Taking Care of Your Eyes as You Age

As you go through your busy day at work or school, you may notice your eyes getting tired. There are many factors that can lead to eyestrain. In turn, eyestrain can impair your ability to read, reduce the quality of your vision, and give you headaches. However, you can take matters into your own hands to improve your situation as well as protect your eyesight. You need to make taking care of your eyes a priority, especially as you age, because your eyes support one of your most important senses. Here are three easy ways to reduce eyestrain.

Adhere to the 20x20x20 rule.

It seems that there are screens everywhere you turn. From your computer to your smartphone, technology is intimately entwined with your daily routine. Staring at a screen for hours a day has been linked to eyestrain; 50 to 90% of people who work at a screen display symptoms of eye trouble. To combat computer screen-related eyestrain, adhere to the 20x20x20 rule. The 20x20x20 rule consists of looking away at a point twenty feet away from you for a duration of twenty seconds for every twenty minutes that you are working on a computer, tablet, or smartphone. This allows your eye muscles to relax and resets your posture, reducing eyestrain, headaches, and neck pain.

Arrange for the right lighting.

Lighting greatly affects the quality of your vision. If you are working in an area that is too dark, then your eye muscles strain to accurately transmit the image before you on your retina. Working in an area that is too dark has the same effect on your eyes that pushing too hard on a treadmill has on your legs: if you stretch them past their natural, comfortable capacity to work, you need to give them time to heal. Conversely, working in an area that is too bright can make your eyes too sensitive to focus correctly and give you a headache. Adjust the brightness of your screen, add more light to a room, or put a shade over a lamp that is too bright in order to reduce eyestrain.

Get the right kind of eye wear.

Many people must turn to prescription contacts or glasses to correct their vision. Using prescription glasses and contacts not only corrects your vision, but also reduces the amount of work your eye muscles need to do to focus on an image when your eyes are unaided. You may also want to invest in different kinds of glasses depending on your intended activities. A pair of computer glasses designed for working with a screen can enhance your work, while a traditional pair of eyeglasses may be more preferable for reading, driving, and looking at a board.

Talk with an eyecare clinic, like Whiteville Eye Associates, to see what other options can help relieve your eyestrain.