How to deal with Digital Overdrive – A real time problem amid lockdown

With over two months of being under lockdown due to COVID-19 pandemic, we all are stuck at home. Children are attending online school and haven’t seen the playground, and adults are juggling their home and office life while working from home staring at the laptop screens.

The daily schedules have gone topsy-turvy with irregular sleep cycles and being online for majority of the day. The pandemic crisis has made us adopt the technology like never before – from working to socializing, everything is online.

Ophthalmologists across the world fear that people might experience “digital overdrive” more sooner than expected, considering the current working and education changes.

Digital overdrive, as doctors are fearing, might be pretty evident in children as well as adults. Eye strain, itchy or dry eyes, headache, blurred vision, fatigue are all indicative of digital overdrive – when the screen time is too much to handle by the poor eyes.

Looking at the current status, it looks like majority of us would be still working from home and so would the children be at home attending online classes. So what can be done to deal with the digital overdrive that is hovering over all of us?

Follow the T20 rule

An old rule that most of us already know but very few follow. Taking regular break from screen every 20 minutes for at least 20 seconds does the trick to relax eyes.

Don’t forget to blink those eyes

Prolonged use of screen can strain the eyes making them dry and itchy. For optimal eye health it is recommended to blink eyes 15 times every minute to help lubricate them.

Eyegonomics

Using phones at a level under eyebrows, keeping device at suitable distance with larger font size and lighting are few tips to minimize eye strain. Computer screens must be kept at a distance of at least 28 inches. Using anti-reflective screens also help to protect eyes from too much exertion.

Minimize the use

Keeping all screens at bay at least 2 hours before bedtime to help relax the eyes.

Yoga for eyes

Meditation, and movement of eyes in all directions including diagonally. This helps in strengthening of eye muscles.

Practicing precautions while using the screens and keeping the use to minimum required can help keep the digital overdrive away and eyes healthy, which is much needed at present time while we are juggling home and work life.