Tips and tricks to protect eyes from phone screen strain

A recent matter of concern has been the long screen time of users, that is the potential root cause to several eye problems. It is highly important to know how to protect eyes from phone screen. The increased screen time has caused a rise of alarming concern, especially with people who already have visual impairment. As per a report by WHO in the year 2021, globally, there are over 2.2 billion people who have near or distant vision impairment.

Long hours of phone screen viewing have proven to cause several problems in people, including, issues in eyesight, headaches, blurry vision, and others. Dr Amrita Kapoor Chaturvedi, Senior Consultant, Department of Ophthalmology, Amrita Hospital, Faridabad, says that viewing phone screen for over eight hours in a day is most likely to stimulates the growth of the length of the eyeball. Reports from experts say that the pandemic and online learning have become a major cause for the deterioration of eyesight in people.

It has been evidently noted that long hours of phone screen viewing causes soreness and dryness in people’s eyes. It also cause tear film abnormalities. Read to know how to protect eyes from phone screen:

While restricting screen time is the ultimate solution to keep the eyes healthy, it is quite the difficulty in the current time. Irrespective of age group, it is difficult to forbid long hours of screen viewing. One can restrict surfing on social media. According to experts, doing this could lessen the screen viewing hours by a considerable amount of time. Apart from it, one can always choose to work on a desktop or laptop, rather than using a mobile phone to work. Watching on a small screen means the distance is shorter. The closer the screen, the greater the strain on the eyes.

Further, it is much advisable to follow the 20-20-20 rule. Dr. Amrita says that the 20-20-20 rule mean to take a break every 20 minutes for at least 20 seconds. One can put a reminder on screen or on phone,to remind the need to move away from screen after every 20 minutes. Post the reminder, it is advised to look 6 meters away from the screen for at least half a minute. Children should look away from the screen for at least 10 minutes in every hour. Another method to give your eyes a bit of rest is to practice blinking exercises for 20-30 seconds twice a day.