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By Rob Mahon

Staring At Screens

Optometrists noticing eye health suffering during pandemic

Nov 1, 2021 | 12:00 PM

With the emergence of remote work and video chats during the pandemic, people have spent even more time than usual staring at screens over the past year and a half. While that’s made it easier to stay socially distant, it has also had some unintended consequences for our eyes.

Optometrists are noticing more of their patients dealing with the effects of staring at phones, computers, or televisions since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The extra screen time can have both short and long-term effects on vision.

“In the short term, it can cause eye fatigue,” said Kirk Ewen, optometrist and owner of Doctors Vision Care. “Blue light, or high-energy violet light as it’s specifically called, can cause something called digital eye strain, which lends to computer vision syndrome.”

Eye fatigue builds over the course of the day, especially if the screen in question is less than a meter away, but eyes can heal if given time. Part of the problem, however, is that they aren’t always given that time as people often move straight from their work computer to their phones.

“In the long-term the high energy ultra-violet exposure may cause premature aging at the back of the eye,” Ewen said.

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The prevalence of smart phones and computers means these issues weren’t unique to the pandemic. Since COVID-19 began, however, Ewen said he has seen more of the short-term effects of staring at a screen in his patients.

“Dry eye, for sure,” he said. “More sensitivity with the focusing system. If somebody was doing, let’s say, 20 to 40 percent of their day as near work or computer work and the rest of their day blended between meetings and in-person contact, then they may have a little bit of blur but they wouldn’t be so sensitive to it. When you take that same person…and now you make it 100 per cent, all of a sudden a little bit of blur matters a lot. So people are showing a lot more signs of eye fatigue.”

Disengaging from screens is a good way to help give your eyes time to rest but, depending on the nature of one’s work, that’s not always easy to do. There are certain strategies for making sure you give your eyes the best chance to heal, including what optometrists call the 20-20-20 rule.

“Every 20 minutes of near work, take 20 seconds and look at least 20 feet away,” Ewen said. “That’s one little thing. Then of course there’s optical product discussion of the blue light and the optical focusing calculation to make sure glasses are focused to the right distance.”

Ewen added that sometimes eye fatigue can make it hard to comprehend things you’re reading, so if you read a book, for example, after staring at a screen all day you may find yourself having to re-read things to internalize them.

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rob.mahon@pattisonmedia.com

On Twitter: @RobMahonPxP