3 Things You Need to Know About Eye Strain

Normally, people don’t associate eyes with muscles. However, all eye movements and major functions, like focus and direction, are controlled by muscles around the eyes. Therefore, in most cases eye strain is a kind of “sports injury” caused by muscle overuse and muscles becoming overly tight, just like any other muscle after a strenuous workout.

Stressing our eyes for too long is certainly one of the major reasons for eye strain. That’s because the muscles responsible for focus are under constant stress. Just like lifting weights that may be too heavy for us, this causes discomfort if it lasts for too long. However, eye strain can’t only be attributed to the length of time you use your eyes intensely, as how you use them also has a significant effect. For example, when we look at a blurred image (e.g. staring at a fast-moving object or reading under insufficient lighting) we place greater stress than usual on our eyes because they need to struggle to stay focused. Additionally, the refractive error of the eye is also a major reason for eye strain. If your vision becomes blurred or unclear, you should check whether you are near-sighted or have presbyopia. Similarly, if you wear glasses and find your vision worsening, you should also make sure your eyewear prescription is still correct to avoid blurred vision that causes eye strain.

Aside from eye overuse, living habits also have a profound effect on our eyes. For example, most people know that the blue light from electronic devices can cause significant harm to our eyes, but did you know that our body can filter out blue light? The crystalline lens and lutein in the macula possess the ability to filter blue light, but if you consume an imbalanced diet lacking in lutein, zeaxanthin, and beta carotene, the blue light-repelling capabilities of your eyes will decrease. Similarly, we mentioned earlier that eye strain is mostly caused by stressed eye muscles. Keep in mind that sleep is the most effective way of properly relaxing muscles. In general, eye strain from a day’s work should be relieved by a full night’s sleep of eight hours. As such, if you still feel long term eye discomfort even if you have enough sleep, it is likely that your sleep quality isn’t good, preventing your eyes from fully relaxing.

When screen brightness is greater than that of the surrounding environment, it's easy for eye strain to occur. Using lamps designed for e-reading, which take care of the brightness level within your field of vision, reduces eye strain.

It is still worth mentioning that eye strain is sometimes a symptom of a serious condition such as macular degeneration, cataracts, glaucoma, and others. If your eye strain problem persists for a long time despite efforts to relieve it, make sure to consult an eye doctor as soon as possible.

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