Let’s do a little exercise here.  Obviously you are reading this while sitting at your computer.  It may be a laptop, a desktop, a 19” high resolution LCD, or a 15” CRT you’ve had since Bush the Elder was in office.  Fortunately, technological advances have greatly improved monitors.  The flat screen, polarized, high contrast, low glare monitors are a great change, but what hasn’t changed are our eyes.  Darwin may disagree with that last statement, but that is a topic for another day.

Back to the exercise…

By a show of hands, how many of you look at a computer monitor 1-4 hours a day?  4-8 hours a day?  8-16+ hours a day?  How many of you wake up, check your email, have breakfast, see what’s up on LinkedIn, take a shower, log onto Twitter or Facebook, go to work, check your email on your BlackBerry while driving in to work <gulp>, get to work, sit down at your desk and work all day on the computer while constantly checking your email, social media sites, text-messaging your friends, and playing FreeCell when your boss is not looking?  Occasionally, you may get up to go to the bathroom, but you can always take your BlackBerry with you.  How many of you actually raised your hand? 

Another show of hands, how many of you have headaches, eyestrain, watery eyes, blurry vision?  How many of you notice that by 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon, your eyes have punched out and gone home for the day?  The visual system was not made with computers in mind.  It is an unnatural act to focus on something between one and two feet away from you for hours on end without a break.  However, that’s not going away in our society so what can you do?

Proper setup is one thing.  The 20/20/20 rule is good too.  (After every 20 minutes of computering, you look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds).  Wearing the correct prescription lenses, either contact lenses or eyeglasses is vital.  But what if you don’t even wear glasses?  There is hope.  You could get a new job, like a land surveyor or a professional driver, you could try Vision Therapy, or you could try Happy Glasses.

They’re called Happy Glasses because they make your eyes feel happy.  When you wear them while reading and/or computering, your eyes go, Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.  Happy Glasses provide a low level of magnification to take some of the strain and demand off of the visual system.  They allow you to see comfortably without straining.  Happy Glasses can be worn over contact lenses too. 

Eye strain and eye fatigue can cause a significant decrease in productivity at the work place, and it feels lousy.  Don’t take your eyes for granted, they’re one of your most important tools for work and life.  Think about Happy Glasses.  Add them to the list of things that make you say Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Now go answer that email on your BlackBerry.

Paul Levine, OD, FAAO

Vision Care Specialists, P.C.
30 Turnpike Road, Suite 7
Southborough, MA 01772
508-481-8558
www.greatvisioncare.com