Work from home has become a norm for the past 1 year, as all of us are compelled to stay at home due to COVID-19 pandemic. However, working professionals operating from home are facing a lot of health-related issues. It’s because they now spend so much time sitting in one place for hours, in front of a laptop or computer.
One of the most important problems faced due to increased screen time is eye strain. You may recall experiencing heaviness in your eyes, pain, discomfort, or fluctuations in vision. These are all symptoms of computer vision syndrome or we can say work from home eye strain.
So the question that arises in this scenario is, how to avoid eye strain while working on a computer? The answer to this question is simple— by following a regular home eye care routine.
This article will walk you through some home eye care routines and their importance in your daily life.
What causes work from home eye strain?
The majority of people are working from home and spending more hours in front of a computer than in an office setting. This leads to an increase in screen time which imposes a lot of health and eye care problems. People experience symptoms such as headaches, vision-related issues, neck and shoulder pain, etc.
For this article, we will focus on the vision-related problems mainly, work from home eye strain. People facing this problem have to deal with a number of symptoms like headaches, pain and discomfort in the eyes, dry eyes, blurred vision and heaviness in the eyes. This happens due to decreased efficiency of the eye muscles.
Work from Home Eye Care
Here are a few measures that you can follow as a part of your work-from-home eye care routine.
1. Maintain Proper Posture –
Maintaining proper posture while working is important. This may not seem directly related to your vision. But, when you sit in a slouched posture, it causes the back muscles to strain, leading to restriction in blood supply to the eyes, causing eye problems.
It is vital to sit straight, feet placed flat on the ground, elbows and wrists placed on the table with the wrists slightly elevated instead of placed directly on the keyboard.
2. Place the Screen at a Right Distance –
Having your computer screen placed at the right distance helps to reduce the strain on your eyes and proves to be a crucial part of good work from home eye care routine.
The screen should be right in front of you, at an arm’s length and should be at eye level or just below the eye level, so you don’t strain your eyes more by gazing below or above at the screen. This will help you to reduce eye strain.
3. Have Proper Lighting in the Room –
With proper brightness of the computer screen, it is also essential to have adequate lighting in the room. Your room light should be bright enough, so you don’t have to squint at the screen; however, it should not be too bright.
4. Set the Proper Font Size –
Having a proper font size will reduce stress on your eyes. You need to make sure your font is of appropriate size, so you don’t have to squint at the screen constantly. This is an easy way to ensure work from home eye care.
5. Take Breaks –
Taking breaks at frequent intervals is another critical step in following good work from home eye care routine. Experts recommend the 20-20-20 rule. This means after every 20 minutes, you should divert your attention to something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This move will help to reduce the stress on your eyes.
6. Don’t Skip Your Eye exercises –
There are many eye exercises: closing and opening your eyes, eye rolls, blinking, and many more. These exercises help to maintain the efficiency of your eye muscles. Performing these exercises at regular intervals will help reduce your eye strain.
Following all the above measures has been proven to be helpful to treat eye strain at home.
Why Choose Centre for Sight?
Centre for Sight is the largest chain of eye care hospitals and clinics with a team that will guide you through your consultation and treatment. If you are looking for an ophthalmologist to consult about work from home eye care, we have expert ophthalmologists and healthcare professionals to help you.
Centre for Sight always makes sure that all of their patients are provided with a cost-effective and best service possible.
Article: 6 Work from Home Eye Care Tips You Should Know
Author: CFS Editorial Team | Jun 07 2021 | UPDATED 07:00 IST
*The views expressed here are solely those of the author in his private capacity and do not in any way represent the views of Centre for Sight.
