9 Tips To Relieve Digital Eye Strain

Online shopping has continued to grow this year, which means more people are spending more time on computers, tablets and phones. While the convenience of online shopping can’t be beat, it could be costing us sleep, giving us headaches, making our vision blurry…and even affecting our posture.

Digital Eye Strain

Digital eye strain (DES), also known as computer vision syndrome (CVS), is a consequence of spending two or more hours at a time looking at a digital screen. Nearly 30% of adults spend more than 9 hours each day using digital devices, while 25% of children use digital devices more than 3 hours a day.

This can result in dry or itchy eyes, blurred vision, eye twitches, headaches and even back and neck pain. Using digital devices for an extended period of time increases your tendency to lean into the device, as you try to focus or compensate for glare from reflected light (room lighting or windows). Holding these positions for long periods of time are what create the back and neck pain.

As for the many eye symptoms, they can come from

  • poor lighting
  • improper viewing distance from device
  • not blinking often enough
  • poor screen contrast
  • glare on the screen
  • UV blue light

To help you deal with DES, here are 9 tips to relieve digital eye strain.

9 tips to relieve digital eye strain

12/22/15


Susan DeRemer, CFRE
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation

20 Facts About Eye Color and Blinking

7/15/14

Eye color is one of the first things a person notices about another person, but blinking is so automatic we rarely think about it. Here are some intriguing facts about eye color and blinking:

1. The world’s most common eye color is brown.

2. Brown eyes are actually blue underneath.

3. Melanin affects the color of your eyes so brown eyes have more melanin than blue eyes.
Person with different colored eyes - eye color and blinking
4. Heterochromia is when you are born with two differently colored eyes.

5. Blue-eyed people share a common ancestor with every other blue-eyed person in the world.

6. We blink more when we talk.

7. It is impossible to sneeze with your eye open.

8. The average person blinks 12 times per minute or about 10,000 blinks per day.

9. The eye is the fastest muscle in the body – in the blink of an eye. They are also the most active muscles in the body.

10. A blink usually lasts 100 to 150 milliseconds making it possible to blink five times in a second.

11. You blink less when you’re reading.

12. Infants blink 10 times less than adults.

13. One blink isn’t always the same as the next.

14. Our eyes close automatically to protect us from perceived dangers.

15. The older we are the less tears we produce.

16. Tears are made of three main components – fat, mucous and water. This is so tears won’t evaporate.

17. Your nose gets runny when you cry as the tears drain into your nasal passages.

18. You blink on average 4,200,000 times a year.

19. Tears kill bacteria because they contain lysozyme, a fluid that can kill 90 to 95 percent of all bacteria.

20. A newborn baby will cry, but not produce any tears. Babies do not produce tears until they are around six weeks old.

Susan DeRemerSusan DeRemer, CFRE
Vice President of Development
Discovery Eye Foundation