Eye Fatigue: 5 Tips For Resting Your Eyes From Screens
Between work and play, we spend more and more time on screens. Whether it is the screen of our smartphone, a computer or television, this causes chronic eye fatigue, which can lead to dry eyes, a decrease in visual acuity, or even an early cataract. To prevent these various eye problems, we suggest you discover 5 tips to rest your eyes from screens.
1- Take regular breaks
When working on a screen, the first of 5 tips for resting your eyes is to take breaks at regular intervals.
A break can be as simple as looking away from the screen of the computer to look into the distance.
When you feel your eyes tingling and eye strain creeping up on you, take your eyes off your screen to glance out the window as far away as possible on the horizon.
Warning: this type of break is not about looking away from your computer to rush to your smartphone!
2- Go out for a walk
As amazing as it sounds, the second tip for resting your eyes from screens is to get some fresh air and walk!
If you take this good habit during your lunch break for example, it will be beneficial to limit your sedentary level but also to preserve the health of your eyes.
Indeed, physical activity allows blood and oxygen to circulate throughout the body... all the way to the eyes. By reducing the overall cardiovascular risk, walking also helps prevent the deleterious effects of diabetes and high blood pressure on the eyes.
Ideally, one should walk every day for 1 hour straight to:
- ensure proper ocular vascularization
- expose the eyes to natural light, which stimulates the peripheral retina and limits myopia, which is increasing sharply among young people in France.
3- Remedy dry eyes
The first symptom of eye strain is the feeling of dry eye. Yet, there are several tips to remedy this and rest your eyes from the screens.
The first trick is to blink your eyelids and/or yawn hard to naturally bring tears to your eyes.
But for these tricks to work, you still need to drink enough water, which is essential for your eyes to produce enough tears.
If you wear corrective lenses, surgical masks to protect yourself from Covid or work in a confined atmosphere, your risk of suffering from dry eyes is increased.
In this case, don't hesitate to use artificial tears for added comfort. This will prevent you from constantly rubbing your eyes, a bad habit that can damage your cornea.
To note:back home after a day of screen work, try this other dry eye trick! Simply soak a washcloth in warm water and place it on your closed eyelids for 2 minutes to dilate the tear glands and naturally moisten your eyes.
4- Protect your eyes from blue light
Ophthalmologists are unanimous in saying that blue light from screens contributes not only to dry eyes but also to the aging of the retina and the onset of early cataracts.
So one of the 5 tips to rest your eyes from screens is to use different protections or blue light filters on your screen or eyeglasses.
These filters, essential in case of family history of early cataract or AMD are also recommended to everyone to limit the cumulative effect of blue light from different screens on the lens and retina.
5- Doing eye exercises
The last of the 5 tips for resting your eyes from the screens is to perform daily eye gymnastics in order to move your eyes and relax them.
Among the exercises you can perform very easily during the day, palming is to put your palms on your closed eyes to relax them and ease eye strain.
Sit comfortably and rub your hands together for about 15 seconds.
When your palms are warm, rest your elbows on a support such as your desk or a table and place your palms over your eyes so that they are completely covered, but without applying pressure.
To give your eyes a good rest, make sure you don't let any light pass between your fingers and stay 'in the dark' for about 5 minutes.
You can also be inspired by the eye yoga exercises that we present in the article on this subject (link opposite).
