This school year is looking a little different, with many students going to school virtually. I have had several parents ask me if there are eye or vision concerns related to this increased screen time. Here are my top five eye health tips for e-learning:
- Blink! We blink less often and less completely at digital devices, which can disrupt the tear film and make it unstable. This may lead to dryness, which can present as a sandy/gritty sensation, a burning sensation, tearing, redness, rubbing of the eyes, etc. I often suggest incorporating a “blink break” to the 20/20/20 rule below.
- For more information on dry eye, check out this post.
- Follow the 20/20/20 rule. For every 20 minutes of screen time or reading, take 20 seconds to look 20 feet away (and get a few good, complete blinks in). Looking off in the distance helps unlock our focusing system and relaxes our eyes.
- Optimize your workstation. Adjusting your child’s school “workstation” can help reduce eyestrain. The screen should be at least a forearm’s length away (if you make a fist and bring your knuckles to your eye, the screen should be at least as far as your elbow). The top of the screen should be at or slightly below eye level. Larger monitors are ideal, and the monitor’s brightness should match the room’s brightness.
- Reduce blue-light. There’s a lot of buzz about blue light these days. The reality is that we don’t know much about the long-term effects of blue light exposure on eye health, so you’ll get different opinions on this. We do know that blue light can affect the body’s circadian rhythm (our sleep/wake cycle). I have had many patients report more comfortable vision as a result of blue light reduction, likely due to reduced glare and increased contrast sensitivity. Since this is anecdotal and not proven in studies, I don’t like to oversell this aspect. So here are my recommendation to my patients: turn off digital devices a couple of hours before bed to avoid the harmful effects on melatonin secretion and circadian rhythms, and reduce blue light exposure, whether that is in the form of settings on digital devices (night-shift mode), filters to place on computer screens, or spectacle lenses/coatings that help filter blue-violet light.
- For more on what we do and don’t know about blue light, read my blue light and the eye post.
- Get outside! Prolonged near work and reduced time spent outdoors have been linked to an increased risk of developing myopia (nearsightedness). Try to get your kids outside for at least two hours a day.
- To read more on what factors influence the development of nearsighted, check out the myopia management post.
Lastly, increased time spent at near can uncover visual system issues that may not be picked up at a vision screening. So if your kids start to complain about eyestrain, headaches, blurry vision, double vision, skipping words, losing their place while reading, etc, be sure to take them to an optometrist for a comprehensive eye exam. Vision and learning are very much connected!
With all that being said, don’t forget to show yourself some grace, parents! Parenting in the time of COVID-19 is challenging to say the least, and you can only do so much. This is not meant to be another checklist of to-dos that you don’t have time for, but rather a handful of eye health tips for e-learning to keep in mind as you and your child navigate this new-normal.