An estimated 60 to 70% of computer users suffer from eye strain, or computer vision syndrome. It results from prolonged use of screens on computers and digital devices.
KERA’s Sam Baker talks about this with Dr. Syed Ahmad, an ophthalmologist with Texas Eye and Aesthetic Center in Plano and with UT Southwestern Medical Center. He says computer vision syndrome can manifest in several ways.
Dr. Ahmad: With ocular symptoms such as eye strain, eye ache, you may have tired or sore feeling eyes, and then burning, dry eyes, red, gritty, tearing, all of these things are classified as ocular surface conditions.
And then visual: blurry vision, double vision, sometimes some people may have slowness of focusing.
And then extraocular: Things like headaches, shoulder pain, neck pain. Stiff neck.
Baker: All of that can result simply from staring at digital devices for too long?
There’s various factors that go into why people are suffering from all of this.
For instance?
Some patients may have dry eye syndrome, which is very common. So dry eye syndrome on top of looking at computer screens, again, will exacerbate these issues.
Incorrect glasses. Sitting improperly while you’re at your desk with any of these digital devices. If there’s poor environment where there’s a lack of good lighting or a lot of glare, these things can affect it.
Even the type of monitor. If you have a poor quality monitor with low resolution and image stability issues, these can actually affect it as well.
When computer vision syndrome sets in, how do you treat it?
Well, the most obvious treatment is trying to decrease screen time. I don’t know if that’s realistic. We tell our patients in the clinic, I mean, that’s the number one thing that you want to do, but it’s very difficult. We have patients who are in IT, and all they’re doing the whole day is looking at computers. We have children in schools, and most of their work is now computer-based. So it’s easy to say decrease screen time, but that’s, I think, more of a challenge.
Other things that we can do is:
- Have regular eye exams to make sure you’re treating any type of dry eye syndrome or any eye conditions that may be contributing.
- Make sure your glasses are correct.
- Ergonomics. We emphasize that when patients are seated, try and look down slightly at the computer rather than looking up at the screen.
- We want to make sure that they again have enough light. Contrast is good. Make sure the light on the computer matches the environment light.
- You should also try to stay about arm’s length from computers. Coming too close will actually increase some of the issues.
- Trying to take periodic breaks during sessions.
- Blink. Although if you try to tell patients to blink, sometimes they start thinking about blinking, and then they’re kind of distracted from what they’re supposed to do.
- I ask a lot of my patients who have coexisting dry eyes and are about to get on a computer for a little while to pre-treat themselves with artificial tears. That actually can help quite a bit.
How serious can CVS get? Can it do actual damage to your eyes?
It’s not going to do irreversible damage to the eye or the retina or the nerve or anything like that. But when you’re on the screen for prolonged periods, and you’re not optimized, you’re going to have the symptoms. But as soon as you kind of step away from the computer for a while, then you can revert to normal.
RESOURCES:
Understanding and Preventing Computer Vision Syndrome
Computer Vision Syndrome: Darkness Under the Shadow of Light