Eye strain is a fairly common condition for people these days. It often gives you eye fatigue, pain in or around your eyes, blurred vision and headaches. Eye strain can be caused by a number of different factors, but often lighting can be the deciding piece of the puzzle, especially in an office environment.
Let’s take a deeper look at a few ways to reduce the chances of eye strain, but remember if you think you need an eye exam or are experiencing eye strain, make an appointment with PineCone Vision Center today!
1. Reduce Fluorescent Lighting & Minimize Glare
More than half of office workers who use computers regularly have reported suffering from eye strain. While you might think it’s completely due to the computer, the light surrounding your workplace can also make it worse.
Harsh fluorescent lighting can contribute to eye strain. If possible, use fewer bulbs and fluorescent tubes. Changing to “full-spectrum” lighting which more closely simulates the light from the sun can help.
Glare also impacts eye strain. If there’s a window directly in front of you or behind you, it forces your eyes to work harder to see through the glare and reflections. If you can move your workstation or install blinds, it can help a lot. An anti-reflective coating on you glasses’ lenses can also help.
2. Adjust Computer Display Settings
Adjusting the display settings of your computer can help reduce eye strain and fatigue.
- Adjust the brightness of the display so it’s approximately the same as the brightness of your surrounding workstation.
- Adjust the text size and contrast for comfort, especially when reading or composing long documents. Usually, black print on a white background is the best combination for comfort.
- Reducing the color temperature of your display lowers the amount of blue light emitted by a color display for better long-term viewing comfort.
3. Improve Lighting At Home
Doing any task in your home for an extended time in dim lighting can lead to eye strain. That’s why it’s important to take advantage of “task lighting” throughout your home, like desk lamps, reading lamps, under-cabinet lighting for kitchen work areas and floor lamps. All of these types of lights can reduce overall light strain, especially if they are warm, non-fluorescent lights.