Do your eyes frequently feel fatigued or weary? Do you look at digital screens all the time when you are working from home, or at the office?
Be careful! Prolonged use of digital devices daily can cause eye strain, also known as digital eye strain, dry eyes, headaches, and other vision problems[1].Since you can’t give up your job or social media, you need to take out some time for exercising your eyes each day you must be aware of how regular exercises benefit your heart, body, and energy levels. Similarly, regularly exercising your eyes is a great way to improve your eye health.
Why do You need To Exercise Your Eyes?
Working from home may seem excellent, but it demands that you stay continuously active on your digital devices for extended periods to complete your work. Be it your making presentation, performing tallies, attending virtual meetings, or just completing your draft. You are either always working on digital devices or using them for personal entertainment.
Either way, you need to ensure that while you enjoy the benefits that being digitally connected to the world brings, you also need to relieve some stress off your eyes – after all, you only have eyes as your window into the world. Prolonged exposure to digital screens may cause a common eye condition known as digital eye strain2.
Common symptoms of Digital eye strain include2:
- Dry Eyes
- Tired Eye
- Blurred Vision
- Headaches
Various studies suggest that a few simple eye exercises may help you to relieve eye strain, strengthen your eye muscles, and improve cognitive performance[3][4][5]. Take a look at the below four simple exercise to soothe your eyes while you are working from home You should consult your eyecare professional before start practicing theses exercises.
You can also buy contact lenses from contactlenses.co.uk they can also relieve your eyes.
Focus change
Focus change is an eye exercise that works by stimulating the focus capability of your eye. It should be performed in a seated position. [6]
Here’s how to exercise:
- Keep your index (pointer) finger a few inches away from the eyes
- Focus on your index finger
- Start to slowly move your index finger away from your face, while still maintaining your eyes’ focus on the index finger
- Look away from the index finger into the distance for a moment
- Put your focus back on your index finger and bring it closer to your eyes again slowly
- Once your index finger is a few inches from your face, look away from the finger
- Focus towards the distance
- Repeat the exercise three times
Palming and Visualization
This exercise can be performed whenever you feel any eye strain, and require a simple, quick, and effective eye exercise.
Here’s how to exercise:
- Stand or sit comfortably
- Rub your palms together briskly until they warm-up
- Close your eyes
- Put your palms over your closed eyes allowing the fingers to cross on the forehead
- Feel the warmth seeping into your eyes
- Keep in mind not to press down the palms on your eyeballs
- The warmth of the hands, combined with blocking out all light, relaxes the pair of tense eyeballs.Repeat the exercise four to five times
20-20-20 Rule
While working from home, if you are working on a laptop, or a computer the whole day, [6] the 20-20-20 Rule can help you prevent digital eye strain.
Here’s how to exercise:
- Take a break every 20 minutes
- Glance at something at a distance of 20 feet away
- Keep staring at the distance for 20 seconds
- Repeat the exercise thrice
Blinking
Staring at digital screens for extended durations, such as a computer or a smartphone leads to both mental and eye fatigue.[7]It happens because while you look at digital screens, you tend to blink less than normal. Blinking maintains moisture in the front surface of the eyes, and when it is reduced, it leads to dry eyes.
Here’s how to exercise:
- Sit on a chair comfortably
- Keep your shoulders relaxed
- Keep your neck straight
- Look at a clear space such as a wall
- Close your eyes
- Hold for half a second
- Then open your eyes
- Repeat the exercise 10 times to complete one set
For contact lens wearers:
Working from home, if you wear contact lenses, you mayexperience dryness due to long working hours on your laptop.[8]An easy solution to alleviate dry eyes is to consult with an eye care practitioner and opt for contact lenses that are specifically designed for people like you who have heavy digital usage.
Bausch+Lomb Ultra Contact Lenses are specially developed and designed with MoistureSeal technology that retains nearly 95% moisture and prevents lens dehydration and discomfort. You can wear the Bausch+Lomb Ultra contact lenses for long duration of up to 16 hours in a day, all without eye dryness.
Make your work from home regime a lot more comfortable by practicing simple eye exercises and wearing the right type of visual aid. However, remember getting through eye examination performed by an optometrist before you start wearing contact lenses, or change your contact lenses. To conclude, the eye exercises mentioned above are very simple to follow and easy to remember. You can practice them at home, and even at your office when you take a break. You see and experience the world with your eyes, and you need to ensure that your eyes stay healthy! So, here’s to more youthful eyes!