5 Tips for Protecting Your Eyes From Computer Screens

As technology advances, computer screens have become much more common and even necessities for many people. Whether your hobby is gaming or you’re a more serious gamer, you’ve probably experienced eye strain. Here are five tips for protecting your eyes from computer screens.

Ensure You Have Proper Lighting

The lighting in your environment can help or hinder your tremendously. Ideally, your ambient lighting should be half as bright as your typical office lighting. What you really want to avoid is excessive and overly bright light. This can come from natural sunlight or interior lighting. On the other end of the spectrum, you also want to avoid being in a completely dark environment while using a monitor.

Minimize Glare

On a similar note, minimizing sources of glare reflecting off your computer screen is important. If you experience glare on your computer screen often and don’t have a good way of eliminating the source, then you should install an anti-glare screen into your display monitor.

Get Blue Light Protection

Our computer screens themselves emit lots of blue light. While this isn’t harmful and doesn’t cause permanent damage to our eyes, staring at screens for a long time can result in eye strain and headaches. Furthermore, blue light blocks melatonin receptors. Melatonin is the chemical in your brain that helps you fall asleep, so it’s common for many people to ruin their sleep schedules because their computer screens keep them feeling awake. To prevent these side effects and maintain a healthy lifestyle, you should invest in computer screen protection glasses. These glasses shield your eyes from blue light so that you can enjoy your games without straining your eyes.

Blink More Often

This might sound like a silly tip for protecting your eyes from computer screens, but when you’re staring at a screen, your eyes naturally blink about one-third as often as they naturally do. In fact, when we blink while at the computer, it’s typical to have only a partial lid closure. This causes the tears coating our eyes to evaporate more quickly and cause dryness and irritation.

Take Frequent Breaks

Give your eyes a break from screens from time to time. Taking frequent breaks to get up will not only reduce eye strain but will give your back, shoulders, and neck a chance to stretch. Doing this will therefore prevent aches and pains from forming. Like all things, practicing some moderation helps.