Has your eyesight gotten worse? 6 eye exercises to recover vision

Staring at screens hour after hour eye muscles adapt to focus at close range and at a reduced angle. To this is added that at the end of the 30 years of age we naturally begin to lose the ability to focus closely.

The light emitted by mobile phones and monitors is not so much a problem for the eyes as it is for the regularity of our circadian biological rhythms that regulate rest, wakefulness or metabolism. Too much artificial light in the afternoon and at night can upset them.

To counteract the effect of screens on our eyes we have to increase the time we spend outdoors and looking into the distance. This advice is especially important for children.

How to reduce eye fatigue

To reduce eye fatigue, ophthalmologists advise place the monitor so that it is 40-76 cm (arm’s length) away. The screen should be tilted up at an angle of 10 to 20 and the top edge should be at eye level.

The monitor should also be positioned to minimize reflections. If we are looking at a document or a book at the same time, they must be close to the screen so that the gaze can go from one to the other without the need to refocus each time (this tires the eyes).

However, we must be aware that looking at a screen for hours, no matter how well placed it is, is not natural, it is not what our eyes are “designed” for, which have the ability to see long distances and at an angle of 180 degrees. so that the eyes rest we can take the following measures:

Look at something at least twenty feet away for 20 seconds, every 20 minutes. The ideal is to look through the window and if possible towards a green area, to focus our eyes on the trees. Looking at the clouds is also a good idea.Enlarge the text or what we are looking at on the screen. For some strange reason we are able to write or read with the size of ant font, when computers allow us to enlarge it as much as we want.Adjust brightness: turn it down until you find a comfortable intensity that doesn’t put out a lot of light, but doesn’t make you strain your eyes. You may also need to adjust the contrast a bit. It is also advisable to reduce the color saturation.Blink more often. We do it less when we’re staring at a screen, which can lead to uncomfortable dryness. Ophthalmologists are seeing that cases of dry eye are multiplying both due to screen abuse and the use of masks, which direct our exhalations towards the eyes and favor the evaporation of the tear film. To avoid dryness it is also important to take care of the environmental humidity, which should always be above 40%. Heating tends to dry the air in indoor spaces too much. It is important to ventilate them and use humidifiers if necessary.Close your eyes. Do it whenever you have the opportunity: in the bathroom, on the bus, after eating, before starting your homework… While you keep them closed you can move them under the eyelids, making circles or “looking” up, down and to the sides. .Massage around the eyes once or twice a day to reduce tension that tends to build up in that area.

In addition to these habits, you can:

Take care of food Eat foods rich in beta-carotene (provitamin A) every day, which is essential for healthy eyesight. It is found in yellow, orange, and green foods, such as carrots, sweet potatoes, pumpkins, or cabbage.Monitor the lighting. When working, reading, or doing any other visual exertion at close range, make sure you have enough light to prevent eye strain. Ideally, this light should be natural or, if it is artificial, it should be of a natural colour, more bluish in the morning and more yellow in the afternoon, so as not to disrupt our biological cycles.