Best Thing You Can Do For Yourself Right Now — Protect Your Eyes
Eyes. Eyes are very important. Too much zooming is hard on them.
Why? We are at our computers all day long. I am on a Zoom call with you, then I hop over to a Zoom call with a family member, and then one with another colleague. Zoom, Zoom, Zoom. I love Zoom, but staring at the screen can cause problems. When we’re looking at the screen, we tend to blink less. That means we are getting less moisture over our eyes. Let’s look at things that we can do to relieve eye strain.
I’m going to give you two actions that you can do any time or place without needing special technology. In the middle, I will suggest some technological solutions that might be worth trying.
20–20–20: Every 20 minutes, look 20+ feet away for 20 seconds
20–20–20, suggested by the American Optometric Association means every 20 minutes, take a 20 second break to look 20 feet or more away.
Maybe you step outside. Maybe you open your window and look out. Maybe you look as high as possible. Look up at the rustling of the leaves at the tops of trees. Find a bird and follow its flight. Look up at clouds. The point is to look really far away.
Imagine we used to be rice farmers. We looked down at the rice growing in front of us, and then we looked up at the hills. Right now, we need to figure out ways to keep looking up at the hills.
Personally, I find 20–20–20 a little tricky to remember. It’s hard to remember every 20 minutes to take a break. An optometrist has suggested to my family that every 30 minutes we look outside for 30 seconds or more. We set a timer for every 30 minutes. It’s a quick break. The we set a timer for 35 seconds to include the time it takes to get to the window and back. Then we run and look out. Use whichever of these you’d like. You can go with the 20–20–20 or the 30–30.
Tech Solutions
I don’t know how effective they are, but I want you to think about ways to protect your eyes.
- Use the phone. You can switch some Zoom calls to phone calls. Think about which of your colleagues you can work with on the phone, maybe even walking around outside.
- Blue light screen protectors. Blue light exposure from computer screens is actually 100,000 times more than when we’re out in the sunlight. The results are mixed about whether that exposure is doing something to your eyes. We’ve gotten anti-blue screen protectors for all of our computers.
- Anti-blue-light glasses. Another possible tech solution are anti-blue light glasses that make you see the world as kind of orange. I got these when I was doing a yoga teacher training class and the instructor said, “These are great about an hour before bed.”
Palming Your Eyes
The third thing you can do is called palming. It can take some pressure off your eyes. Warm up your hands a little so it feels good. Then cover your eyes like this: One hand over the other with your palms rounded, leaving a little space above your eyes. When your eyes are tired or feel a little too dry, you can do this at any point throughout the day.
Then you breathe. You just breathe with your eyes cupped in your hands. Let your eyes relax. It’s called palming because you’re using your palms. You can hold it there for 30 seconds or two minutes or even five minutes, if you’re feeling especially tired. It’s just a way to rest.
Thank you for being with us today. I realize this is atypical for what we usually present, but we are all on the computer a lot. How can we help you manage that? With a reminder to look after your eyes!
Photo by Harry Quan on Unsplash
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Originally published at https://www.linkedin.com.