Prescription Glasses and Coping with Eye Strain

Overuse of any part of the body causes fatigue, and the eyes are no exception. Long periods of intense use of the eyes will cause them to get tired. When this happens, you have eye fatigue.

Normally, this shouldn’t be a problem because the eyes should recover after some rest. However, if your habits, occupation, or hobbies are the cause and you don’t want to give any of these up, then the symptoms of recurring eyestrain can worsen and seriously impact your quality of life.

The symptoms of eyestrain include blurred vision, double vision, headache, difficulty keeping the eyes open, light sensitivity, and eyes that simply feel tired. Most sufferers notice that the symptoms are diminished or gone in the morning after a good night’s rest. However, if the eye fatiguing activities are continued, the eyestrain symptoms will reappear and worsen throughout the day.

Common causes of eyestrain include:

Computer Use

The reason computers cause eye strain is similar to why standing on your feet on the same spot for hours causes fatigue in your feet, legs, and back. Namely, the eyes weren’t meant to remain fixed for hours at a time. This is exactly what your eyes do when you work at a computer. They focus on a screen that remains at a fixed distance for hours. While there is some back and forth eye movement, it’s only slight compared to normal eye use. Another problem is the screen glare and the blue light output of computer screens.

Tips for avoiding eyestrain when using a computer:

• Use the 20-20-20 rule: take a break every 20 minutes by looking at an object at least 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
• Install an anti-glare screen on CRT monitors.
• Use a liquid crystal display (LCD) screen. These don’t reflect as much light as CRT monitors.
• Increase the size and change the color of text font. Current website design has taken a turn for the worse in terms of eyestrain. The fonts are very small and their colors offer little contrast with the background. The font size should be at least 12 point. Use a black font on a white background. You can get extensions for popular web browsers such as Chrome and Firefox that let you control the font of the websites you view.
• Get an anti-reflective (AR) coating on your Nike prescription glasses. This minimizes glare caused by light reflections off the front and back surfaces of the lens. Without this coating, your glasses will reflect light from other light sources in your work environment into your eyes. This adds to the strain of viewing the computer screen.

Glare from the Outdoors

Walking outdoors and driving can expose the eyes to intense glare. This is especially hard on the eyes while on long drives. Use sunglasses with a gray tint of sufficient darkness to reduce the sunlight intensity. Gray doesn’t distort colors, which works well for driving. Polarized lenses are highly effective at reducing glare from sunlight reflections off windows, water puddles, and other surfaces. Nike polarized sunglasses are available in several tint colors.

When night driving, an anti-reflective (AR) coating will reduce glare from street lamps and car headlights that reflect off the inner and outer surfaces of your lenses.

Undiagnosed Vision Problems

Some people take their vision for granted and rarely get an eye exam. They had good vision during their youth and assume it will stay that way. However, as you age, your eyes change.

For example, most people lose their ability to focus on close objects when they become middle-aged. People starting to get this condition, called presbyopia, find it difficult to read small print. This causes them to squint while reading, which they can’t keep up for long without suffering from eyestrain.

If this is happening to you, see an eye doctor. If you find that you’ll need corrective eyeglasses, Nike prescription glasses are available in a wide variety of attractive styles. You’ll have no problem finding a pair that will make you look good. If you need assistance, don’t hesitate to contact us.