Dr. Cha:
Hair check. Hair check.
Dr. King:
Oh yeah. I actually put goo in.
Dr. King:
I’m gonna be taller than you.
Dr. Cha:
It’s fine.
Dr. King:
Dr. Cha:
Dr. Cha.
Dr. King:
Today we’re gonna talk about digital eye strain. We all experience it in this day of technology, but what can we do about it? What are the symptoms? Is it harmful? Keep watching to find out. What is digital eye strain?
Dr. Cha:
Dr. King:
CVS.
Dr. Cha:
Yes. You’re talking about sponsors. They’re not sponsoring.
Dr. King:
Ooh, no, erase that. They’re not paying us.
Dr. Cha:
Dr. King:
I’m hanging on every word.
Dr. Cha:
When we look at, you know, people that are in higher education, like lawyers, doctors they tend to have more eye issues, right. Developing you know, more nearsightedness.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
You know, having to just blink more often. Feeling that grittiness in their eyes. Now with screens just capturing all of our attention, even during our downtime, we’re looking at screens. Our eyes tend to, one, they dry out. We don’t blink as often. Our blink rate reduces significantly.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
Usually about maybe 10 or 20 to 30% of our normal blink rate.
Dr. King:
Some say half. We blink at half the rate we do.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
In normal conversation.
Dr. Cha:
These apps are designed to keep us looking just the entire time. We keep our eyes open so they dry out. The blinking action actually activates the glands that are involved in our tear production. There’s a lot of dryness involved. Ocular surface disease involved with digital eye strain. So we can check out our other video about dry eye.
Dr. King:
A digital screen. It’s actually a virtual image. It’s slightly behind the plane that you’re looking at. It’s not on the surface. So it tricks our visual system into an inaccurate focal length. Our eyes are very precise. They know how to focus in right on what you’re looking at. And if it’s something that’s printed, it’s right on that surface. But if it’s digital, it’s actually slightly behind that surface, which can lead to fatigue and strain.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
And you put that together with not blinking.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
And staring. You get a syndrome, you feel like you’re straining your eyes. A lot of people describe it as it takes time for me to focus the vision.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
And a lot of times it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s causing this lack of focus or trouble in focusing. And a lot of times when it is associated with computer vision syndrome or digital eye strain, it’s actually both of the systems we talked about. It’s dryness. And on top of that, this activation of our focusing ability, or what we call accommodation, there’s a lens literally inside your eye that literally changes shape just like a camera lens. That’s how we’re able to focus on different things.
Dr. Cha:
You could even test it out. When you’re kind looking at your finger, it’s clear, but everything behind it is blurry. That’s exactly how a camera works. When you’re focusing on something, it’s hard to capture everything in, in a cam in a picture. But you focus on one subject, the dryness is just going to be exacerbated by you not blinking and you not hydrating.
Dr. King:
Gritty. I’ll add that together. Now you feel blurry. Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
Dr. King:
Stuff in there, and this gets me all down, down a rabbit hole. I gotta watch that.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah.
Dr. King:
But you know, you put that all together and then we tend to hunch over, oh, you know, we’re, we’re staring at our computer, we’re staring at our phone. I mean, then the neck becomes involved with these muscles so you can get headaches.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
This all starts to tie in. You see how we call it a syndrome because we’re involving our accommodative system, our tear system, our muscles. This all comes together. It’s a whole body experience.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah. I recently went to like a talk or a lecture where they talked talked about companies like Apple and like Amazon. They have like an in-house optometrist that only does dry eye.
Dr. King:
Ooh.
Dr. Cha:
Because they, they
Dr. King:
I want that job.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah. Right. And it sounds kind of cool, honestly. And because they found that as the tear breakup time it’s a metric that we use. We can literally see how fast the tears on your eyes evaporate as the tear breakup time diminishes. Meaning that the tears don’t stay on long. The reading speed also diminishes. If we’re looking at screens, reading reports and other, you know, printouts for our jobs and we’re slowing down how fast we’re reading, then the the production, the company goes down and, you know, this is the digital eye strain, you know, terrorizing our every day
Dr. King:
So what can we do about it? What can we do to help? We have to use our screens. I mean, has anybody given this up? Is anybody given their computer up? You can’t. So what are some things we can do to alleviate some of these issues? I’m gonna start out with one you may or may not have heard of, called the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, you take 20 seconds and focus your eyes 20 feet away. We’re moving the eyes, we’re relaxing the focusing that’s gonna make us blink. That’s gonna get our eyes moving. And we’re not sitting here stuck. When I was in, in primary care practice, I started this with my kids, with all my pediatric patients. Get off the screen, take breaks. That helps to break the cycle, if you will.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
The 20-20-20 rule just makes you more mindful of your eyes. You know, when we talk to our, you know, contact lens patients, sometimes we say limited to like, you know, 14, 16 hours a day.
Dr. Cha:
Some of them stretch it 20…
Dr. King:
24, 36, 48.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah. 48 too, too long. Right. We harp on them so that they’re mindful of the health of their eyes. So, you know, the effects of the content lens, the benefit of course, they experience immediately, but then the potential risk or harm that they can bring to their eyes if they’re not being mindful of everything else that is going on. And so the 20-20-20 rule, right. We’re activating our accommodation. We’re literally flexing those muscles. We are just inherently going to keep our eyes open longer and not blinking often. So every 20 minutes you’re on the screen or looking at something up close, you look 20 feet away for 20 seconds and it, it’s not a hard 20-20. You don’t need to measure. Right. You don’t need to put a time on your phone.
Dr. King:
I was just sitting here thinking.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah, where’s, where’s the 20 foot mark? The idea is, you know, intermittently throughout your day, you know, multiple times an hour, when, if you ever noticed, you are on the screen for a really long time. Like, let’s say you’re studying, I, I noticed this when I was in optometry school. I’d be studying for hours on end. Right. Not following my own advice.
Dr. King:
You did?
Dr. Cha:
Dr. King:
Yeah. I didn’t have that problem.
Dr. Cha:
Exactly. Granted, I didn’t know until a couple years in, but then I would look up just to kind of relax my eyes, take a break, and the whole room was blurry.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
And what that is, is literally if you overwork a muscle, right? If you’re walking, you’re lifting that muscle just feels cramped or tight. Literally, those muscles in your eyes are spasming. It’s called accommodative spasm. And they’re unable…
Dr. King:
They’re stuck.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah. They’re unable to relax. And so that’s why everything is blurry.
Dr. King:
Some other things you can do is screen, screen brightness. You know, we all want this blaring bright, you know, but there comes a point, the screen should not be the brightest thing you’re looking at. It should blend with the surrounding ambient light, the surrounding lighting. It should be even, you know, you read a paper book, it’s not the same as reading a screen. It’s because the paper reflects the light in the room. Well, your screen should mimic that. Don’t make your screen so bright that it’s brighter than the rest of the room.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
It brought to mind like Kindles. Right. Kindles don’t have these bright screens.
Dr. King:
Right.
Dr. Cha:
You know, avid readers love how it mimics paper.
Dr. King:
I always tell my my team members, you know, you’re staring into a spotlight when you do that. Which brings us to a second point. Room lighting. I tell my folks in our, in our call center all the time, you cannot work in the dark. That’s not a good idea. Okay. Because once again, you’re staring into a spotlight. And I know we think if we work in a dark room, we’re gonna concentrate better. No
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
Okay. Which brings us to another point, which is distance to the screen.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
Even as you know, as doctors, we’re on the computer a lot.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
We had to chart notes. We had to look at, you know, different testing results, images, readouts to make sure we’re not hunching over. We want the monitor, I believe the top of the monitor kind of lined up with your eye level. Yeah. The middle of your screen should be slightly below.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
Your center so that you’re looking slightly down at the middle. But you can look straight ahead at the top so that you’re just moving your eyes. You’re not moving your head a lot. Folks that wear bifocals nowadays, you know, you have to do this to see your screen. Nowadays, they actually make office lenses or, or lenses that are made for a computer. So you, your computer distance is straight ahead of you and that’s gonna help the ergonomics quite a bit. So there’s so many solutions you can do. You, you’re gonna hear about blue light glasses. The base light on the back of a screen is blue. Blue is tougher for the human eye to focus. We actually focus different wavelengths of light differently. And blue is the toughest one. We’re a little nearsighted for blue. So if you block the blue, you increase contrast, reduce the strain or the focusing demand on the, on the visual system. There is something to be said for those. But the bottom line is when you wanna get into specialty eyewear, blue blocker glasses, talk to your eye doctor.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
Especially your optometrist.
Dr. Cha:
Now blue light’s a pretty interesting topic. I did do a little bit of research during school about blue lights.
Dr. King:
Good for you.
Dr. Cha:
So I got to, I got to learn a little bit more about, and we got to measure like the effects on our body.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
I think a lot of times it’s touted as being harmful for the eyes.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
When we look at animal models and when we kind of just study the energy, the actual energy from light, cuz light is that it’s energy. It’s the, it’s on the electromagnetic, the spectrum. There’s it’s a photon. It has mass and it has a weight. Anyways, all right.
Dr. King:
Now you’re just showing off.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
I wanna be mindful of my eyes when I’m doing tasks.
Dr. King:
I’m on a screen, I’m, this is my reminder that I’m gonna take my breaks, then I’m gonna blink.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
Then I’m going to, you know, and then I am blocking the blue. Which, you know, like you said, I’m not saying blue light’s harmful.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
But it’s harder to focus. I think blue light gets a bad rap because if you look at the electromagnetic spectrum, it actually is closer to UV. And we all, you know, UV is not healthy for tissues.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
But blue light is not UV. That’s why it’s called blue light. Otherwise it would be called UV.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
So that’s ultraviolet cuz you have blue and then indigo, then violet, indigo.
Dr. Cha:
Oh yeah, violet.
Dr. King:
And then the UV spectrum.
Dr. Cha:
Ultraviolet.
Dr. King:
It’s a tool.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
And it can help with symptoms.
Dr. Cha:
Right. Right.
Dr. King:
And we just really nerded out. Right.
Speaker:
Yeah. That was really good.
Dr. King:
Are we gonna bust myths?
Speaker:
Oh Yeah. We’re about to bust some myths right now. All right. The first myth is working on a screen in the dark strains your eyes. So we talked about that, and we need to clarify, is it true or false?
Dr. Cha:
Hmm.
Dr. King:
So don’t do it. Don’t look into a spotlight. Is it gonna damage your eyes? Probably not. Is it gonna strain your eyes? Most likely.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
And you know, you can sit there and say, oh, I do it all the time and it’s okay. It’s fine, but don’t come whining to me if you start getting the headaches here and the, you know, all of a sudden you look away and you’re seeing spots in front of your eyes cuz you’ve been staring at a bright screen and you look over the dark, you’re gonna have an after image.
Dr. Cha:
Right. Right.
Dr. King:
So it is going to, it is going to cause some issues. So will it permanently damage your eyes? No. Bust it.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
But it’s not a good idea. Contributes to strain.
Dr. Cha:
When I first learned about the eyes, I’m like, oh yeah, probably being in a dark room is actually better for your eyes when you’re looking at a screen.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
Because my train of thought was, you know, everything, even though you’re, you’re not focusing on everything. You’re focusing on one object, all the ambient light and everything is still, you know, coming into your, entering your eye and affecting the systems of your visual system or you know, the components of your visual system. I was thinking well save all the energy to just do the one task. But, you know, thinking about it now, being a little bit more educated, you know, I’m more inclined to agree with Dr. King.
Dr. King:
He wanted to disagree.
Dr. Cha:
I wanted to, but you know, he’s very convincing.
Speaker:
The second myth, sitting too close to the TV or computer screen can damage your vision. This one’s more about the tv.
Dr. Cha:
Great question.
Speaker:
And your mom and dad used to tell you to back up from the tv.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah.
Dr. King:
Oh yeah. It’s right up there with cross your eyes and they’ll stay that way. Right. Once again, that one’s a wive’s tale. It’s not gonna damage your vision.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
But I am kind of glad we tend to mount TVs up on walls now.
Dr. Cha:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. King:
And stuff so you don’t sit so close to ’em.
Dr. Cha:
Right. That myth is actually more associated with children, young children.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
And maybe what might be a good topic in the future, myopia control.
Dr. King:
Yeah, we need to talk about that.
Dr. Cha:
Yeah. But it’s not because of the screen specifically.
Dr. King:
Mm-Hmm.
Dr. Cha:
You can develop that whether you’re reading or is, you know, maybe you’re tinkering a lot. It’s not the screen itself.
Dr. King:
No.
Dr. Cha:
So, you know, it’s funny, parents come up to me a lot. I’ll tell my son that looking at his screen is bad for him like, well it’s not
Dr. King:
But balance people.
Dr. Cha:
Right. Right.
Dr. King:
Balance.
Dr. Cha:
Being, being aware and educated on the science behind it.
Dr. King:
So that is our discussion on digitalized strain or DES. We hope that you found it informative and helpful. If you liked it, click subscribe and watch for us in the future. In the meantime, I’m Dr. King.
Dr. Cha:
Dr. Cha.
Dr. King:
Have a good one.