Digital Eye Strain

If you’re like most Americans, you spend most of your day staring into one screen or another. Your computer at work, or your television at home, and even the smartphones in your pocket.

With all of this screen time comes the very real, and rather uncomfortable phenomena called Digital Eye Strain.

Digital Eye Strain is pretty much just fatigue of the eyes, caused by staring at a screen for too long and is characterized by a few symptoms that can cause discomfort, irritability and make it difficult to do your job.

Digital Eye Strain symptoms include:
Dry, itchy eyes
Blurred or double vision involved
A subtle (sometimes intense) throbbing of the eye, or the areas around the eyes
Dry, red eyes
Trouble falling asleep at night
Aching back or neck
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One of the main causes of Digital Eye Strain is the high amount of “blue light” that our screens emit. These blue light levels are much higher than what occurs naturally and what our eyes are accustomed to.

Fortunately, there are a number of ways that you can avoid getting Digital Eye Strain from your computer.

Flip a switch

In Windows 10 you can actually adjust the amount of blue light that your screen emits with a setting. To do so, just follow these simple steps:

Open the Start Menu.
Click the gear icon to bring up the Settings Menu.
Choose “System”.
Select “Display”.
Toggle the Night Light switch to On.
Click Night light settings to adjust the level of blue displayed or determine the time for Night Light to activate automatically.
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Use a 3rd party app

If you’re using an older version of Windows, or even a Mac computer, you can always download and install f.lux.

​f.lux is a small application that adjusts the blue light level of your monitor, and can be set based on the time of day, or even based on the type of ambient lighting the room you’re in is using.

Use the 20/20/20 Rule

We asked our optometrist about Digital Eye Strain, and he told us about the 20/20/20 Rule.

​Basically for every 20 minutes you spend staring at a screen, you should spend 20 seconds focusing your eyes on something 20 feet away. This simple technique will help your eyes relax and avoid strain.
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At Tech Force, we stare at a lot of screens, and we’re well aware of how Digital Eye Strain can impact your everyday life if you’re not careful.

​If you have any questions on how to make your screen more eye-friendly and less eye-ouchie gives us a call, we’re always happy to help!