Does Your Child Get Dry Eyes During ONLINE Classes?
The pandemic has shifted the mode of education from offline to online. Students seek online tuitions from ed-tech giants who of helping them gain the best marks in class. In today’s competitive world this is often required as well. But Just Imagine how much more strain the children’s eyes feel!
Well, this is already a story for the past two years and maybe more to come in the future. Most ophthalmologists worldwide have agreed that patients with eye problems have increased significantly, and a large number of queues comprises children complaining of dry, watery, or scorching eyes, which are symptoms of Dry eyes of Computer Vison syndrome.
Risks Associated with Increased Screen Time
If you wonder how your child is prone to risk, here is a list of risks associated with increased screen time.
Computer Eye Syndrome
Computer eye syndrome is referred to as digital eye strain that happens with prolonged use of digital screens. It includes a set of eye disorders such as dry eyes, weakening eyesight, astigmatism, near-sightedness, far-sightedness, or binocular vision problem caused due to long-time digital screen exposure.
Binocular Vision Problems
Several hours on the digital screen leads the internal eye muscles to fatigue and leads to focusing dysfunction, squint, headaches, soreness of the eyes, double vision, confusion, irritability in children. Simple computer homebased exercise programmes like bynocs helps restore eye health.
Dry Eyes
It is a very common eye disorder. Typically, tears lubricate eyes while blinking to keep them healthy. But when we have to do focussed work on screen, eyes blink lesser causing dry eyes consequentially.
Postural Changes
Kids or adults spend five to eight hours on average on screens. Usually, the schooling and learning apps are devices friendly and can be accessed on computers, tablets, and mobile phones. Therefore most children and their parents hardly bother about their postures while attending classes. But, inadequate sitting postures build excess pressure on the eyes, neck, spine, and other body parts, causing postural changes.
Increased Exposure to Blue Light
All LED screens emit blue light. The blue light has a larger wavelength and are highly penetrating, and their excessive exposure wears visions passively.
Increased and improperly managed screen time have some other consequences too, such as:
- Obesity
- Poor socializing skills
- Poor cognitive abilities
- Delayed learning
This are due to binocular function discordination and bynocs like eye exercises help improve the condition.
How to relieve their eyes from digital eye strain
It is very important to limit screen time for students. A properly balanced routine should be framed for attending digital screen while including sufficient rest periods for eyes so that both eyes and education do not suffer the downside of online education. Here are some tips to de-strain or detox eyes while working on screens.
- Maintain one hand distance from the screen
- Use filter glass shields on the screen that stops blue light from emitting
- Use anti-glare screen-shields
- Increase fonts
- Hydrate yourself
- Use the 20-20-20 rule to maintain eye health. That is, after every twenty minutes of focussed work, look at an object twenty feet away for twenty seconds to relax your eyes.
- Do ten minutes of eye exercise after every two hours of work.
Though adolescents will understand the importance of eye care, smaller children will need parents’ supervision to follow above said eye care instructions.
Ask for computerised home based eye exercise programmes which are quick and effective for child eye health
Is It Good to Give My Child Blue-block Lenses?
Blue block lenses are good for eyes whether your child wears or does not wear specs. Therefore consult your ophthalmologist to recommend the best quality blue lenses to your child for protecting his/her eyes.
Last but most importantly, our ophthalmologists emphasize seeking bi-yearly eye tests. Infact, most people having eye tests are diagnosed with digital eye strain and CVS, and many have suffered massive vision problems due to delayed dry eye or computer vision syndrome treatment in Mumbai. Therefore, it is high time that parents be alert and watch out for their ward’s total digital screen time and, on noticing the smallest symptoms of eye problem, visit our eye hospital in Mumbai.
