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How To Manage Eye Stress and Strain

manage eye stress and strainMany of my players suffer from eye stress and strain due to excessive small screen time. With most of us using computers and cellphones at work, eye strain has become a major health issue. Research has shown that eye strain and stress issues occur in around 70-80% of people using computers at the workplace. Feeling fatigued, mistakes while working, watery eyes, twitching, and redness in eyes, constant headache, and irritability are some common issues that people face due to eye strain. It’s a growing need to cope with and manage eye stress and strain.

Tips to Manage Eye Stress and Strain 

1. Adjust Lighting
Many times we tend to ignore the light arrangement while working for long hours. The bright light from windows or sharp interior lighting can cause major eye stress.  One should position the computer screen in a manner that the windows are to the side, instead of in front or behind it. Try to block excess lighting from outside by using curtains. Reduce sharp interior light by reducing the number of light sources or by using warm light tone bulbs/tubes. Halogen lights are better than overhead fluorescent lights.

2. Reduce Glare On The Screen
Excessive glare on the screen which might go unnoticed is another cause of getting headaches while working on screens. There are different gadgets available to help reduce this strain:

  • Download a Blu-ray filter which is an app which creates a shield on your screen
  • Use anti-reflective coating/cover on your screen
  • If outside light cannot be reduced, you can use a computer hood
  • Use Anti-reflective coating glasses. One can opt for Anti-reflective (AR) coating glasses. These are special glasses made for people with excessive screen time. This special coating helps block harmful blue light, keeping the eyes relaxed.

3. Adjust Your Display Settings
Adjusting the display settings like brightness, text size, contrast, the color temperature of your computer can help reduce eye strain and fatigue. Generally, these adjustments are beneficial:

  • Brightness: of the screen you are looking at should appear relaxing to the eye. If the background seems to emit light/is too bright or seems too dull or grey, then you need to adjust the brightness. Also, most screens have automatic brightness control these days, wherein the brightness is automatically reduced if the surrounding lighting is dimmed.
  • Color Temperature: Adjust the screen settings according to your comfort. Reducing color temperature also reduces the amount of blue-light being emitted by a screen.
  • Text size: This is one considerable factor. Avoid straining eyes by reading text that appears difficult to read. Adjust text size as per your comfort.

4. Take Frequent Breaks
Try to take 5-10 minute breaks every 2 hours to reduce the feeling of fatigue. Take a stroll, look away from the screen and splash your eyes with cold water. During your computer breaks, stand up, move about and stretch your arms, legs, back, neck and shoulders to reduce tension and muscle fatigue. Use cold green tea (used) bags for relieving puffiness around your eyes. (Keep used green tea bags in the refrigerator- and put them over your eyes- covering the under eye area as well) rest for 20 minutes and remove.

5. Blink Often
Blinking keeps your eyes from drying out. Constant gazing at screen reduces blinking by 30-40%. Hence, the eyes feel dry and strained. Every 20 minutes, blink 10 times by closing your eyes as if falling asleep (very slowly). This will keep your eyes from drying out. If eyes feel strained post blinking, rub palms together and apply a warm compress to the twitching eye and gently massage the eyelid with your fingers.

6. Exercise Your Eyes
Eye exercises can greatly help in improving eyesight and is a must for people having long screen hours to avoid developing eye issues.

  • Try moving your eyeballs up and down without blinking. After about 10 repetitions of this exercise, rub the palms of your hands together and cup your eyes so you can feel the warmth seep through. This is called palming.
  • You can follow this by moving your eyeballs horizontally, from 9 to 3, and diagonally, from 2 to 7 and 11 to 4. This can help relieve the extra pressure on muscles which develops while looking at computer screens.

I am sure these suggestions will help you avoid and manage eye stress and strain. Having a routine eye exam is a must if you have more than 3-4 hrs of screen time every day.

We hope this article helps you stay healthy at your workplace. Do leave your thoughts in the comments below! For more health and lifestyle tips, check out Healthy Reads or speak to an expert by subscribing for Personalised Health Coaching here: https://goqiiapp.page.link/bsr

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For your eyes only!

Eyes

As fitness personnel, our focus is on one muscle of our body daily. Having said that I would say let’s   not neglect the very sensitive part of our body which is our beautiful eyes.

I remember as a kid attending yoga sessions in school during our physical training class. Our teachers took so much effort and tried bringing awareness of exercise among us at a very young age. Talking about school, the eye yoga session, I remember was something very funny we did and at the same time enjoyable and less time consuming. It was an easy exercise and we were sure to get some spare time in the end to play some outdoor games on our own.

As it is said eye is the Lamp of our body and it sure deserves some special attention and care. Few exercises will surely help to improve flexibility, strengthen the muscle and improve for better and sharper vision. Today, both children and adults are exposed a lot to television, computer, tab, mobile etc. Even our break time is all about browsing through internet, reading, whatsapping, etc.

A small 5 to 10 minutes break is all that is needed for your eyes!

Following are some exercises that you can try at your desk, before bed, during office break or anytime you want.

Right and left movement: Select a centre point as you sit and slowly move your eyes left, stretch, hold and back to center point. Do the same for the right side. Repeat the movement 4-5 times. Slowly close your eyes and relax.

Up and down movement: Keep your centre point and slowly move your eyes up , stretch and hold and back to center point. Now slowly move your sight downwards, stretch and hold and back to center point. Repeat the movement 4-5 times. Slowly close your eyes and relax.

Upper right & lower left and upper left & lower right: This is slant movement. From your center point to upper right hold and stretch. Back to center point and then slowly to the lower left. Hold and stretch. Repeat 4-5 times. Do the same for the other side that is upper left and lower right. Hold and stretch and repeat 4-5 times. At the end of it close your eyes and relax.

Circular motion : This movement is two types clockwise and anti clock direction. Make a big circle as big as possible. Repeat 4-5 times.

Near and far: keep your right hand straight at your eye level with thumbs up and make it as a center point. Now the movement is look at your nose, thumb. somewhere far, back to thumb, nose and repeat the same. At the end it close your eyes and relax.

Heat: Rub your palms slowly till little heat is generated. Place it over your eyes like a cup without touching the eye lids. Open your eyes slowly while your palms are still over your face. Feel the heat moving inside.

Pamper more if you have some extra time: Dip some cotton in sterilize rose water (if required put cold rose water) and place it over your eyes for some time. Eye pack can also be used at the end of the exercise as a treat.

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