3 Ways Technology Affects Our Eyes

Most people couldn’t imagine or get through their day without screen time. Although computers and mobile devices have provided great comfort and enhanced our quality of life, they are also the culprit of the leading serious and growing eye health problems at the moment.

According to LiveScience, here are some common eye ailments that can arise from spending too much time in front of the screen:

Tension Headache

Exposure to extreme high contrast of screen can cause a headache. Reading dark prints on a bright background can result in spasms of the temple muscles, leading to a tension headache. A tension headache is the most prevalent type of headache. It can lead to mild, moderate or severe pain behind your eyes, head, and neck. Few patients would describe a tension headache as a tight band that’s around their temple.

Dry Eyes

If you look at something from a certain distance, your eyes blink for a particular number of times. But, the rate of blink slows down once you look at something close to your face, which means that tears evaporate at a faster rate. So if you stare at the computer screen for a long time, your tears evaporate quickly, and they cannot provide adequate lubrication for your eyes, thus leading to dry eyes.

Having dry eyes can also be accompanied by the inflammation of the eyes’ surfaces. If it is not treated immediately, this condition can result in scars on the cornea, ulcers, pain and even loss of vision. But, permanent loss of vision resulting from having dry eyes is rare.

If you have dry eyes, doing some activities can be hard, like reading or using the computer for long periods, and it can lower your tolerance in dry atmospheres, like air in the airplanes.

Eye Strain

Looking at things close to your face not only decreases your blink rate, but also make your eyes converge a little bit. Your pupils get smaller; your eye muscles adjust the size of the lens and both your eyes converge.

Using your computer or mobile devices for an extended number of hours keeps the eyes converged and strains the muscles in your eyes, which lead to headaches. The eyes are normally at ease when they are parallel (looking things at far distances makes your eyes parallel). To avoid eye strain, simply look away from your computer screen from time to time to avoid strain and to give your eye muscles time to relax.

The advent of technology has brought about a lot benefits to everyone; however, it also has a negative impact on the eye health, if not utilised correctly. So, if you have been enduring the above listed eye ailments for some time now, it is crucial to set an appointment with one of the reliable optometrists in Calgary like Dr. Alex Wilson & Optometrists.