Workplace Health

Healthy Eyes On The Computer

Summary & Participants

Long hours in front of the computer can strain your eyes. But there are simple steps you can take to protect them from overload.

Medically Reviewed On: August 01, 2008

Webcast Transcript

ANNOUNCER: Life in the information age means more of us are spending long hours in front of a computer. While you may think information overload is giving you a big headache, the real problem could be what the computer is doing to your eyes.

JOSEPH A. EVIATAR, MD, EYE SURGEON: Computers are not dangerous. They don’t cause permanent damage. They don't emit radiation which is going to cause cataracts, they don't do anything that way.

ANNOUNCER: That’s good news, since most of us use a computer at work, home, or both. So what’s the bad news?

JOSEPH A. EVIATAR, MD, EYE SURGEON: The problem is you're on the computer for several hours. You can go into what's called accommodative spasm, where the muscles that you're using to focus up close don't relax. And so, when you look far away, everything still looks blurry and sometimes people get headaches from that. They're essentially getting a spasm of their eye.

ANNOUNCER: Doctors say there are some simple ways to minimize eye strain. One of the most important is the 20-20-20 rule.

JOSEPH A. EVIATAR, MD, EYE SURGEON: About every twenty minutes, if you look away, just for twenty seconds at infinity or twenty feet, that allows your eyes to refocus, it relaxes your accommodation and keeps you from getting into that spasm.

ANNOUNCER: It’s also a good idea to keep your eyes hydrated.

JOSEPH A. EVIATAR, MD, EYE SURGEON: When you do any kind of prolonged work and you're concentrating a lot, you tend to not blink. Lubricating eye drops are very helpful

ANNOUNCER: Finally, reducing glare and positioning your monitor correctly can make a big difference.

JOSEPH A. EVIATAR, MD, EYE SURGEON: This is really kind of an ideal setup. The computer here is a little bit further, about two feet away, foot and a half away from her, the reading material that she's using is a little bit closer, the light is positioned directly over the reading material, so she has good light here without having glare on the screen of the computer.

ANNOUNCER: These simple steps can make the information age a lot easier on the eyes.

Thanks for joining us on today’s Once Daily.