Eye fatigue is also termed eye strain. It happens when your eyes start to feel irritated or tired due to overactivity. Activities that can result in eye strain include constant screen viewing, reading, driving, and more.

Eyestrain is very common in the younger generation and working class. As we are in the digital age, most of us at some stage will surely experience eyestrain. When you experience eye fatigue due to extensive screen time on a tablet, smartphone, or PC it is known as computer vision syndrome.

Eyestrain can be resolved with rest and sleep. On the other side, if you experience prolonged eye-fatigue then you must discuss the condition with your optometrist.

What are the Symptoms and Causes of Eye Strain

Some of the clear and early symptoms include tired and itching eyes. The symptoms and conditions vary from person to person. Headache, blurred vision, dry or watery eyes, shoulder, and neck pain are all included in eye-strain symptoms.

The primary cause of eye-fatigue nowadays is related to excessive screen time. When you start looking at the screen for prolonged hours this will result in the above conditions. According to a report, 87% of people in the USA on average spend two hours daily on one or two screens.

The below scenarios can cause eye strain or eye fatigue in all ages:

• Lack of rest, overly engrossed with screen time
• Eye dryness, with reduced blinks
• Prolonged focus hours for doing any specific task
• Working in a place with too dim or too bright lights
• Already have a weak vision or uncorrected eyesight
• Eye or screen position is not good
• Screen position too close or too far from eyes
• Excessively bright screens not adjusted according to the room environment

How to Prevent Eye Fatigue with Simple Hacks

Enable Night Light on Screen: A very helpful feature introduced in Windows. It is a system-wide feature that adjusts the color temperature of your screen. The same feature is also available in macOS and iOS and is named 'night shift'. The cool blue light coming from a standard display can disturb your sleeping patterns.

Adjust Lights in Your Workplace: If your room or office is not properly lit, this can cause you eye stress. Don't go for too dim or too bright lighting, always adjust the light according to the activity. If you are reading, then the light must come from your back, shining on the reading material.

Avoid Eye Dryness: With prolonged screen time, your eyes tend to reduce blinking automatically. This can result in dry or irritated eyes, as blinking helps to keep our eyes moist. This issue can be resolved by instilling artificial tears and eye drops where necessary.

Improve Ventilation: A working place with poor air quality can lead to a higher risk of eye fatigue. Moreover, if you have a heating or cooling system in the room it may also cause dry eyes. To combat this, turn off the heating or cooling system and use a humidifier to improve air quality.

How to Improve Eye Strain

Most of the time the eye strain improves by following all the above tips. If your condition lasts longer than usual you may need to see a doctor. Most often by resting and using the above lifestyle hacks, the eyestrain will go away within a day or two. But if it's taking longer, then you may need corrective lenses - visit your optometrist for a detailed examination.