#218: Myths about Digital Eye Strain
Today, I want to bust a myth—the myth that digital eye strain doesn’t cause damage to your eyes. There are many patients and even some practitioners who talk about digital eye strain like it's no big deal. They say if you just take a break, use some artificial tears, look away from your screen, and rest, everything will go back to normal with no damage done. Well, I’m here to tell you that’s a myth. Let’s bust it...
What is Digital Eye Strain
It’s a series of symptoms that occur while you’re viewing a digital screen. These symptoms include stinging, light sensitivity, aching behind the eyes, tiredness, heavy lids, soreness, dryness, burning, and even blurred vision. All these symptoms together make up what we call digital eye strain. Here's a great review of digital eye strain in depth in this blog.
What Causes Digital Eye Strain
In 2023, the Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society released their Lifestyle Workshop findings, which explained that the primary cause of digital eye strain is blink abnormalities. When we use digital devices, our blink rate (the number of times we blink each minute) reduces significantly. Normally, we blink about 15 times per minute. However, when using digital devices, this reduces to just five times per minute. That’s a drastic reduction.
Blinking serves an essential purpose: it allows oil to come out of our oil glands inside our eyelids and spread across the front surface of our eyes. This oil protects our tears from evaporating and provides a clear tear film for vision. When we don’t blink as frequently, our eyes dry out, causing blurred vision and dryness. With decades of digital device use, this lack of blinking damages our oil glands and causes them not to release the oils they produce.
Download the Guide to Digital Eye Strain Relief here.
What are Meibomian Glands
Normally, these oil glands are long and healthy. Your eye doctor can use a specific device to visualize them. However, when these glands are not used regularly, the oils inside them harden, and the glands get clogged. Over time, the oil glands atrophy or shrink. Eventually, they may die off completely, leaving little nubs. This leads to severe dry eye disease. So, digital eye strain can indeed lead to dry eye disease through the damage of the oil glands.
How Can We Prevent Damage to the Oil Glands
The Tear Film and Ocular Surface Society provides some recommendations:
- Nutritional Supplements: Provide the building blocks of healthy oils.
- Blink Regularly: Keep the muscles around the oil glands moving to prevent clogging.
- Loosen Trapped Oils: Use treatments to help free oils that are trapped inside the oil glands.
There are many ways to prevent the permanent damage caused by digital eye strain that can lead to dry eye disease. But it’s essential to recognize that digital eye strain itself does cause damage and shouldn’t be dismissed as something you can simply treat with artificial tears or a good night's sleep.
Eliminate digital eye strain with the Digital Eye Strain Relief Products Kit here
CONCLUSION:
So there you have it—myth busted! Digital eye strain is real, and it does cause damage. I’m so glad you joined me today to learn about this important topic. Remember, when you learn to take care of your eyes today, your vision will last you a lifetime.
If you're ready to take the next step in eliminating digital eye strain, download the guide here.
