Smartphones are widely used for our everyday activities and transactions. The digital age requires us to be on our phones for school, work, social life etc. This behavior encourages us to spend longer than recommended time staring at bright screens, ultimately leading to eyestrain and poor eye health.
Screens: Excessive Exposure
Although there are no causal links between the overuse of smartphones and longterm eye damage, the risk of impairment is a potential threat to the future of our eye health.
Opticians have warned that people who are addicted to their smartphones, mostly under the age of twenty-five, are increasing their risk of eye potential eye problems.
The excessive exposure to blue violet light from your smartphone or even your Laptop and PC could also be damaging.
Smartphones serve multi-purposes such as responding to emails, checking the weather, reading news headlines and social media updates. All of these functions have made it necessary for users to increase the amount of time they spend reading from the miniature screens on their smartphones.
Consequently, the majority of eye patients have often reported symptoms of blurred vision, headaches, sore & dry eyes and muscle strain. This arrays of symptoms reported due to reading text from small screens have been given the name of Computer Vision Syndrome.
Taking Regular Breaks To Alleviate Hazard
Frequent usage of the smartphones without regular twenty minute interval breaks have been related to other issues, such as strain to facial, neck and shoulder muscles.
Zooming in and out of the smartphone to read information could disorient balance and stability. Sufferers of Computer Vision Syndrome have complained of dizziness.
Reading in bed could also disrupt sleep patterns and affect moods due to the blue light emitted from smartphones, which makes it eventually difficult to fall asleep. Placing your device, about 18 inches further away from your eyes will minimize eye strain.
It is inevitable that blue violet lights will penetrate our eyes when viewing screens. Overexposure to the light’s rays through prolonged usage could be detrimental to the back of our eyes, particularly to the macular nerve which is responsible for central vision.
Additionally, excessive exposure to blue light poses the risk of macular degeneration, which is the leading cause of vision loss. The symptoms of macular degeneration are sustained over time and affect both eyes.
However, sight loss could occur rapidly, so that reading becomes a difficult task. Sufferers may even lose the ability to recognize familiar faces due to increasingly blurry vision.
Although it is not yet known as to what triggers the process of macular degeneration, the over use of smartphones could be a leading factor.
Adopting Healthier Habits
Wear your glasses as advised by your optician, as it would be impractical for users to stop using their Smartphones, which have helped us organize our lives in a multitude of ways.
We can adopt healthier habits that help to regulate the amount of time we spend on our Smartphones, so that users are not increasing their exposure to blue violet light.
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The Solution
If you do suffer from the temporary symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome, then something little as taking twenty minute breaks every so often could help to rest your eyes, and prevent the strain that causes headaches, soreness and blurry vision.
It is also important for parents to set limits on children’s usage of smartphones, especially if they have recently been given a new electronic device. Opticians warn us to take breaks from screens at least every 45 minutes to an hour.
Looking for more tips? Find out all about reading glasses here
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