5 Ways to Maintain Eye Health

Whether or not it was true when your parents told you that sitting too close to the television would ruin your eyes, sitting 2 feet or less from a computer monitor all day long certainly isn't good for your vision, anymore than staring into a light bulb for an extended period of time would be. It wasn't such a problem when work computers were mostly black, or even when home computers were a rarity, but these days, the majority of white collar works spend in excess of 8 hours per day staring at a brightly lit screen.

Thankfully, there are several ways to counteract and reduce the harsh effects of extended exposure to computer lights, both at home and at work.

Reduce the Brightness on Your Monitor The easiest way to protect yourself from the harmful effects of the light is to reduce the amount of light. This should be easily done for both work and personal computers using the buttons on the monitor itself or it can also be done in Windows display properties. If you find that it becomes too difficult to read documents when the brightness has been reduced, simply increase the contrast and that should help.

Buy a UV monitor filter If for some reason you can't simply turn the brightness down, reducing the UV rays output should be the next best thing. This also should be done for your monitors at home as well as at work. These screen covers come in several sizes, styles and tints, so it should be simple to find one that is right for each of your computers. They are a bit pricey, but no more so than most other computer equipment.

If you find a filter is just too expensive, though, one cheaper alternative is to Wear Computer Glasses With UV Protection. Failing that, you can of course just cover the screen with a sheet of car window tint.

Take Frequent Breaks from looking at the screen. If you don't have any other work you can do, then once an hour or so, just simply stop and close your eyes for 30-60 seconds.

Sit as Far Away from the Screen as you can and still be able to see your work, game, etc. This may be easier to do at home, but try sitting just a few inches further back at work, too.

At home, Avoid Using the Computer in a Dark Room. If the room around you is dark, your eyes are going to want to adjust for night vision and you will find yourself squinting into the screen. Better for your eyes to turn the light on.