5 tips to stop eye strain from phones and tablets
If you’ve ever spent a block of time staring at your smart phone or tablet, you’ll know the impact it can have on your eyes. Tired, itchy dry eyes and even blurred vision and headaches are all modern afflictions caused by overuse of our favourite devices. Here are 5 quick and easy ways to give your eyes a break.
1. Blinking
Blinking often helps keep your eyes moist which reduces dryness and irritation. Keep your eyes well lubricated by blinking 10-15 times every 20 minutes or so.
2. Take a break
Stick to the 20-20-20 rule. This concept encourages you to take a break from looking at your screen every 20 minutes for 20 seconds while looking at something 20 feet (about six meters) away. This helps relax your eye muscles and gives them a much needed “focus” break.
3. Adjust your brightness
If you’ve ever accidently turned the brightness down on your phone and wondered why you were straining so hard to see clearly, you’ll know the impact it has on your eyes. Having your screen to bright or too dark stresses your eyes and makes focusing difficult. Make sure you adjust brightness accordingly in your settings if you feel as if it isn’t quite right for your eyes.
4. Keep your screen clean
We often forget to do it but regularly wiping down your smartphone screen with a damp cleaning cloth helps remove distracting dust, fingerprints and smudges.
5. Tweak your text size
Adjust your smartphone text contrast and size can provide much needed relief making it easier to read web content, emails and other messages on your screen.
How do you ensure your eyes are safe from the strain of your devices? Let us know in the comments below.
Related links:
4 things you can do to avoid eye strain
The brick wall optical illusion fooling everyone
The reason we close our eyes when we kiss