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10 Tips On How To Prevent Digital Eye Strain While Working From Home

COVID-19 has made people stay in their houses due to the lockdown. Many people are enjoying the benefits of working from home as they no longer have to wake up early and get dressed for the office but simply have to log in to the system and start working.

Tips To Prevent Digital Eye Strain

As comfortable as it sounds, the truth behind working from home is entirely different. Working from home makes people work even more compared to their normal official timings. Even if they are not engaged in any official works, they are in constant touch with mobile phones for some entertainment during the lockdown.

Watching computer screen or mobile phones for a prolonged period leads to stress on the visual system resulting in dry eyes, itchy eyes, headache, redness of eyes or other ocular problems. While the office environment is adjusted with good lights and technology to prevent eye strain, working from home can get sometimes unhealthy due to the unavailability of such environment. Take a look at a few ways to avoid digital eye strain while working from home.

1. Take Breaks

1. Take Breaks

Working continuously for long hours can cause eye, neck and shoulder pain. The best way to prevent them is by taking short and frequent breaks. Mini breaks of around 4-5 minutes while working help to relax your eyes and reduce the discomfort. This also improves your work productivity and helps you focus more on your task.

2. Adjust The Lighting

2. Adjust The Lighting

Proper lighting of your working space at home is essential in reducing strain on eyes. If there's excessive light in the room due to sunlight or interior lighting, the stress on your eyes can maximise causing pain or other vision problems. Same applies in a low light environment. Therefore, it is y essential to work in a balanced lighting environment.

3. Position Your Screen

3. Position Your Screen

While working from home, make sure to adjust your computer or laptop screen in the right way. Place the device at or slightly below (around 30 degrees) your eye level. This will put less stress on your eyes as well as prevent you from bending your neck and shoulder causing no or less pain while working.

4. Use Anti-Glare Screen

4. Use Anti-Glare Screen

Laptops and computers with anti-glare screen help control the extra light that falls on it. At the workplace, due to adjustable lighting, these filters are not required but while working from home, it may cause strain to eyes if it is not fitted on your computer screen. To prevent glare, use curtains to reduce the sunlight in the room or use dimmer lights.

5. Make Fonts Large

5. Make Fonts Large

Bigger font size tends to reduce the strain on eyes while working. If the font size is bigger, the person has to focus less on the screen to view anything which will automatically reduce the strain. Adjust font size, especially while reading a long document. The combination of black coloured fonts on the white screen provides the best comfort.

6. Blink Frequently

6. Blink Frequently

Blinking frequently helps in moisturising the eyes and avoid dry eye symptoms. Around one-third of people often forget blinking while working for long hours. This leads to ocular problems such as dry eyes, itchy eyes and fluctuating vision. Therefore, make a habit of blinking around 10-20 times a minute to reduce strain on eyes.

7. Wear Prescribed Glasses

7. Wear Prescribed Glasses

Eye strain for longer can cause problems such as eye lesions or cataracts. This is why, reducing the strain on eyes is very important to protect the health of your eyes. Wearing prescribed glasses while working helps to view the screen without tilting your head back. It helps you to see comfortably especially if you have bifocals or multifocal.

8. Exercise Your Eyes

8. Exercise Your Eyes

By performing eye exercises at intervals, one can keep their eye muscles strong and prevent the possibilities of ocular diseases such as myopia, astigmatism or hyperopia. This can be done by 20-20-20 rule. According to the rule, you have look away from your screen after every 20 minutes and focus on any far object which is 20 feet away for around 20 seconds. This relaxes the eyes and helps reduce eye fatigue.

9. Prefer Using Computer Glasses

9. Prefer Using Computer Glasses

Computer glasses help prevent eye strain, blurred vision, digital glare and computer-related headaches by optimising the eyesight while looking at the screen. They come with an anti-reflective coating that helps eliminate reflection from both the front and back surfaces of the lenses thus reducing glare and providing a comfortable time to the person.

10. Avoid Holding Devices Closer To Eyes

10. Avoid Holding Devices Closer To Eyes

People who hold digital devices close to their eyes are at greater risk of eye strain. No matter you are working on small screen laptops or viewing mobile screen, always hold the device 50-100 cms away from your eyes. If the screen is smaller, increase the font size for a better view.