Especially among office workers that spend almost their day working in front of a computer screen, eye strain is fast becoming a common and deadly health condition.
And the usual symptoms that often accompany this anomaly include eye itching, eye spasm, red eyes, consistent headaches, dry eyes, and visual fatigue, among others.
So what's the best way to deal with eye strain? First off, you need to work on your office lighting. It shouldn't be too dim nor should it be bright. This will help you reduce the chances of getting exposed to vision syndrome while also improving your productivity and living a healthy life at work.
However, that's the most basic info that almost everyone knows. In this article, you'll learn all the essential tips you can lean on to protect your eyes while in the office. These tips will also help you with the office lighting in your home office. Let's start!
Understanding the Secret to Eyes Protection While Working
In some quarters, ophthalmologists also call this eye deficiency digital eye strain. As the name implies, you can only fall victim to it when you work all day staring at your screen.
This could be your smartphone, personal computer, or any other digital device. And if much care is not taken, eye strain might lead to a blurred vision which might finally pave way for total blindness. Hence, here is a few tips you can use to minimize the risks or douse the paints associated with digital eye strain or computer vision syndrome.
Communicate How You Feel to Your Ophthalmologist and Seek a Comprehensive Eye Exam
Here's the most important piece of advice for you - you should always prioritize seeking advice from a medical expert. And you need to be very open with the doctor.
Let him have a full grasp of your working style, how long you use a computer daily, how often you give yourself breaks, and how many hours spent on other electronic gadgets. You should even be free to the point of telling the doctor what you do during your free time.
This will help you undergo a comprehensive eye test that might even bring some things that you probably don't know about your sight health into the open. Hence, you need to understand what's happening with your sight before seeking medical attention.
Meanwhile, people with normal visual strength erroneously conclude that glasses aren't made for them. But we're here to inform you that even the slightest prescriptions can help you live a life free of eyestrain and eliminate fatigue when working at the screen.
Go for Proper Lighting
You also need to ensure your workstation is modestly lit - neither too dim nor too bright. And this applies to workers whose line of work demands dealing with physical documents every time.
Even if the nature of your work doesn't require that, you should not rely on the lighting coming from your monitor. Why's that? Such a habit is very hazardous to your visual health.
You should also bear in mind that the screens emit blue light and it's connected to diverse problems like insomnia or total blindness. Research has even shown that this lighting affects women more than it does to men.
Therefore, you should make sure that the distance between your eyes and the monitor is ideal. And if you're using more than one monitor, like a gamer, don't be too close to the monitors. You should also remember to get a low blue light that'll help you brighten the workspace. We'll advise that you check out our various computer desk lamps at Flexispot.
They'll help you get rid of eye strain in no time!
Regulate the Settings of Your Monitor
It's quite unfortunate that many office and remote workers don't adjust their monitor settings upon delivery. They'll rather leave it at the factory-setting brightness and that's dangerous. But if you're ready to live without eye strain or any other deadlier vision problems, why don't you check out the settings today?
Adjusting the display settings also relates to the following:
Brightness: You need to regulate your computer or smartphone's brightness to align with the illumination around you.
For example, if the background of the monitor or smartphone you're using to read this article is too bright, you should dim it. And if it looks gray and boring, it might not give sufficient contrast and make it harder to read.
Text Size: You should also regulate your text size to give you proper eye comfort, especially when you're editing, reading, or writing voluminous documents. So if the size makes you squint your eyes, you should increase it. But we won't advise that you go for the overly big text display. Why?
The display might push your eyes into racing back and forth too fast but it's not healthy.
Color Temperature: This deals with the hue cycle of visible light produced by your monitor's color display. Meanwhile, we have two major spectrums. Red light is longer wavelength color while blue light is the short-wavelength version. Thus, the former works fine when you want to relax and work long-term on the monitor, especially at night, while the latter works to keep you active but might cause eye fatigue after some minutes.
So you should know which one works best for you and switch to the color temperance.
Adjust Your Workplace
You remember that we chipped in the importance of proper office lighting at the introductory phase? Great. But that's not the only adjustment you need to make, especially if you're already battling computer vision syndrome. You need to change your office furniture to the contemporary style. And what could be more contemporary than ergonomic office furniture?
Getting an ergonomic office desk will offer you maximum comfort and ease while working on the screen. Let's make it more practical, your monitor needs to be positioned by, at least, one arm's distance far from your eyes.
Also, the monitor screen should be placed about 10 to 15° beneath your eyes. This will help your neck stay in a position comfortably. Apart from an ergo desk, you'll also need an ergonomic office chair alongside other office essentials that'll help you feel comfier while executing your daily tasks.
After all, you should always prioritize your comfort!
Shift Your Attention from the Screen for Some Minutes
Do you work on your computer for long hours? Then, you need to cultivate the habit of looking away from the screen, every 5 to 10 minutes. This is to save your eyes from falling into fatigue while working.
Another tip you should religiously observe is consistent blinking. Blink your eyes as many times as possible. On the other hand, choosing to stare at the screen without blinking will give the light produced by the monitor enough room to easily dry your eyes.
Hence, blinking more frequently will ensure proper lubrication of your eyes and that's a potent antidote to escape from the sharp claws of eye strain.
Take Regular Breaks
We understand that you want to be as productive as possible and that's possible when you make sure that every minute spent on seat counts. However, that doesn't mean you shouldn't give yourself regular breaks from the screen.
Failure to adopt this simple but powerful tip might easily push you into fatigue daily. Hence, it'll do your visual health a bunch of good to take, at least, a 5-minute break every 45 to 60 minutes work session.
Invest in Computer Glasses
It's on record that almost 70% of North Americans suffer from computer vision syndrome. And that's largely due to spending extended time with the screen.
So another effective way to combat and win this war is to invest in computer glasses. They have been designed to serve as a shield to strike out the glare and reduce the blue light coming from your screen or any artificial light in the workstation.
These glasses are generally called anti-blue light glasses. They'll give you the best eye comfort and once you put on the glasses, the number of hours you spend staring at the screen will no longer matter. What makes this tip more interesting is that the glasses can be made or gotten with or without a prescription. Is that not amazing?
Conclusion
Although all these ideas and tips are a step in the right direction. But you should also remember to give the same attention we've explained here to your surroundings.
That's when you can work more comfortably and live a robust life, both at home and work. And as tempting as it might be to overlook or belittle these tips, we'll advise that you stay focused and observe them to the letters.
