Screens are Taking a Toll on America’s Eyesight

Most of us think of our eyes as a tool to get the job done, and many of us accept deteriorating eyesight as a fact of life. Now, more than ever, our eyesight is getting worse. What are the causes and what can you do to maintain healthy vision?

The Problem

Our eyes have been fine-tuned over millions of years to catch prey and see both in the short range and the long range.

Enter the modern world –  our eyes no longer do what they were designed for. Instead, we now use our eyes to stare at screens, close and far away, large and small. This results in a few problems:

Light Sensitivity

Our eyes are built to react to the variety of natural sunlight. When we sit at a screen all day, we’re getting too much light from a single, fixed source. There’s no variety, no random reflection. This affects our vision, giving us light sensitivity.

Too Much Up Close Time

Our eyes are designed for a variety of ranges. Long vision, distances, and up very close. When we are focused on a mobile screen or computer screen, we’re spending lots of time in one fixed field of vision.

Not Enough “Far Away” Time

The flip side to this is that whilst we’re concentrating for ten hours a day on close up vision, we’re not practising long-distance vision either. Our eyes were designed to find possible obstacles and prey (and predators!) on the horizon line. Not practicing at this distance is like sitting on a sofa all day and expecting your legs to work in the same way a long distance runner’s do.

The Cures

This problem is a societal one, and there’s not much you can do about fixing society so that we don’t have to sit and work on computers all day. But you can make the difference in your own life. Here are our top tips.

Buy quality glasses

Something you must do is wear quality glasses. According to ExpressGlasses purchasing quality glasses means that you’ll suffer less from the deleterious effects of too much close-up time. This can make all the difference between keeping your eye strain at a reasonable, workable level and having to lose productivity due to headaches and other negative effects of this unnatural condition.

 

Take time away from the screen

 

Just like stretching your legs should be considered mandatory for anyone working at a computer screen, so should taking a break for the sake of your eyes. Every fifteen minutes or so, reset your vision by looking into the distance.

 

Don’t use screens late at night, or use something like f.lux

 

F.Lux is a great software. It’s free to use, and it takes away the brightness from your screen. This helps tremendously when you absolutely have to use a screen late at night.

Of course, the best thing you can do is switch off your screens late at night. This will limit eye strain and help you sleep better.