So staring at your computer screen for long hours throughout the day can often result in
eye strain, dry eyes, blurred vision and can even lead to headaches and neck and shoulder pain
so in this video
I'm gonna share with you five tips and eye exercises that will help with eye strain relief due to computer vision syndrome
Let's take a look
Hey, what's up, this is dr. Allen here from the dr. Eye
health show helped me learn all about the eyes and vision if you're new here to the channel and you like taking care of your
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so a lot of us these days are spending more time in front of a computer screen or our cell phones throughout the day and
When we spend this much time on a device that's only a few feet from our face
it can be really taxing to the eye muscles and can often result in eye strain that feeling of pressure between your eyes in your
forehead and that can also lead to
shoulder pain and
neck pain and whether you're spending a lot of time in front of the computer for things like work or
Gaming or if you're just spending a lot more time on your phone for social media
Here are a couple of tips and eye exercises that will help you out tip
Number one is to take frequent breaks when you've stared a digital device for too long
your eye muscles can essentially cramp up and we call that an accommodative spasm to help relieve this follow what is called the
20-20-20 rule which means that for every 20 minutes of an ear device use take 20 second break
Looking at least 20 feet away in the distance
Just to relieve those muscles and give them a bit of a rest
now tip number 2 is to adjust your screen position and that is for both the height as well as the distance away from your
Eyes you want to make sure that the computer screen is about arm's length away
I like to recommend that you could be able to give a high-five
To your computer screen that is about the perfect distance for most desktop screens. Same thing for laptops
You may have to adjust how it is tilted just so you get the right direction
with as little glare as
possible as far as height of your screen you want your eyes to be not quite at the very top of the screen but not
directly in the middle for most users having in about
3/4 of the way up on the screen is about perfect because it allows you to look
Slightly downward onto the center of the screen which is more comfortable for your eyes rather than looking straight up or anything like that
But maybe if you're watching something like a movie or playing a video game then having the screen about eye level
Right in the middle of the screen is going to be a little bit more ideal for those
situations and then you'll want to adjust your screen to reduce glare coming off of
Anything like a window or an indoor light source
Because that glare can decrease contrast and make things more difficult to see so you end up squinting your eyes and yeah
You don't want that tip number three is to adjust the settings of your device to make things easier to see
One way to do that is to increase
Font size if the font size is too small and you find yourself giving a lot of energy to squint then making it larger can
Be an easy solution now
This will depend on what device you're using but on a computer that's using Windows 10
Like I'm using here on a website
You can just hit the control button and hold that down and press the plus or minus
Buttons and that will control the size of your font so you can give that a try
You can also hold down the control button and spin the mouse wheel
And it should do just about the same thing and then on digital devices like your phone same thing
You just have to go into the settings and adjust the font accordingly
Another thing that can help is adjusting the brightness level of your computer screen
You can do that with a Windows 10 here by right-clicking on the home screen going down to display settings
It'll open up the settings menu and then right here
You have a little slide bar to adjust the brightness and the color and you can adjust it to be more bright if you feel
that's more comfortable and easier to read or you can dim it down if it seems too bright and harsh on your eyes then you
Also have this cool option at least here on Windows 10
It's called a nightlight on other devices that may call it a blue light mode
but this is a nightlight setting where it'll adjust the amount of blue wavelength light coming from the digital device so you don't get as
Much of that blue light affecting your melatonin production, which can affect your sleep cycles. So this is more important later in the evening
This device even has a schedule than nightlight on or off
Which will allow you to set it based on the Sun set as well as the sunrise
Which is really helpful so you don't have to really think about it
Now blue light doesn't just come from your computer screen
It also comes from our LED lighting that we have in our homes in our offices
so
Sometimes looking at blue light protecting glasses or filters could also be another option and I hold the whole
Video series about that if you want to check out any of those videos, I'll include a link in the description below
We'll also put a you
Card to link up here to the side in case you want to check those out tip number four is to also manage your dry
Eye symptoms many of us do not blink as much when we're on an ear device
Whenever we're focusing on a computer screen a cell phone or even a book
Our attention rate is really hyper focused and our blink rate decreases
Our blink rate is usually about 20 times a minute in conversation
But drops to about four and a half
times a minute and whilst focusing on an ear device one way you can help with those symptoms is to simply be more aware of
How dry your eyes are and try to blink more often?
You can even use supplemental eye drops and warm compresses if you prefer
Otherwise if you still suffer from dryness
I do recommend a whole video series I've made on dry eyes and I'll again include that in the description below
now for tip number five
I'm going to share a couple of exercises to help with relieve I strain now
Normally in the clinic I don't recommend doing is eise's and left. Somebody has a
Diagnosed eye disease where the eye exercises can really help. Otherwise for for this sort of situation
I think just going outside taking a break going for a walk playing catch or shooting hoops
Those kind of normal activities can help really strengthen your eye muscles and coordination just on its own
But if you're something who's really struggling with some eye strain and then trying a couple of these exercises
Might bring you some relief
the first exercise is something called cupping and that is first by just taking your hands and getting them a little bit warm because heat
Is gonna help relax the muscles of the face and then you're going to put the palm of your hands
Over your eyes, you're not pushing on to your eyes directly
But you're kind of cupping around the eyes
Making things look dark
And then you're putting pressure around the bony orbit of the eye and you're not again putting a lot of pressure
You're just holding your hands there kind of feeling the warmth and relaxing your eyes now while you're doing that
It's important not to tense up your muscles
But to relax your shoulder and neck muscles and to simply just relax and you don't close your eyes
But you keep them open looking into the darkness of your palms and you do that as kind of a relaxation
Technique so that your eyes aren't focused on the bright lights of your computer or digital screens
As they have been probably throughout the whole day
You can do this cupping exercise for as long as you want
But I'll sometimes do it just kinda as a relaxation technique for me a minute or so the next eye exercises our eye
Direction exercises, that's just a matter of looking in different directions of gaze
now you want to be doing this looking in the distance not at something up close because again,
We've been spending our whole day looking at near devices
so
picking a distant object
And being able to use your eye muscles to look upward and hold it there for maybe five seconds and then looking at different direction
Now looking down and holding it there for five seconds
You can look to the right. You can look to the left
But then you also want to look in the other directions that means including up into the left up into the right
Down into the right and down to the left. You can pick these different directions moving your eyes looking other ways
Try to hold it there for a few seconds and just give your eye muscles a little bit of a stretch
It's important not to do this too much as you could cause more strain to your eye muscles
Instead just do what feels comfortable for you
And then you can follow up from the eye directions to doing eye circles
Which is just kind of like making circles with your eyes
But again looking at something more in the distance
So you can look upward and then start making a slow rotation of your eyes in a clockwise
And then in a counterclockwise
Fashion and you can repeat this exercise
Multiple times and afterward you can feel your eye muscles at least feel a little bit a less strain
And if at any point you're having pain or discomfort with any of these eye
exercises is important to just go ahead and stop and then of course follow up with your local eye care physician to make sure that
Your eyes are doing okay
And ultimately that is one of the best things I would recommend is that if you are
Spending a lot of time in front of computers
Or having any sort of eyestrain that you do follow up with a doctor on a regular scheduled basis
Or at least once a year. So why health question of the day which part of this video was your favorite?
And do you have any other questions about?
Eyestrain computer vision syndrome or maybe blue light and how it affects our eyes if you have those questions
Drop them in the section below and I'd love to hopefully make something else to help you guys
But hey, if you like this video go and smash that like button for me share it with a friend
Otherwise keep an eye on it