Digital Eye Strain | Solano EyeCare

Monitoring Digital Eye Strain

Digital screens are an essential aspect of daily living and, for most people, unavoidable. Whether it’s for work or entertainment, we can all find ourselves spending hours in front of a screen, and our eyes can pay the price.

At Solano EyeCare, we help you manage the effects of digital eye strain and explore different prevention methods to provide the relief you deserve.

What Is Digital Eye Strain?

Digital eye strain or computer vision syndrome can affect your eyes when you spend long hours in front of a computer, phone, tablet, or other digital screen. The effects of this condition can be magnified by preexisting vision conditions such as uncorrected myopia, astigmatism, or presbyopia.

Common signs and symptoms of digital eye strain can include:

Headaches
Blurred vision
Neck and shoulder pain
Dry eyes

Even if your symptoms are mild, they can still worsen and cause other vision issues over time if not addressed. Contact us to book an appointment and see how our team can help.

Managing Digital Eye Strain

A comprehensive eye examination is the first step to finding relief from digital eye strain. The severity of your digital eye strain symptoms can depend on various factors such as how long you spend on your computer, your posture, lighting, glare, and the angle of your monitor.

During your eye exam, your doctor will conduct eye tests such as:

Visual acuity testing
Refraction tests
Focus and eye coordination tests

These measurements can help our team design a treatment plan to help relieve your digital eye strain symptoms. Along with treatment, there are some management methods you can practice on your own to help manage digital eye strain.

Adjust Your Lighting

The lighting of your setup can be essential to preventing digital eye strain. If your workstation has lighting that is too dim or too bright, it can have a negative effect on your vision.

Finding a good balance is crucial and adjusting your screen brightness so you don’t have to squint or strain your eyes can be helpful. Glare is also a contributing factor to eye strain and is important to consider in your setup.

The 20-20-20 Rule

Intense focus on your work can result in your eyes being dried out or strained. We know focusing on your task is important, but so is giving your eyes a break.

The 20-20-20 rule allows you to give your eyes some well-deserved rest. The 20-20-20 rule involves:

Looking away from your screen every 20 minutes
Focusing on something 20 feet away
Looking at the object of focus for at least 20 seconds

Adjust the Position of Your Screen

Viewing your computer screen at the correct distance and angle can help save some stress for your eyes. Your screen should be about arm’s length away from your eyes, and you should keep your screen at eye level or slightly below.

An anti-glare screen is also an excellent investment to help reduce glare from surrounding lights. If you need to enlarge the text on your screen to avoid squinting, please do so.