Eyestrain
Eyestrain
At some point in your life, someone probably told you that reading in a dark room would ruin your eyes. The same wisdom applied to sitting too close to the TV or reading a book two inches from your face.
The thing is, it’s not true. Yes, reading in poor lighting may make your eyes hurt. But it won’t ruin your vision. In fact, your vision changes over time all by itself, dim light or not. You will notice, however, that your eyes hurt when trying to perform such feats as you age. That’s because you’ll have more trouble focusing up close, a condition called presbyopia. It’s a natural part of aging, says Robert Cykiert, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology at New York University Medical Center in New York City.
You see, you were born with perfect eyes. “Children have very soft, pliable lenses and strong eye muscles. They are able to tolerate focusing much easier. That’s why children can read books with their chins resting on the page and sit close to the TV. As we age, our ability to focus decreases,” says Joseph Kubacki, M.D., professor and chairman of the ophthalmology department and assistant dean for medical affairs at Temple University School of Medicine in Philadelphia. “The lens becomes less and less pliable and the muscles that control the focusing become less robust. Since it’s harder to focus, you feel eyestrain more easily.”
Eyestrain isn’t as serious as some eye problems, but it can certainly make the niceties of life—reading a favorite book, focusing on hobbies like needlepoint, enjoying a candlelit dinner—more problematic. Here are some strategies for taking the strain out of your eyes.
Try This First
Take a break. Your eyes get a workout when you try to focus on something close. But they get a chance to relax when you stare off into the distance. Take a short rest break, or as many breaks as you need, to relieve the strain and help prevent eyestrain in the future. When you read, work at a computer, or sew, periodically stop what you’re doing and look at least 10 feet away or farther for about 30 seconds every 20 minutes or so, says Larry R. Taub, M.D., assistant professor of ophthalmology and director of comprehensive ophthalmology at Emory University School of Medicine in Atlanta.
“If you are focusing at a given distance, it’s like lifting your arm up and holding it there—the muscle goes into a spasm. It’s much more fatiguing to do that than to move around and relax,” says Dr. Kubacki.
Other Wise Ways
Bat your eyes. Try to remember to blink, says Dr. Kubacki. Your eyes start to hurt after a lot of reading or computer work because you tend to stare without blinking and your eyes get dried out. If you find that you’re doing a lot of staring and not much blinking, remind yourself to shut your eyes every now and then.
Make sure your glasses still work. Because your ability to focus continues to decrease with age, the glasses you wore 5 or 10 years ago may not be strong enough for you today. Most likely, you need glasses with a higher magnification.
You can try finding reading glasses at your local drugstore. But first you should see an ophthalmologist or optometrist for an exam to rule out eye disease. If your prescription is equal in both eyes and you don’t have an astigmatism (an unequal curvature of the surfaces of the eye), you can try a pair of reading glasses sold in stores. Otherwise, your doctor can order prescription lenses for you to use at the distances prescribed. If your glasses are made for you to read at a computer’s distance, for instance, and you wear those same glasses to read a book, you’ll strain your eyes. People typically read a book at 14 inches but use a computer at 20 inches, says Dr. Cykiert.
| Managing Your Meds A few medications may make it harder to focus your vision, which can cause eyestrain if you don’t do something about it, says W. Steven Pray, Ph.D., R.Ph., professor of nonprescription drug products at Southwestern Oklahoma State University in Weatherford. Common medications that may blur vision include: • The glaucoma medication acetazolamide (Diamox) • Antiarthritic and anti-inflammatory medications such as fenoprofen (Nalfon), ibuprofen, ketoprofen (Orudis KT), or naproxen (Aleve) • Antidepressants such as amitriptyline (Elavil) and imipramine (Tofranil) • The antihypertension medication chlorthalidone (one of the ingredients of Combipres) • The psoriasis drug etretinate (Tegison) • Antibacterial and antibiotic agents such as sulfonamides (ingredients in Bactrim DS) and tetracyclines (Doxycycline) |
Read in bright light. Though reading in a dark room will not ruin your eyes, it can poop them out, says Dr. Kubacki. The same with reading with just a reading lamp and no other lights on. “If there’s too big a gradient between the light in the background and your reading light, your pupil doesn’t know what to adjust to, so it constricts and dilates,” says Dr. Kubacki. Use a reading light with a 75- to 100-watt bulb and also keep other 60-watt room lights on.
Adjust your computer. You want to look down on the screen for the least eyestrain. Set the computer up so the screen is 20 to 26 inches away from your face, about 6 inches below your straight line of vision. Then give the screen a slight upward tilt, says Dr. Taub. Make sure not to set up your computer in such a way that you have a lot of glare on the screen, otherwise you’ll strain to see.
Wet your eyes. If periodically resting your eyes doesn’t work, your eyes are probably dried out. Buy some artificial tears from the drugstore and keep them handy for such occasions. Or, take a warm, wet washcloth and gently massage your eyelid area near the eyelashes. That will soften the glands that produce tears and moisture, improving the lubrication to your eyes, says Dr. Taub.
