Not many worry about computer eye strain today since it doesn’t sound like the new variant of a disease outbreak. Nonetheless, people spend a lot in eye consultation and treatment sessions due to the discomfort they experience from having a dry eye. Today, it’s important to shield the eyes from the rays of light it gets exposed to daily. The best way to approach eye strain is to fight it head-on by sticking to certain protective measures against it. Here are a few of them opticians suggest getting started with.
Reduced Exposure to Blue Light
One-third of the light that dashes through the human eyes from mobile or computing devices is blue light. Though blue light has the shortest wavelength in the visible light spectrum, it radiates the highest level of energy. Staring at a screen for too long can expose the eye to lots of blue light absorption, which could potentially damage the human eye. Reducing the screen’s color temperature works temporarily, but getting prescribed lenses works best in providing a long-term solution against blue light.
Investing in High-resolution Screens
While our Jacksonville and St. Augustine eye centers cares for many eye strain patients, the majority of them are often found using devices with low-resolution screens. It’s hard to find people who still use CRT screens with the upgrades on computing and mobile devices nowadays. Well, it’s also hard to ignore that many have sentimental attachments with devices with old screens. Sadly, they come with low refresh rates with distinct flickers which makes the eyes feel uneasy. The higher the screen resolution, the better and less strenuous it becomes to see.
Operating Phones & Computing Devices in Well-illuminated Rooms
Suggesting that people operate their mobile phones and computing devices in well-lighted rooms often sounds counter-intuitive. Nonetheless, without balanced surrounding light in the room, the eyes get the majority of visible light from the device. When this happens long enough, it results in eye strain after a few minutes tops. Too much light from the surroundings affects the eye just as much as less light does. Dry eye doctors in Jacksonville and St. Augustine suggest using lower voltage bulbs for balanced light to prevent eye strain.
Switching to Night Mode
Virtually every computing device and mobile phone today come with night mode features. Some devices have cooler night mode color themes to get people to switch to them more. Night mode features help the eyes reduce the strain activity it has to go through compared to using the regular white light appearance setting. Most eye patients with complaints of dry eyes in Jacksonville suffer through weeks of initial eye strain symptoms, which they ignore. The night mode feature also reduces the effect of blue light.
Keeping Sensible Distance
Holding the phone so close to the eyes used to be a known thing among people with a long-sighted eye defect. Today, however, everyone gets super focused on their phones or work station without realizing just how close they are to the device. Scheduling an eye consultation session with a dry eye specialist in Jacksonville helps people realize just how bad this common practice gets. It pays to zoom the screen’s content rather than bringing the device closer to the eyes. Keeping a sensible distance from the device helps to prevent eye strain.
Adding Anti-reflective Screen Protectors
A lot of mobile phones come in glossy screens that cause a huge reflection of blue right directly into the eyes. Without many filters from the phone’s screen, the eyes take on hours of reflective light, resulting in eye strain. People should always look out for matte screen protectors after purchasing a phone. Anti-reflective screen protectors protect the phone from direct sunlight and protect the eyes from eye strain. Our dry eye doctor in Jacksonville would recommend anti-reflective screen protectors for all phone users.
Adjusting the Brightness Settings
One of the common protective measures against eye strain from mobile phones and computing devices is customizing the brightness settings. It’s so easy to forget that this feature exists on the device since people expect everything to be fine “straight out of the box.” The custom feature is available because the manufacturers understand that humans have different eyes. This makes it easier for people to adjust their font sizes, text layouts, brightness, and contrast. There’s an option to switch to the outdoor mode when outside.
Blinking at Intervals
Our dry eye doctors in Jacksonville, dry eye specialists in Jacksonville, and eye surgeons consulting to Bowden Eye & Associates patients of dry eyes in Jacksonville – share the importance of blinking at intervals when sitting at the front of a screen. Of course, it sounds silly to think of doing this deliberately since blinking of the eyes is an involuntary action. However, with the level of concentration on the screen, people often forget to blink their eyes. Blinking helps to add moisture as well as refocus the eyes to prevent dryness resulting in eye strain.
Conclusion
Common protective measures like adjusting the brightness settings, adding anti-reflective screen protectors, keeping sensible distance, and switching to night mode help to prevent the eyes against eye strain. People should also learn to operate their mobile phones or computing devices in rooms with well-illuminated lighting. This helps the human eye get a balanced light gradient from both the screen and surrounding when using these devices. Night mode also helps greatly because it reduces the blue light intensity to the minimum.
