Working at the desk and completing tasks we enjoy makes us more energized. However, after several hours, we decide to rest and instead of going out for a walk, we chat via Facebook, bet via 22Bet Kenya, or watch funny YouTube videos. Both activities affect our vision negatively. Want to reduce further consequences? Follow these tips.
Why Long Work at the Computer Makes Your Eyes Tired
There is a ciliary muscle inside the eye – it contracts when you shift your gaze to an object located closer than five meters from you. When you work at the computer, your eyes are at the same focal distance for hours, and the muscle is in tension, which leads to a spasm. We don’t feel it because there are no pain receptors in the muscle.
Tension in the eye can be compared to a bar: we can walk uphill for an hour and be fine, but it’s worth standing in the bar for a minute and a half, and the muscle begins to tremble and ache because of the static tension. The ciliary muscle works the same way: it’s natural for it to shift its focus from far to near all the time, but not to exert constant tension.
In children, ciliary muscle spasms provoke the development of myopia. Because of it, the child will be forced to wear glasses or lenses. This can only be corrected by surgery.
Adults can also develop myopia due to constant work at the computer, but more often there is tension of accommodation – a condition when the muscle cannot relax after prolonged strain, for example, a person sees worse after work than in the morning on the way to the office.
What Is Myopia
Myopia is a multifactorial process: heredity, connective tissue hyperelasticity and external factors (for instance, the way we spend our leisure time, how much time we are near the monitor) may contribute to its development. If several factors combine, the muscle cannot withstand the load and provokes enlargement of the eye. Thus, myopia isn’t a functional but an anatomical change.
On the outside, it’s unnoticeable, but in the eye, everything shifts, because the eye is an optical system, and its task is to refract parallel rays so that the focus is formed and is on the retina. If the eye is stretched out, then scattered rays hit the retina and vision goes down because the retina forms a weak signal.
How to Prevent Ciliary Muscle Spasms
- Take a walk. For example, it’s recommended that children walk for at least two hours a day – in open space, the ciliary muscle relaxes.
- Don’t be too close to the screen. Hold the phone no closer than your forearm, and set the monitor at a distance of 60-70 cm.
- The top bar of the monitor should be at eye level. You shouldn’t look up, because this way you over-open your eyes – and they dry out faster. Looking down at close range is more physiological than looking up.
- During breaks at work, look far away. Before you start your work day, choose a static object in the window that is as far away as possible and that you can see well. Look at it at the beginning of the day, and then take your eyes off the monitor every 20 minutes and look at that object for 10 seconds to relax the muscle. Try to see as clearly as you did in the morning.
- Changing the focal length from near to far and from far to near is the best prevention of myopia. Stand in front of the window, select an object on it, such as a drop or a speck of dust, then on an imaginary straight line find a distant object (further than five meters) – and shift your gaze from one to the other.
- Exercise “figure of eight. Draw the sign of a figure of eight (or infinity) in the air with your hand and follow your hand with your eyes. Helps to train the muscles around the eyes and relax. The exercise doesn’t affect the blood supply to the eye itself or the retina.
- Try perforating glasses. The proverbial black glasses with holes are really good for relieving spasm – they collect the rays and create focus on the near eye themselves – the eye doesn’t have to strain.
If My Eye Is “Washed out” After Work, Is It Myopia?
Not necessarily. Ophthalmologists often record decreased visual acuity in young office workers. To detect whether it’s myopia or spasm, they apply special drops that relax the ciliary muscle, which allows determining the true refractive power of the eye. For example, if a person has 100 percent vision, then after the drops he temporarily loses his near vision.
To determine what the office work has brought you to, in any case, consult an ophthalmologist.
How to Fight Dry Eyes
To prevent the surface of the eye from drying out, we involuntarily blink. Blinking movements are necessary to refresh the tear film on the surface of the eye. It is not produced by the lacrimal gland, but by the huge number of small cells that dot the inner surface of the eyelid, and is like the wall of a soap bubble: you blink – it stretches, but soon bursts. If the time between blinks is shorter than the time of tear film rupture, the eye is protected – it doesn’t dry out, does not turn red.
Over the years, this function diminishes, and the lacrimal apparatus works worse, so the eyes are more often dry, red, and tired. At the same time at any age, when we are engrossed in something on the computer or are very tired, we blink less often – and the surface of the eye dries out a lot. In most cases this causes discomfort, but if we’re unlucky, it can also lead to eye disease. The bad ecology of big cities and too dry indoor air don’t make things better either.
Because of all this almost necessary remedy for those who stare at the screen for a long time – moisturizing drops, they are harmless, to put them in 4 times a day.
Is the Radiation From Monitors Harmful?
Media and hardware manufacturers often talk about the harmful effects of light emissions from monitors on the eyesight. In fact, there is no serious research proving the negative impact of computer monitors’ radiation on the retina.
But monitors emit light that interferes with the production of melatonin, with a particularly strong interference with its production blue light, which prevails in the natural environment during daylight hours.
Evolutionarily, we are designed to produce melatonin as the sun goes down and the light diminishes, which helps us fall asleep. And screens kind of trick the body and help disrupt the normal sleep-wake cycle. Because of this, we can’t fall asleep for a long time and wake up in the morning tired.
What to do if it’s already dark, but you continue to spend time at the monitor (or the screen of a mobile device)? The problem is solved this way:
- Almost all devices now have night mode. Turn it on and the screen becomes “warmer”. On computers and smartphones, you can set it to turn on automatically at a certain time.
- “Blue-blockers” – glasses with special lenses that block the blue color. With them you will be less tired, fall asleep faster, see more clearly and perceive information better. But be careful: there are a lot of fake glasses on the market – they are transparent and with a green shimmer. Real “blue-blockers” are slightly yellow or beige – you can check by placing the lenses over a piece of paper.
There is also an opinion that you can’t work in the dark. This is true for people with astigmatism – their vision drops when their pupils dilate. Everyone else can work at a computer all night long. It’s only possible to find out whether you have astigmatism from a doctor.
Summary
Exercises for the eye, regular breaks and moisturizing drops will help to keep your eyesight sharp and your eyes healthy. The negative effect of light emitted by devices’ screens on eyesight has not been proven, but the light from monitors at the end of the day may cause disturbance in melatonin production, and in this way distort the body’s normal rhythms. To prevent this from happening, set the “night mode” of backlighting on your screens or buy special blue-blocker glasses.