Before you start reading this blog post, fully open and close your eyes.
Okay, now we’re ready to go.
In this day and age of screen inundation, more and more people are complaining about eye fatigue, dry eyes, and eye strain. And it’s not from starting wide-eyed at our MacBooks and tablets and smartphones all day long. It’s actually pretty impossible to not blink with a bright light staring you in the face.
The problem is, we’re not fully blinking.
During a full blink (upper eye lid touches the bottom eye lid), a new film of tears is generate and spread over the cornea. During an incomplete blink, that film is not generated, thus resulting in dry, fatigued, and strained eyes.
Research has shown that 71% of adults spend at least 7 hours a day on their computer, and 66% of consumers read from a smart phone or other device instead of printed material.
During an experiment, patients blinked about the same number of times whether they were reading on a computer or from printed material. Interestingly, though, 7% of participant blinks were incomplete when reading on a computer. This percentage is compared to 4.33% incomplete blinks when reading printed material.
The best and most effective way to prevent dry eyes, fatigue, and eye strain is to follow the 20/20/20 rule.
Every 20 minutes, computer or device users should look up for 20 seconds and focus on something that is 20 feet away.
Simply following this rule could make computer-related eye pain and dryness disappear in the blink of an eye.
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