When exposed to too much screen time, you tend to have eye strain, dry eyes, blurry vision, headaches, and so on. Before you start to experience these symptoms, it is better to protect the eyes from the harmful blue light computer screens emit. Fortunately, you can protect your eyes from computer screens in several ways.
The best way to protect your eyes from a computer screen is to use blue light glasses or install an anti-glare matte screen. Reducing the brightness of your computer screen can also help protect your eyes. Or better still, upgrade your display to LED. You can also use the 20/20/20 rule to protect your eyes from the computer screen.
People experience different symptoms at varying degrees, depending on how often they look at a screen—those with visual conditions such as astigmatism experience the worst symptoms.
The good news is that there are several easy ways to protect your eyes from computer screens, which we will outline in this article.
Ways To Protect Your Eyes From a Computer Screen
We use computer screens for virtually everything: relax, work, keep up with daily life, and so on. The flickering, glare, and contrast of the text against the background from a screen can be hard on the eyes. Researchers have found that one of the reasons staring at a screen causes eye strain is that people don’t blink as much as they should when staring at a screen.
While cutting down on screen time can help, not everyone can afford to do so. Many jobs involve working on a computer, and the widespread use of smartphones makes it even more impossible to reduce screen time.
In the following section, we will provide you with four easy ways you can protect your eyes from the harm of a computer screen.
Method #1: Using Anti-Glare or Blue Light Glasses
The easiest way to protect your eyes from a computer screen is to install an anti-glare matte on your computer screen or get blue light glasses. An anti-glare matte helps because its outer coating minimizes glare and light reflection for clearer vision. And using a blue light glass helps by blocking blue light high energy rays emitted from the LED screens.
Here’s how to protect your eyes from computer screens using anti-glare.
- Get a high-quality anti-glare matte, or visit your optician to get blue-light-blocking glasses.
- To install the anti-glare matte, clean the surface of your computer well to remove dust and fingerprint.
- Carefully peel the back film of the anti-glare matte and carefully place it on your screen, ensuring there are no air bubbles to get a clean finish.
Note that using an anti-glare matte or blue light blocking glasses may affect your screen’s picture color, which isn’t entirely accurate for editing.
Method #2: Reducing Computer Screen Brightness
The brightness of your computer screen can affect your eyes as well. Most computers and smartphones emit a lot of light, so reducing it can go a long way in reducing some of the eye strain you are experiencing. However, this would not fix the issue of flickering.
Many computers come with an adjustable brightness feature that lets you reduce the screen brightness when you want to. You can even take things a notch higher by enabling night light which further lowers the blue light level from the computer screen.
Here’s how to protect your eyes from computer screens by reducing screen brightness.
- Whether you use a MacBook or Windows PC, you can adjust the screen brightness by going to Settings.
- For Mac, choose System Preference, while for Windows, choose “System“.
- Click the “Display” option to see the “Brightness” slider, which you can adjust left or right to reduce or increase the screen’s brightness.
Depending on the monitor you are using, you may also see a “Contrast” slider which you can adjust to get lower or higher contrast depending on what you want.
Method #3: Upgrade Your Computer Display
If you use a computer monitor that uses a cathode ray tube (CRT), you should consider replacing it. This type of monitor produces more flickers than you can imagine, which causes strain on the eyes in the long run.
Here’s how to protect your eyes from the computer screen by upgrading your computer display.
- Ask for an LED monitor at a gadget store.
- Ensure the monitor has a high resolution and a dot pitch of around 0.28 mm or less.
- Buy a larger monitor or at least 47 cm diagonally.
- Remember that LED monitors also flicker, so buying one with a higher refresh rate is better for the eyes.
A better option is to upgrade your computer display to an LED monitor. An LED monitor flickers less often; hence, it does not strain the eye, thus performing better than CRT monitors.
Method #4: Using the 20/20/20 Rule
The 20/20/20 rule says that for every 20 minutes you spend looking at the screen, you must gaze at anything at least 20 feet away from you for about 20 seconds. Doing this helps relieve the pressure in the eyes, thus reducing eye strain and fatigue. The longer you look away, the better.
Here’s how to protect your eyes from computer screens using the 20/20/20 rule.
- To better implement this rule, position your workstation near a window.
- When it’s about 20 minutes or exactly 20 minutes of screen time, stare outside the window.
- While staring outside the window, ensure you stare at something farthest object you can see.
Drinking plenty of water can help you keep the 20/20/20 rule by forcing you to take a break to urinate yet keeping you hydrated at the same time.
Conclusion
Learning to protect your eyes from computer screens can prevent you from feeling eye strain discomfort. An anti-glare matte will make great sense if you intend to use your computer for extensive basic remote work and media viewing. But if you work in a more visual profession, the 20/20/20 rule and reducing screen brightness will suit you better.
