Vision & Age
Close Work
Life up close
Lots of the things you enjoy doing from reading to card playing require
being able to see up close. Unfortunately, that can be taxing on your
eyes.
Why? One reason is presbyopia, a condition that
occurs to most people as they age. Because the muscles of the eye become less
flexible, you may have a harder time focusing on things that are near.
Fortunately reading glasses, bifocal glasses, or bifocal contact lenses (such
as SofLens®
Multi-Focal and Boston
MultiVision lenses) are an easy solution to this problem.
Computers can be very stressful
If you spend a lot of time at the computer, you may be straining your eyes.
Computer images are created from thousands of tiny dots so there is no distinct
image for your eye to actually focus on. You have to focus and refocus to keep
the images sharp and after two hours you end up with the same kind of
repetitive stress in your eye muscles that the keyboard causes in your
wrists.
The symptoms are dry, red, irritated eyes; headaches; back and neck aches; and
trouble focusing. See the tips on the right to reduce the strain.
Tips to prevent CVS
- Keep your computer screen within 20"-24" of your eyes
- Keep the top of your computer screen slightly below eye level
- Minimize the distance between your computer screen and any documents you need to reference while working
- Use drops, such as Moisture Eyes Lubricant Eye Drops/Artificial Tears, to soothe irritated, dry eyes
- Adjust lighting to minimize glare on the screen
- Take a break every 15 minutes to focus on a distant object
- Blink frequently
