're staring at a screen you're hyper focused on something your blink rate may drop
down to four times a minute sometimes even less now if you blink less this creates more time for
your eyeball to be exposed to the air causing your tears to evaporate faster and more often
causing your eyes to become more dry red inflamed and that irritation there and so this is something
that can definitely affect you especially as the day goes on now to fight this you want
to use something that's been out for a while it's called the 20 20 20 rule every 20 minutes
you take a 20 second break looking at something 20 feet away and make sure that it's far away
so your eye muscles can really relax also while you're doing this is focus on blinking
blinking frequently doing hard complete blinks getting those tears flowing re-coating the eyes
and this will ultimately help re-coat and refresh the eyes to help you keep going on the computer
there's something that i like to add to that rule especially if you already have dry ice
syndrome or a dry eye disease i like to add a 20 20 20 drop rule meaning when you take that
break you're going to put an artificial tear a preservative-free artificial tear into your eyes
to supplement the tears that aren't coating the eyes now you may not need an artificial
tear every 20 minutes maybe every hour but that will keep your eyes going and keep them refreshed
so you can work on the computer for a longer amount of time now this third tip deals with
the ergonomics of actually using the computer you definitely want very good posture sit up straight
you want your legs and your feet out in front of you and your neck and head straight as well
usually the best distance for your monitor from your eyes is about 20 inches that's about arm's
length away it's if you're gonna punch your screen your knuckles will touch the screen right there
and that'll actually be the perfect distance now you want the top of the monitor to be about eye
level or maybe just a little bit lower almost a third of the way down and that will allow you to
look straight ahead and then if you have to look down your down gaze will help that actually feels
better than having your monitor really high and having you to look up when you look up
you have more exposed part to your eyes so your eyes might dry out they don't feel as good when
you're looking up when you're looking down there's less travel for your eyelids so you'll actually
blink better and also your eyes won't dry out as much plus if you are wearing progressive lenses
or blended bifocals when you have that monitor set at the perfect height when you're looking down the
monitor you'll get into your progressive or your bifocal part of your glasses better and so you'll
see better and the glasses will work better as well another tip most of the devices that we use
phones kindles ipads computer screens will have some type of blue filter or blue night mode that
you can click on there and filter out the blue light now between this and using any type of
blue block glasses may help reduce digital eye strain now i am currently working on a series of
videos about blue light how blue light affects your eyes what you can do about the blue light
so make sure you're subscribed to the channel so you don't miss those videos when they come out
when i do release the videos i'll put the link to the series in the description below as well as up
here thanks for watching this whole video i hope this helped you with your computer vision syndrome
I'm Dr. Neal Guymon, Dr. EyeGuy focusing on you and your eyes stay focused and make sure you check
out my other videos clicking or tapping the screen right there and i'll see you in the next video