While technology has helped to make so many aspects of modern life much easier and more enjoyable, it’s also opened us up to problems that people living before out time never had to deal with in the same way. If used incorrectly, technology, especially through the use of backlit screens, can have some pretty harmful effects on parts of your body. So to help you to protect yourself when you’re using your phone, tablet, computer, and more, here are three tips for caring for your eyes when using technology.
Adjust Your Angles
When you’re eyes are focusing too hard for too long on almost anything, strain and discomfort can happen. But when the thing you’re looking at is relatively small and is shining a light into your eyes, that strain can happen more quickly. One thing you can do to relieve this strain, according to Nathan Bonilla-Warford, a contributor to Mashable.com, is to make sure you’re looking at your device from the proper angle. Regardless of what you’re looking at and what type of size or device you’re using, try to set it at an angle so that you’re looking just slightly downward at it. Move the center of the device so it’s about four to six inches below your eye level and about 24 to 28 inches away from your face. This will have your device situated at the proper place for reducing eye strain.
Use Proper Lighting
Having proper lighting, both within your device and around you, can also help to reduce the strain that using technology can place in your eyes. According to The Vision Council, it’s a good idea to keep any overhead lighting low while you’re working on a device. This type of low overhead lighting will help to reduce glare off the screen of your device while you’re looking at it. Also, you’re going to want to set the brightness of your screen so that you can easily see whatever text or images you’re looking at without having the backlit be too bright in your eyes.
Give Your Eyes A Break
Even with all these precautions to help make looking at screens easier on your eyes, arguably the best thing you can do to care for your eyes when using technology is to take adequate breaks from staring at the screen. According to the Cleveland Clinic, about every 20 minutes or so, you should look at something far off for about 20 seconds to give your eyes a decent break. Also, rest for 15 minutes after you’ve been using a computer or other device for about two hours.
If you want to better protect your eyes from all the screens you look at on a daily basis, consider using the tips mentioned above to help you reduce the amount of strain technology’s likely putting on your eyes and your vision.