Contact: Dr Jennifer Ceonzo, O.D., F.C.O.V.D.
Phone: (631) 791-5155
The Digital Eyestrain Epidemic: How can we treat it?
Optometrists have been seeing a growing epidemic of vision problems among children and adults. Several surveys show that nearly 70 percent of computer, tablet, and cell phone users are experiencing eyestrain, blurring vision, having ocular headaches, red or watering eyes or other signs of visual stress.
If you use a computer or tablet for work or school, and who doesn’t these days, you probably know this exact feeling. There is something about staring into that screen for hours at a time that is more than you can handle!
What is creating this issue? Why is this epidemic occurring, and what can be done about it?
First of all, a digital screen is not the same as paper. Letters printed on paper have very crisp, clear, dark lines. Letters on a screen are the dark spaces between fine dots of color, and they are not sharp and clear. Using laser instruments, researchers have found that the typical user may experience from 5,000 to 10,000 muscular shifts in focus as their brain and eyes try to make that fuzzy image sharp and clear.
Try simply opening and closing your hand 200 times and you will feel the intense stress this puts on your muscles. The tiny ring of muscles that make your eyes focus is no match for the visual stress of a day at the computer.
And for about a third of the population, there are problems making the eyes aim inward at the type on screen. Complicating this further are problems with moving the eyes accurately and swiftly along a line of type, decoding the words and processing the visual information.
You may have noticed that there were no school courses where you learned the multiple distinct visual muscle skills that can make a computer or tablet user resistant to visual stress.
Sometimes lenses help. In fact, there are several types of special lenses that help eyes adjust for computer and digital screen use. For many people, a carefully measured and prescribed relaxing lens will provide great relief. Some people also are helped by a tint in the lenses of their computer glasses. But you should know that the prescription that’s right for distance seeing is almost always the wrong prescription for computer or tablet use. An incorrect lens prescription actually makes the problem worse.
For about a quarter of the population, glasses alone will not solve the problem. They may need help building more efficient visual skills, or with the processing of visual information. People who fit this profile have probably always had to work extra hard to retain what they read, or have had to read and re-read material in school. They also may find it almost impossible to edit letters or copy accurately on screen, especially after many hours of work.
Optometrists are especially concerned about are the people who are becoming nearsighted later in life because of intense computer use. Becoming nearsighted and most of the deterioration called “progression” used to occur mostly before age 16, but screen time has changed all that. People are becoming nearsighted or continuing to progress well into their 40s! This shift leads doctors to believe that nearsightedness may not just be genetic, but the result of prolonged periods of intense near vision work.
When caught in time, there are many things that can be done to control nearsightedness, the problem is finding an optometrist who chooses to do the combination of lenses, giving the patient helpful screen placement guidance and some form of vision therapy (or orthoptics) to build their ability to handle prolonged, intense near vision work.
Only one in 20 optometrists in the U.S. have chosen to do the years of post doctoral study in the Behavioral area of vision care from which the clinical and scientific work on myopia control emerged.
For more information on prevention and control of vision problems like digital eye strain, myopia, log on to oep.org , covd.org or contact Dr. Jennifer Ceonzo’s office at (631) 791-5155.