In this modern era, everything is digital. This has become a great convenience and also has been a great help at difficult times like Covid-19. Digitalisation has made things easier; easy to access anything from anywhere, document, store, delete or retrieve files or information. While all these things exist what we completely ignore is a major disadvantage that comes with this related to our health, specially our eye health. Of course screens are not the only source of eye problems. Certain diseases, viruses, bacteria, genetics all comes into play. Decrease in eye health due to screens are also a major factor that comes in. How many of us think to take care of our eyes before any discomfort has happened? Maybe some, but definitely not all. Let’s know more on how to deal with these situation affecting our eye health.
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Practising Eye Exercises
- Blinking: When you are concentrating on something the number of times that you blink will be less. This eventually leads to decreased lubrication in the eye that causes increased dryness of the eye. Red eyes, eye strain, headache are all followed by this. Increase the number of blinking voluntarily or you can close your eyes for a bit after 15 min of using screen.
- 20-20-20 rule: For every 20 minutes that you use your laptop, focus/ look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. While looking, if it’s greenery the your eyes will be more refreshed.
- Palming: Rub your palms together so as to generate a warmth. Close your eyes and cover it with palms for about 30 sec. This relaxes the eye muscles and increase blood flow.
- Draw circles with your eyes in both clockwise and anti-clockwise direction, 10 or 15 times for each direction. If this is difficult, guide your eyes with your finger.
- Try to draw a big 8 with your eyes. If possible you can also reverse draw 8.
- Hold out the index finger on both hands at two sides. Now without moving your head and only using your eyes try to look at those fingers, moving your eyes from side to side.
- Hold out a finger. Move it up, down, to the sides, diagonally and try to follow your fingers by moving your eyes only.
- Stare an object close by for 5 sec and something far away for next 5 sec. Alternate this for about 10 times.
Some Useful Tips to Improve Eye Health
- Brightness that you set on the screen can also play an important role in eye health. Setting brightness to a level that is more than necessary can lead to increased strain of the eye and decreased brightness can also lead to eye strain because we strain our eye to read things properly You can opt for auto brightness setting or you can adjust accordingly when you feel like your eyes are starting to strain.
- Font and font size: Some styles of writing are naturally complicated to read out. Avoid such fonts even if it appears to be beautiful. Smaller the font size more is the strain to the eyes.
- Position your phone 20-28 inches away from your eyes.

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- Cooling effect can be given to the eyes by keeping cucumber slices or wetting a cotton pad or clean cloth with cold water on your eyes. Applying ice or washing your eyes with cold water can also bring relief to your eyes.
- Decrease or avoid the use of irritating eye products like eye makeups, eye liner, contact lenses that are not intended for vision correction.
- Never use your phones and laptop in dark. Make sure that appropriate lighting is there. Don’t read in while travelling through say bumpy roads as it can affect your eye health negatively.
- Regular eye check-ups and follow ups if you are at risk of any disease or have any disease.
Foods to Improve Eye Health
1. Fruits
- Strawberry, banana, mango, papaya, apple, pomegranate, kiwi, tender coconut water, jackfruit and other fruits that contain vitamin A and vitamin D. Avocado rich in vitamin E.
- Dry fruits: Almond, walnuts, dates.
- Citrus fruits rich in vitamin C like oranges, lemon, tangerines and grapefruit.
2. Vegetables, lentils and pulses
- Carrot, pumpkin, sweet potato, leafy vegetables (rich in lutein and zeaxanthin), beans, broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower.
- Seeds like pumpkin seeds, sunflower seeds
- Lentils and pulses contain zinc. Zinc deficiency can lead to eye diseases.
3. Meats
- Red meat: Mutton
- White meats: Quail, chicken, small fishes like anchovy, prawns, sardine and other fish like king fish, mackerel as it contains vitamin D and omega 3 fatty acid.
- Eggs
We run to complete our daily tasks and targets, but in this race we often forget to take care about our health. Taking care of health is not a choice but it is a need. Sometimes we may feel tired and lay down for a bit that would be a rest to the body but still our eyes are at work until we sleep. Maintaining good eye health is not that much of a big deal. You don’t need to be at the gym or anywhere to do some eye exercises. You can improve eye health by also incorporating healthy foods that not only benefits your eye but the entire body.
Written by Gayathri Gopinadh