12 Tips for those who spend more than 5 hours in front of screens

According to World Health Organization (WHO) statistics, more than 1.3 billion people worldwide have some type of visual impairment.

Ophthalmologists have even given a nickname to the phenomenon ’21st century myopia’. According to them, the problem is, to some extent, linked to the intensive use of electronic devices, after all, many people spend the whole day in front of a screen, whether on their work computer, tablet, GPS (or GPS app). in the car and, of course, the cell phone and the TV.

We, the editorial staff of awesome.club we also spend a good part of our day in front of screens — working to produce the best content for you — but we also take steps to prevent work from causing any kind of problem for our eyes.

We’re not going to bluntly tell you to ditch electronic devices (after all, that’s impossible these days), but it’s important to use them wisely. Check out some tips to keep your vision perfect, being an intensive user of electronic devices.

This universal rule suggests a safe distance from electronic devices and thus not straining your eyesight:

O cell must be at a distance of 30 cm from the face the computer monitor at 60 cm the television at 300 — 3 meters

The brightness of your screen is one of the factors that most impair vision. You can set this parameter manually, but you have to do it many times a day depending on the lighting conditions. And, of course, this is not so simple. So turn on the auto brightness option. It is available on most mobile phones and laptops (the brightness setting is often found in the “Power” — “Display” section).

When it comes to a computer, you would have two options:

Set a medium brightness during the day and use the “Night Light” function (“Settings” — “Screen”) for the night. Download the f.lux application, which automatically configures the screen brightness, considering the lighting conditions for each period of the day.

Although the influence of the so-called blue light on our vision is still debated by researchers, a large number of ophthalmologists claim that increasing the color temperature of the screen reduces eye fatigue.

On monitors, this parameter can be set manually, and on mobile devices the standard “reading mode” function will help. At first, it may seem strange, but this tool is super useful when you need to read longer texts on your tablet or cell phone.

The less contrast there is between the background color and the content, the easier it is for the eyes to tolerate fatigue. A good solution is to replace the white background of the windows with a gray background. This can be done in the settings (if you have Windows 10, you should consider that such a parameter is not so easy to find: in the section “Settings” — “Personalization” — “Color”. You will find the option “High contrast settings ”).

Or you can install an external tool, for example Classic Color Panel. With it, you will have more advanced adjustment options.

If you love reading electronic books and your devices don’t have e-paper technology, then at night, try to use a mode that is more comfortable for your eyes. Any reading app has a night mode. Try different variations and identify the ones that are most comfortable for you. The patterns that are most often comfortable are: gray text on a black background, white on a cherry background, and green on a black background.

When we focus on what we see on the screen, we often miss fingerprints. But our eyes are not so easy to deceive: they constantly change focus so that you involuntarily see marks on the screen.

Therefore, try to adopt the habit of constantly cleaning all the device screens you use to read.

Glare is the main enemy of your eyesight. Therefore, it is important to choose devices with screens with a matte effect — or matte effect. Most notebooks already come with this effect on the screen. But on cell phones, the feature is not so common.

To solve this problem, you can use a matte protector purchased from one of those phone case stands. The protector helps to reduce the amount of glare considerably while protecting the screen at the same time. It is also useful for reducing cell phone brands, the problem just mentioned.

If you have the possibility to choose between a tablet and a cell phone, stick with the first option. And when buying new devices, give preference to models with a large screen. Yes, they are not as compact, but they are safer for your eyesight.

A common behavior, but not at all beneficial, when we talk about electronic devices is that the person is working, for example, and decides to ‘rest his eyes’ by taking the focus off the computer screen and checking the cell phone.

Mentally, it might even be relaxing to stop thinking about work and snoop around on social media. But for eye health, this is not healthy at all. So if you want to relax, let your eyes rest a little. Listen to music, an audiobook, or a podcast. Give your eyes a break and your ears a little work.

When we talk about eye protection, we often focus on the issue of electronic devices and forget about the influence of other factors, such as air humidity and ambient temperature.

So if you can’t just close your eyes and stop looking at the screen, at least you have the possibility to interfere with temperature and humidity. According to experts, the best parameters for our eyes are a temperature of 21 to 22 ºC and air humidity around 40% to 60%.

Take a good look when you are using public transport and see the large number of people holding their phone on their knees, bending over and bending their necks in an unhealthy way. The correct position of a mobile device is 30 to 40 cm from the face (as shown at the beginning of this post) at a lower level than the eyes.

It may sound weird, but even electronic devices can help us maintain good eyesight. Here, we have brought a list of applications that will help preserve the health of your eyes:

eyeCare: is an extension for Google Chrome that will remind you every 20 minutes that you need to take your eyes off the screen and look towards a distant object to reduce the load on your eyes. Twilight: Blue light filter: an application to have a precise configuration of the brightness of the cell phone screen that adjusts according to the time of day. Eye Test — Eye Exam: Detailed tests that detect major vision problems. Does not replace a visit to the ophthalmologist, but it is an application that is easy to install and that can help you a lot. Eye Care Plus: an excellent option to exercise your eyes.

Now we want to hear from you: how much time do you spend in front of a screen? And what do you do to protect your eyes from fatigue? Tell us 👀