﻿Now, for most of us,
working from home is a whole new ball game when it comes to the set up that we've got
and also the environment that we're working in.
And this is particularly true when we
think about the fact that we're far more likely to get eye strain and visual
discomfort working from home than we are in the office.
In this video going to give you six tips
to help you see more comfortably and experience less eye strain when you're
working from home and you've got some serious work to get done.
Hi I'm Martin Oguzie, and this is Martin's Eye Tips,
thank you for joining me and a UK based optometrist where I've been working
for about 20 years now, and this channel is all about helping you
see better, see more comfortably and be less anxious about your eyes.
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So you get reminded every time I release a new video.
Let's get going with today's video all
about helping you see more comfortably when you're working from home.
It's number 1 on my list is to optimize your background lighting.
Now, one of the things about using
computer displays and devices is that they really have this bright screen.
And often you can forget about
the background and the fact that the background can be so much more
dimmer in contrast to this bright display that you're looking at.
It's important to get the balance right so that the background lighting is almost
a comparable to the brightness of the screen.
And that means you will have to kind of really be in an environment where
the lighting is either great natural light or you have to really
make sure you've got a good background, bright light as well.
And one critical thing that happens when we look at an object that's close up,
such as our computer screen, is that our pupils constrict.
And that's to say that our pupils get smaller in size.
And this is important observation
to understand because there are many things that our pupil will respond to.
So, for example, when we look at things
further away, our pupils want to dilate so they get bigger.
When we look at an object close up, they want to do the opposite.
They get smaller and also our pupils respond to lighting levels.
So when we're looking at a bright display, for example,
that that encourages our pupil to also respond by getting smaller.
And when we're in an environment that's dim and dark, the opposite happens.
It encourages our people to expand and get bigger.
So if you're an environment where you've
got your your monitor close up to you and you're looking at this bright display
close up to you, those factors will encourage you pupils to get smaller.
But if you're in an environment that's dark or there's a big contrast between
your display that you're looking
at and the surrounding environment, that's going to cause a conflict,
because once telling your pupils to get small and they're the ones telling your
pupils to get big, and this can cause a conflict which can
lead to discomfort of your eyes and can lead to eye strain.
Eye strain
by the way, is a king pulling tension
sensation that people often notice around their right.
So when you experience that, that's going to make it difficult for you
to work for prolonged periods of time comfortably.
Now, going further on from that and to
also set the scene for some of the other tips that I'm gonna give you.
I just want to point out that there's
a three key things, in fact, that happen whenever we look at an object close up.
So these three key things happen to our eyes and they form a form phenomenon
that's very well known in optics, is called the Near Triad.
The Near Triad is the three key things are happen.
So the first one we've talked about,
and that's the fact that your pupils constrict.
And then secondly, the other thing that happens is that your eyes converge.
So the muscles that move your eyes, the line, your eyes, so that they can kind
of point inwards to address the object they look at up close up to you.
And then the third thing that happens
that makes up the Near Triad is that your eyes auto-focus.
So the muscles that do the focusing of your eyes, they kicking as well.
So you've effectively got these three changes that were complementary together.
And they they kind of work to help you see more comfortably close up.
So that is the your pupils constricting, your eyes turning in and then your
auto-focus and kicking in the process that we call accommodation to allow you
to be able to see and see comfortably working close up.
And that brings me onto the second point.
So my second point is really tip number
2, and this is to optimize your screen position.
Now, your screen position
really is something that should be individual to you.
Different people have different focus points.
So if your eyes are focusing at 50
centimetres and you're actually then forced to work at 30 centimetres,
that may not be appropriate for your eyes because you're focusing ability may not be
adequate and you may also be just more comfortable in that position,
whereas somebody else may be perfectly fine working in that position because
either they are younger in age, so they are manual focusing, etc.
is a lot more capable or they just may not
have the same kind of prescription as you in their glasses.
So there's a range of different things
that means that, you know, your position has to be unique and individual to you.
So you have to make sure that you really optimize the position where your screen is
gonna be optimized for what your eyes are capable of being able to deal with.
How I would advise that you do this is
to get an object, a reading object, and this can just be your
laptop with a font that you are most
likely going to use, then, you know, hold the computer screen
or the laptop or your device screen at the point where you can see
comfortably, then extend your arms right out
to the front, starts to go blurry or starts to get difficult.
Then you can stop at that point because
you know that that's the extreme of your range.
Then move the laptop or the device closer towards you in the opposite direction
and come as close as you absolutely can to the device.
Display starts to become noticeably uncomfortable or starts to become blurry.
Then, you know, again, this is your optimum point to close and close to you.
So in between those two points or the
closest to you and the point furthest away, that's your range of clear vision.
Now the most important and the most
optimum place to be able to have your reading device on your computer screen.
Your display is by the middle of those two blur points.
So, you know, that middle point is really where your screen should be,
because at the middle point is where you've got the most comfortable capability
to focus and hold your focus for longer periods of time.
And then working at this point will allow
you to be able to have more visual comfort for longer periods of time.
So if you if you remember back to we
talked about the Near Triad, so the the other two parts of the Near Triad.
So that is the your eyes converging in.
And also you're also focusing those two factors are really
affected by you working at the position that is most comfortable for you.
So if you're holding, for example, your laptop screen to close near
the extreme of the range or two close to that to near kind of blur point,
then it's going to be harder to work for long periods of time, you know,
working at that position and in the same respect,
if you're holding it too far back from the middle of the range,
there's also going to get difficult after a certain period of time of use.
So you really want to be kind of in that middle of the range,
which really is the kind of sweet, sweet spot and the optimal point
to maintain your focus comfortably for the longest period of time.
And my third tip is to consider your display screen brightness.
Now, for many of us, things look nice and crisp and we've got
a really bright screen and we feel like, you know, we're really kind of seeing
a nice contrast because the screen is so bright.
But if you're going to be working for a prolonged period of time,
you have to really consider whether the level of brightness that you've got
your screen permanently set at is necessary.
In actual fact, I think most people can
really benefit from having the screen brightness reduced to right about the 50
percent mark or at least to the point where you can comfortably see
without having such an intense screen brightness, a glaring back at you.
One of the reasons why having a really
bright screen might be uncomfortable for you is the fact that, again,
relating back to the impact on your pupils when you've got a really bright light
shining at your your pupils, your pupils get really small.
And again, thinking back to the Near Triad we talked about,
this is important because if your pupil gets very very small,
this may also influence the other two factors in the near Triad.
So that's your auto focusing and how your eyes converge.
It may kind of put pressure on those two other aspects of the near Triad to want
to kind of kick in and artificially adjust more than they would ordinarily because
they've been influenced by the other member of the near Triad.
So these three aspects, how your eyes turn in and how your
focusing works and how your pupils react, one can influence the other.
So if you've got your pupils, as I said, been really, really constricted,
then this can really make things uncomfortable for you because it's
affecting, you know, these other aspects that are talked about as well.
So we can influence that by keeping the brightness down to what is necessary.
This thing most people find that this
will make your eyes, you know, instantly feel more comfortable
and make it more bearable for you to work for longer periods of time.
And my tip number 4 is to block
the blue light emitting from your display screen.
Now, one way or another,
many of us will have heard something about blue light and the impact that it might
have on our eyes, you know, in one scenario or the other.
But certainly, as far as a device is concerned, we know that a lot of monitors
and display screens emit a lot of blue light.
Now, whether or not it is good for the health of the eyes,
you know, that's a discussion that perhaps you go through in another video.
But one of the things that we do know is that, you know, many people find that just
by blocking out the blue light, it instantly seems to make your vision
more comfortable while using the monitor and the display screen.
So I'd highly recommend giving this a try
if it's something you've never done before.
And you can do this in a couple of ways.
First of all, you can go out and purchase some blue blocking glasses.
There's plenty of them available on Amazon.
You know, I think
these products do help in this particular situation and for other reasons as well.
And again, that's perhaps beyond the scope of this discussion.
But, you know, you can get something
from Amazon and you can also get prescription blue-black in products made
by optometrist or other online retailers as well.
Now, simple and free way of doing this,
though, is by using the blue light blocking software that's
already included with every Windows PC out there.
And you can do this by, you know, just perhaps navigating over to your
notification center and you'll see a kind of a night mode there.
And if you click on that and you'll find
that the display will go yellow in colour, and that tells you that the blue light has
been kind of removed and that yellow appearance arises because of the fact
that, you know, when a blue light is filtered out,
the light that passes through or transmitted is more yellow in colour.
So that's something that you can do instantly and free if your Windows user
believe that Macs also may have something like that as well.
But certainly if you're an iPhone user, I think Android users as well,
you can search on your phone and look for night shift mode.
And when you enable the night shift mode
on your phone, it's got a timer as well.
So you can enable it to come
on automatically as certain times of the day, or you can just put it on manually.
But you can also find that the whole display takes a yellow tinge to it.
And this is then the blue blocking kind
of filter that's enabled on your phone already.
Now, tip number 5 is to give your eye muscles a break.
And as we talked about,
you know, there's effectively three muscle groups that are involved when you want
to hold your focus for long periods of time looking at object close up
and those muscle groups up, the muscles that are to do with how your
eyes turning, how your eyes kind of converge.
And that's what we call your Extra-ocular muscles.
So that's the muscles that help you look
left, right, up, down, you know, everything in between.
And then the other group of muscles are
the muscles that control your pupils, the pupillary muscles.
The third group is that what we call the cillary muscles.
And these are the muscles that do your auto-focusing for you.
So it's important to recognize that these
muscles can get tired just like any other muscle in the body.
And if you've been holding your focus for any stretch of time,
that is important to have a good break to allow these muscles to rest,
to recuperate and then continue to be effective for you.
And a common rule of thumb to consider
in this kind of situation really is the 20, 20, 20 rule.
And it's one that you might have heard of before.
It simply reminds you to take a break every 20 minutes.
And when you take that break to look about
20 feet away and you can do that for 20 seconds.
And that kind of really allows you to have
a little bit of a rest because you're doing it at relatively short intervals,
I think for longer working periods is while it's probably worth, you know,
halfway through your day having, you know, a little bit more of a break to kind of do
some exercises that kind of help to distress your eyes a little bit.
And I've got a few of these exercises that I'm gonna a kind of leave a link to.
If you want to check that up my website,
you can just check that out and also access a free
PDF that will help you to implement some of these exercises as well.
So for interest of time I won't go through them right now,
but it's available there, I'll leave a link in the description box.
So if you wanna check that out
in the box below and our tip 6 is my final tip for you.
And this is to hydrate your eyes, as well
knowing that one of the common contributing factors to computer vision
syndrome is the impact of dry eyes on the user.
Now with dry eyes.
And this can arise because you are somebody who is prone to dry eyes anyway.
But, you know, this is not always necessarily the case.
And in fact, people who ordinarily wouldn't experience dry eyes can have,
you know, to some degree, you know, a level of drying out while they're using
computer screens and display screens as well for prolonged periods of time.
Now, the reason for this is because a well
known fact that when we all stare at an object close up in our blink rate
and a blink efficiency reduces, it's almost, if you like,
like a protective mechanism that our visual system, which, you know,
automatically blinks for us, understands that we're doing an important
task and reduces how often we blink to allow us to be able to concentrate.
Now, the only problem is that for most
people, this reduced blink rate often means that they're blinking incompletely.
So the blinks that they take in tend to be half blinks rather than four blinks.
So there's always an area which never fully gets wet on the surface of the eye.
And as a result, this area starts to experience drying out.
The drying out then leads to the symptoms
of soreness of the eyes can lead to kind of pinky is developing
and also can just, you know, heighten the sensation
of discomfort when you're working for a stretch period of time.
So it's important to really prompt yourself to blink more in the in the first
instance, because it's really our blinking is an automated thing.
We really it's not something that we think about.
So as much as people might say you need to blink more,
it's not necessarily something that you're going to easily remember to do.
So, you know, you could perhaps stick some sticky notes or sticky notes on your
laptop or your display screen just to remind yourself to blink.
And then when you blink as well, then it's important to take for complete blink.
So your eyes getting, you know,
hydrated and moisturize and then do that regularly.
So, you know, typically most people when
we look at display screens, even when you do things like a task,
like driving our blink rate may reduce us by as much as 50 percent, if not more.
So, you know, this kind of change in this
kind of reduction in blinking efficiency can be quite dramatic.
So it's important to be conscious if you're somebody who feels a lot
of soreness of your eyes, be conscious of your blinking,
making sure that you blink completely and blink regularly as well.
And then also the other point I would make is, you know, while you're perhaps doing
this task, have a glass of water beside you and, you know,
set yourself the task of complete drink in that that bottle of water, you know,
and just just make sure that you're actually physically well hydrated as well.
And this, you know,
goes a long way to generally making sure your whole body is hydrated.
Well, which will also help you feel
comfortable, but also can lend to the hydration of your eye as well.
And so these measures are simple measures,
but, you know, they can have quite a significant impact, you know, over time.
So it's important to kind of factor them all in and, you know,
not to kind of overlook any one of these things and particularly
something as seemingly simple as blinking more often.
That's the 6 tips that I've got for you.
Hope they were helpful.
My question for you today really is which of those tips do you think is going
to be the most beneficial to you? Leave me a message in the comment section
You for watching.
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