If you're glued to your screen all day whether it's your computer whether it's your phone
you may have something called dry eyes and all this screen time that we're getting right now
because we're all having to work from home a lot more we're having to use computers a lot more
may have actually brought you here without you even knowing so in this week's video i've prepared
10 top tips for treating dry eyes we're going to be looking at why we get dry eyes we're going
to be looking at all the tips and tricks and most importantly we're going to be looking at when you
should seek medical attention for your dry eyes so what we're waiting for let's begin so first of
all let's begin with dry eyes what are they well they're very individualized in terms of symptoms
you may experience different symptoms that i experience but generally speaking the symptoms of
dry eye include sore eyes they might be red they might feel tired they might be more watery than
usual they might feel a bit sandy or gritty like you've got a bit of sand in your eyes these are
all the kind of symptoms that you might experience with dry eyes but like i said it's all pretty
individualized in terms of what you might feel and what i might feel so the best thing i will do
is leave a full description in the description below of dry eyes what to look out for so if you
want more information on that please click the description below now let's flick onto the tips
okay so let's begin with tip number one probably the most important thing that anyone can do
is to take screen breaks now this is really important and the best way to do it is what we
call the 20 20 20 rules it's really simple every 20 minutes let's say you've been on the computer
you're going to take a 20 second break and you're going to look at something 20 feet away which is
about 6 meters and the reason for this is we have something called ciliary muscles in our eyes and
these muscles are contracting really hard to help you focus so when you're using a computer
when you're looking at the screen these muscles are contracting so they're going to get tired so
they need a break to relax so you're going to do the 20 20 20 rule so every 20 minutes take
a 20 second break and look at something 20 feet away from you and it's going to make a massive
change and a massive impact now whilst we're on the topic of screen time another thing i want to
mention to you is your blink rate now when you're on your computer or on your phone for a long time
your blink rate starts to reduce so on average we blink about 20 times per minute notice the magic
number is 20 okay but when you're being on your phone or on your computer for a long time that
blink rate starts to reduce sometimes up to about five blinks per minute and this is really bad for
dry eyes because when you're not blinking enough that tear film that you know when you're blinking
is going over your eyes when your eyes are open for longer so you're doing five blinks a minute
it's going to give it more time to evaporate from your eyes and it's going to make them feel more
dry now on top of this another question i want to ask you is are you closing your eyes fully when
you blink now this is an actual thing some people don't realize that when they're blinking normally
sometimes they're not closing their eyes fully now the reason this is so important is when you
close your eyes fully the glands around your eye your eyelids releasing oil and that oil secretion
sits on top of that tear film and helps to stop it from evaporating
so make sure that you're blinking fully first of all and second of all another quick tip that you
can do is every couple of minutes or so after a while of working you can close your eyes fully for
about a minute and this is again going to help with that oil production and that oil release
okay so moving on to tip number two so we're staying on screens we're staying on your
computer setup so i want to talk about first of all what's your setup like at home or at work
is your screen and arms length away that's what you should be aiming for if it's too close you're
going to be overusing those muscles and your eyes gonna feel more tired and eventually gonna get
more dry because you're overusing those muscles that we spoke about to help you focus on things
and secondly where is your screen placed is it placed directly under your windows in facing your
window so you're gonna be getting lots of glare because again this isn't going to be helping so
think about placement as well and another pro tip that i want to talk to you about whilst i've got
you here we're talking about screens is the height of your screen look the top of your screen should
be in line with your eyes the reason for this is because you're then looking slightly down to
look at your screen and this is really important because it's going to help that when you blink
your eyes shut properly and that oil production that oil layer is done properly so it's really
going to help with that so do think about it make sure that you adjust the height properly
okay so moving on to tip number three it's all about larger text size small text size larger
text size okay and the reason i'm talking about this is all about those ciliary muscles that we
spoke about earlier the ones that help you focus the ones that contract and help you focus now if
you're looking at small text for a long time those muscles are going to get tired and your
eye is going to feel tired a lot sooner so a quick tip that you can do that'll really help is to try
and make your font size bigger or to zoom in and that's really going to help keep those eyes nice
and refreshed for longer and just another quick pro tip make sure that the device that you're
using whether it's your laptop or your phone is the same brightness of the surrounding area look
if you're using your phone let's say for example in a dark room and it's super bright it's again
going to put loads of strain on your eyes and all those muscles that we spoke about and it's
going to make those eyes tight more tired than they should be so moving on to tip number four
let's talk about environment this is something that not a lot of people talk about when it comes
to dry eyes but it's super important so imagine this you're at home all day you've got central
heating on the house is warm but after a while the humidity in the house is going to drop therefore
meaning that your eyes are going to feel more dry because your eyes are going to evaporate more
and like we spoke about earlier it's going to make them feel more dry so you've got a
few options really option one which is the easiest option which means you have to buy anything is you
can open some windows if you open the windows it allows more humidity in and this is going to help
with the dry eyes however i do understand that if you're paying money to heat up the house and
you're opening windows it's freezing outside you don't want to do that so another option would be
to purchase a humidifier you can buy these online and it's going to help to increase the humidity
in the room however if you are an asthmatic or if you have copd or any long conditions it is
advisable to speak to your healthcare professional first and check if they're okay with you together
now that we're done with winter let's talk about summer in the summer you've probably got fans
on you probably got the air conditioning gone so what you don't want to do is stay in front of that
high velocity air that airstream again is going to dry out those eyes so don't sit in front of
the air conditioning or a fan try and keep them away from you don't point them to you and again
this is going to help reduce the evaporation from the eye and help with the dry ice so now that we
spoke about winter and summer let's talk about outdoors when you go outdoors if you're somewhere
with very high wind if you live somewhere that's always windy all the time or you like to run or
you like to cycle which means the wind is always going to blow in your eyes it would be worth
investing in some sunglasses or some clear glasses to wear over your eyes to protect them to reduce
that evaporation i always usually wear sunglasses or clear ones when i'm running if you've been on
my channel before you'll know a very keen runner but i do get dry eyes when i'm running as well so
i whack on those glasses i whack on the sunglasses and it gives me that protection now tip number
five is the easiest one yet and that is for you to drink water that's because dehydration can cause
dry eyes you see when your eyes are open you are constantly producing a water liquid known as tears
and you're blinking on autopilot to spread that liquid over your eyes now throughout the day this
water is slowly evaporating from your eye surface so you need to regularly replace that lost water
by drinking more fluids so you want to aim for six to eight glasses of fluids per day
whether it's a cup of tea whether it's juice or good or plain still or sparkling water
okay so moving on to tip number six you might have seen this one coming now we're going to talk about
eye drops and eye ointments look there's many different types of eye drops and eye ointments for
dry eyes so the best advice i can give you first of all is to speak to your healthcare professional
to see what they recommend you to have and also to make sure that it's safe and suitable to use it
now for example there's some eye drops which contain humectants which
basically help like the oil did how we said and it stops the tears from evaporating so that's what
they do but then there's other eye drops as well that contain artificial tears so just like your
tears they're just artificial ones that help the dry eyes again then we have eye ointments now eye
ointments are a lot more thick they're a lot more greasy and they can sometimes blur your vision as
well so usually eye ointments we tend to say to patients to use them at nighttime and not during
the day so it usually drops during the day i will administer tonight now i am going to leave loads
more information about different eye drops and eye ointments in the description below but if you are
interested in purchasing any please do speak to your health care professional first just to
make sure that they can check that you're safe and suitable to use it also certain medical conditions
certain patients who have had eye surgery or have any eye problems they will know which eye drops
they can and can't use so if you are one of them sort of patients please do again speak to your
healthcare professional about it before purchasing any eye drops or eye ointments also i have made a
video previously about how to use an eye drop properly and how to use eye ointments properly
this is probably the most critical super important thing when you're wanting to use an eye drop
or eyeliner for dry eyes because if you're not using it properly you're not going to get all
the benefits out of it so if you are interested in using one and you've spoke to your health
care professional they've recommended you to use a certain eye dropper or an eye ointment
watch the videos that i've done on how to use an eyedropper and i will leave it up here and in the
description below it's going to be super helpful and it's going to mean that you're not wasting
your eye drops or eyeliner because you're using it properly and you're going to get the most out of
it now moving on to tip number seven this is all about the oil glands that are around the eyes that
help to reduce the evaporation of the tears we did speak about these a little earlier in this video
however i do want to discuss slightly about hot compresses now hot compresses can help with those
glands to help them secrete oil better and it can also help increase the blood flow around the
eye and it might just help your eyes feel more refreshed and less dry overall so if you are
interested about doing a hot compress and cleaning your eyelids and eyelid hygiene doing it properly
i have made a video about this previously it was all about blepharitis that video but i do teach
you in the video how to clean the eyelids and how to do a hot compress properly so if you are
interested in that video i will leave a link to it up here and in the description below so feel
free to check it out moving on to tip number eight look if you're someone who drinks alcohol then you
need to try and reduce your alcohol consumption or stop it all together because if the dry eyes
are causing you to go mad this could be one of the reasons for it so allow me to explain
when you drink alcohol your body uses a lot of water to excrete the alcohol from your kidneys
and this can cause dehydration and this can cause why you feel tired after you drink alcohol and it
can also cause the dry eyes and another point to discuss is smoking if you're someone who smokes
you need to try your best to quit again this smoke can irritate the eyes and cause the dry
eye as well never mind all the other health problems and complications that smoking cause
all the different types of cancers all the health problems so this is another reason why you should
really quit smoking and i know it's easier said than done i have done a video previously about
helping you quit smoking if you are interested in quitting i will leave a link to it up here
and in the description below so please remember you need to try and quit smoking and if you do
drink alcohol try and either stop or reduce your alcohol intake and see if it's any different
i will leave more information on both of these in the description below for you to find more
information on to check how exactly how much alcohol you're having and whether it's in the
healthy recommended amount or not now let's move to tip number nine this is reserved for
those who wear contact lenses if you're someone who wears contact lenses and you don't need to
be wearing them so let's say for example if you're at home and you can wear your glasses or if you're
somewhere you can wear your glasses try and take them out more often and wear glasses if you can
of course because the reason i'm telling you this is when you wear contact lenses that oily
layer that we've been speaking about that helps to prevent that evaporation of your natural tears
and to help you keep your eyes more moisturized and less dry that oily layer is thinned when you
wear contact lenses it doesn't work properly which means you're going to evaporate more so
the tears are going to evaporate more and your eyes are going to feel more dry so if you can
whenever you can try and take your contact lenses out and wear glasses instead and you should see
some real improvement by doing this and just as a side note if you do wear contact lenses and
you are interested in using an eye drop or an eye ointment you definitely need to tell your health
care professional that you wear contact lenses because certain eye drops and ointments cannot
be used with with contact lenses because they can turn certain preservatives or excipients which
damage those contact lenses so please do speak to your healthcare professional about when you want
to buy eye drops if you are interested in them let them know that you wear contact lenses so they can
recommend the preservative-free ones and make sure that them ones are suitable to be used with
contact lenses and for tip number 10 i want to talk about sleep sleep is often overlooked when it
comes to dry eyes so make sure you're getting at least eight hours of sleep every single night so
your eyes can rest and recover some people might sleep with their eyelids slightly open and their
eyes get really dry if that's the case you need to speak to your healthcare professional about this
as treatment options are available now if you've tried all of these tips and you've still got dry
eye or you have some other symptoms as well then it's super important that you do speak to your
healthcare professional for advice on this also if you do have any of the following symptoms again
you need to speak to your healthcare professional as soon as possible so for example blurred vision
or any change in your vision or any pain in or around your eye these are all factors and symptoms
that you should go seek medical attention for immediately and sometimes certain medication can
actually cause dry eyes or just general dryness okay that is a side effect of certain medicines
so the best advice i'd give you is to always speak to your pharmacist about your medicines as well as
it could actually be causing you dry eyes but this is no reason for you to stop any medication before
speaking to a healthcare professional that is the most important thing so please don't just stop
your medication that you've been prescribed first speak to your healthcare professional and check
if actually is a cause because it might not be and that's a wrap for this week's video i really hope
you found this information helpful you are now a dry eye pro you now know all about why we get dry
eyes you now know all about how to treat dry eyes you now know all about the different lifestyle
advice and factors that you can do to help with dry eyes and help your eyes feel less tired and
also you know when to seek medical attention so you're a bit of a dry eye pro now so tell
your friends tell your family tell your loved ones because you now know everything there is to know
about the dry eyes i really hope you found this information helpful always remember that you're
awesome and i will see you next week hey guys thanks for watching this week's video make sure
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