Most of us are sitting in front of a computer for at least a couple of hours a day, which makes our eyes very tired, uncomfortable, and dry. We have invited our in-network provider, Dr. Jennifer Yang, as our guest speaker today to talk about the importance of healthy eyes.

Transcript:

Importance of Eye Health

So this pandemic, I think, has really increased our awareness about how much time we're actually spending on screens. And I will say, it sort of complicated it and worsened it for many of us. What we used to do person-to-person, such as meetings like this, or shopping or even exercise classes, they’ve all gone on to the computer and have all become virtual. So really, the demands on our eyes are just growing and growing every day. 

Sometimes I wonder if this trend was inevitable and that the pandemic just kind of accelerated everything. You can see that there are apps on our phones for every aspect of our lives. So is it an anomaly that we're on screen all the time or is it just sort of a trend that got accelerated? I guess we'll wait and see, but we can't dispute the fact that the demands on our eyes are growing, and it's not really going away. The pandemic did cause sort of a unique situation where we didn't have a choice, even if we wanted to do something in person that we couldn't. So, we were all really forced to be on a computer or on some sort of screen.

Computer Vision Syndrome (aka digital eye strain)

So it's really no surprise that this whole “computer vision syndrome” has become a thing. And really, it's just a fancy way of saying that we're using our eyes all day long, and maybe more than we’re comfortable with.

Computer vision syndrome (CVS):
Eye- and vision-related problems caused by prolonged computer, tablet, or phone use.

I think we probably all have experienced some or maybe all of the symptoms. The symptoms could be trouble focusing, especially towards the end of the day. You might be having occasional blurriness, and then the blurriness gets better after you rest for a couple of minutes. Some people might be having a mild headache across your forehead, across your brow area. You might be feeling sleepy or get this overwhelming feeling that you want to close your eyes for a while and then accidentally fall asleep or take a nap. And then when you actually do get to close your eyes, you might have a burning, stinging sensation that can be worrisome for a lot of people.

I like to lump these symptoms into two buckets: One bucket would be just the physical strain on the eyes, and the second bucket would be symptoms of eye dryness. So we can talk about those a little bit more in-depth.

Physical Strain

So the first category is the physical strain on the eyes. So here, I want you to try a little activity with me. If we can hold out our finger in front of us, and just look at it. It’s fine. And then slowly bring it closer to your face. As you do so, you're going to feel a little pulling sensation in your eyes. After a few seconds, it might be too uncomfortable, and you want to stop. That's sort of an extreme version of what we're doing all day long. When we're doing what we call “near work” or things on the computer or reading a book or reading your phone, there's a physical process called convergence that the eyes are doing. So when you look at something close, your eyes naturally, without thinking, will start to look at your object and will start to point towards each other. Your pupils will start to constrict. Then the lens in your eye will actually change shape a little bit to help you change your focus. All these actions require the use of eye muscles, whether on the outside to move your eyes around, or on the inside to change the shape of the lens to constrict the pupil. So that's one thing that's going on.

When you are reading, if the font is too small or, let's say you have what we call “presbyopia” or “lou’faa (老花),” things might be a little bit blurry. When things are blurry, you tend to squeeze your forehead, wrinkle up your brow, and squint a little bit. That is grouping in another set of muscles to help you see better. Just like other muscles in your body, if you flex them long enough, they're going to get tired. So it's not as obvious as holding a dumbbell all day long. But really, when you’re working on your computer or doing your work all day long, you're essentially doing that with your eyes. They're constantly flexed, and they're not getting any breaks. So it makes sense that they're going to get tired at some point.

Eye Dryness

The other aspect is eye dryness. Our normal blink rate - how many times we blink per minute - is about 12 to 20. So when I'm just talking with you, I'm blinking at a normal pace. I can see you blinking at me. When we're walking down the street, the average blink rate is around 12 to 20. But when we're concentrating on our work, the blink rate actually goes down to maybe five or six times per minute, which is pretty significant. It's almost like you're having a staring contest with your computer all day long because you're concentrating so hard that you forget to blink.

This has a few implications. We need our blinking to keep a healthy ocular surface. If you ever watch ice hockey on TV or if you've ever done ice skating at an ice rink, you'll know that every so often, the ice truck, the Zamboni, will come out and put down a layer of water and really smooth out the ice. The eyelids are really our “Zamboni” or “eye Zamboni.” So when you blink, you're stimulating the lacrimal gland to secrete more tears, and the lids are almost like a windshield wiper. They distribute the moisture across the surface, and they smooth everything out. So when you don't blink, there can be consequences. So if you forget to blink, the surface gets dry and rough, and that can lead to poor quality of vision. When it gets rough, you're also getting tiny micro-scratches or micro-abrasions on the eye, which is why it stings when you close your eyes.

It's almost like if you fall asleep with your mouth open, and then you wake up and your mouth feels terrible, it's so dry. It's a little bit like that also with the eyes when they're just staring all day long at the computer. They get dry and very uncomfortable.

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Related Links:

• About Jennifer Yang, M.D.

• Eye Health

• Health Education Topics