Gadgetory

think about how long you stare at a screen like the one on your laptop your phone your TV your tablet Nielsen says most people spend on average 10 hours a day staring at a screen do these screens damage our eyes I'm a blogger and yeah I'm definitely in front of a screen at least to 10 hours a day I grab my phone first thing in the morning and then I use it on the subway commute all day at work then a small break for yoga then on the subway ride home and in bed am i damaging my eyes are you damaging your eyes are we doomed here's the good news screens aren't going to make us go blind the devices that we use do not appear to cause long-term argument that's dr. Rebecca Taylor an ophthalmologist in Nashville Tennessee instead of real eye damage you might experience my discomfort like blurry vision dry eyes watery eyes and tired eyes these symptoms even have a name it's called computer vision syndrome I know my eyes feel heavy after a long day of staring but a doctor isn't going to worry about my long-term health so don't be scared by that really intense name still my eyes are irritated and it's annoying we likely experience computer vision syndrome because we blink less when we stare at a screen according to optometrist Allison boseong from the University of Iowa Arab League rate slows pretty significantly in some studies up to about two-thirds so about 67% slower or less blinking and it's not easy to consciously blink more I'm very aware of that you'll probably look a little bit crazy if you try so instead use eye drops to keep your eyeballs moist make sure they are for that purpose and not for redness relief take breaks too most doctors recommend the 20-20-20 rule for a 20/20 row a 20/20 rule which says that for every 20 minutes that you're on a computer or staring at a screen take 20 seconds to stare at something 20 feet away it requires more energy to focus at a near target that it does to focus at a distance target if I was concentrating on the typewriter all day long what I still have these same symptoms absolutely so it doesn't matter what you're viewing it matters that you're doing after two hours of screen time take 50 minutes do anything but stare at a screen that means don't look at your phone either try talking to some Eamon's I don't know other less obvious factors affect our eyes - it's not just the actual act of staring at a screen that's to blame for our eye problems the tech we own and the way we use it matters to our monitors can contribute to these issues for example if your displays refresh rate is 60 Hertz meaning it refreshes its images 60 times a second your eyes will constantly try to refocus meaning they'll tire out more quickly there are muscles inside the eye if you're gonna sit down at your desk and you're gonna flex your bicep for eight hours in a row you may need a little bit of a break the unfortunate news is that most gadgets feature displays at 60 Hertz you can try buying a new more expensive gaming display with a faster refresh rate or a new 120 Hertz iPad pro or maybe even the razor phone another more manageable tip relates to your eyes distance from the screen keep your monitor an arm's length away from you so about 25 inches and position the screens that you're looking down in it at a 20 degree angle your screens contrast and brightness might also be worth playing around with increase the contrast on your screen to make the letters clearer and don't use tiny fonts I love tiny fonts I know this might be annoying aesthetically but tiny fonts strain your eyes so bands tiny fonts do not use them now I haven't mentioned another big problem you might be battling which is glare glare can make it difficult to stare at your screen and will additionally hurt your eyes an anti-glare screen filter could help ask an anti glare coatings on glasses also try to avoid having extreme sunlight on your screen or harsh overhead lighting your screen experience is highly dependent on your environment obviously so you want to make it perfect along with glare maybe you've heard about blue light coatings and blue light filtering glasses they're super trendy right now and glasses shops are often trying to convince customers to add them onto their orders blue light these companies say is a major part of the eye strain problem but doctors have countered that these special lenses really won't do much to levy a Thai stress there are several products out there to protect our eyes from our computer but there's no data that supports that that that is necessary the American Academy of Ophthalmology doesn't recommend because they won't affect your actual eye health like they won't prevent macular degeneration or glaucoma however companies like Felix gray which builds blue light filtering into its lenses as opposed to relying on a coating still says their tech helps I met with David Rodger one of the company's co-founders to talk about blue light filtering and how his company tries to address the eye strain problem but if you are dealing with that 5:00 p.m. headache or like you know the your vision is a little bit blurry or you're you know you're just rubbing your eyes at the end of the day right and glare two of the primary reasons that people are feeling these affects we thought throughout 50% of the blue range the thing is there having been enough studies that show blue light is harmful for the eye and David admits his glasses are for short-term comfort there's needs to be a lot more studies before we're able to say anything conclusively well we're really trying to say hey to everyday comfort like we're trying to provide that lots of scientists agree polarization of lenses they attack layer all of these things that are available to us help ease those symptoms it's sort of like a bad day they don't treat the symptoms they just ease the symptoms it could be good and it's not bad so I kind of leave it up to people and you know it can't improve their comfort and now in actuality we need blue light to function as humans it stimulates us and wakes us up blue light could present a problem at night when we need darkness to help us fall asleep because it suppresses melatonin so filtering blue light could be useful at bedtime which is why Apple launched night shift although tests of that technology and similar apps are inconclusive ultimately if you're worried about computer vision syndrome or just the amount of screen time your eyes experience take a break don't look at your phone your TV or laptop before bed read a book do a crossword watch the sunset relax you know you look like a person who likes gadgets you probably like food too you eat food right our sister site eater has a show called the kitchen gadget tests show and you should check it out