Digital Eye Strain

Causes – The mechanisms responsible for eye strain are fairly well understood. Essentially, if we consider how our eyes evolved over time, two things become very clear: first, what our eyes evolved to do and what they actually do are very different; second, our eyes have not had time to adapt to their new requirements.

The eye’s ideal focal point is approximately 31” (roughly 1 meter) away from our face. This is the point where our eyes naturally see and focus the best. Most people that use a computer or smartphone do so with the device much closer than 31”, forcing their eyes to work harder to remain in focus. Over time, this is fatiguing to the small focusing muscles responsible for near-vision.

Symptoms – Eye strain’s symptoms are often confused with other unrelated problems. They include:

• Neck pain
• Back pain
• Near-vision becoming blurry
• Difficulty focusing
• Eye fatigue (a feeling of “heavy eyelids”, as if it’s a struggle to keep your eyes open)
• Sensitivity to light

Behavioural changes – Most people can greatly reduce the severity of their eye strain symptoms by making habit, environmental, and lifestyle changes. Reducing digital device use is an obvious (albeit difficult) first step. Moving computer screens and TV’s to at least 31” away is also recommended, as this will allow the eyes to more naturally focus on the screen.

Finally, following the 20/20/20 rule can make significant improvements in symptoms. The rule is simple: every 20 minutes look at something at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This gives your eye focusing muscles a break and can greatly extend how long you can remain at a computer before eye strain sets in.

Controlling your environment – Your environment can play a big role in the frequency and severity of your symptoms. Making environmental changes conducive to alleviating eye strain can go a long way in helping control symptoms. We recommend:

• Ensuring that your ambient lighting is at least twice as bright as the display you are looking at
• Moving your screens to at least 31” away from where you are seated
• Enlarging the text on your displays so that your eyes don’t need to work so hard to focus
• Reducing glare on your screens (either by changing the orientation of your screens so they are not receiving glare or by adding glare-reducing filters)

Reducing exposure to HEV light – High-energy visible light (HEV) is light with wavelengths close to the UV spectrum. Think blues and purples. HEV light has been shown to promote eye fatigue and strain (and is also linked to other problems). Wearing glasses that have a HEV-filtering coating and using software that reduces blue light in the display (such as f.lux) are both recommended, especially when using the device at night.