As we get older our eyesight will naturally deteriorate in various ways. Some of these will be naturally occurring conditions but others such as ‘Digital Eye’ are created by spending too much time looking at the screen, something I am very guilty of myself! So what can we do to make sure that we are looking after our eyes?
Testing Your Eye Health
It’s important to visit your eye doctor or optician regularly, around 2 years is the industry recommendation for planning your visits. This is to make sure that any physical issues can be spotted early and treated quickly, such as conditions like cataracts or damage to your optic nerve.
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It also means that you can upgrade your eyewear to match your eyesight needs and if you’re anything like me, treat yourself to a new style of spectacle frames.
If you’re curious, and I certainly am, you can even test your eye health over on www.contactlenses.co.uk where they have created two eye challenges. These were developed to delve into the Nation’s Eye health and to investigate participants ‘colour vision’ and ‘perception’. You can click the links below to take the challenge yourself.
- How Good Is Your Colour Vision Test – Can you spot different shapes in squares of various colours?
- Can You Spot It – Can you spot items in 6 different settings to test their perception and focus?
Make sure to let me know below what your results are, I like to think I did pretty well but you never know!
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Exercise your eyes:
There are some great ways to exercise your eyes to make sure that they stay in good condition. Doing these daily can have fantastic results and are very simple to do such as:
Focus change
If your score on the focus test wasn’t as high as you may have liked then this is the exercise for you. It involves challenging your focus and should be done from a seated position.
- Hold a finger a few inches away from your eye.
- Focus on your finger.
- Slowly move your finger away from your face, holding your focus.
- Look away from your finger for a moment, into the distance.
- Focus again on your finger and slowly bring it back toward your eye.
- Look away and focus on something in the distance.
- Repeat three times.
Near and Far Focus Excercise:
Whilst still seated you can then test your distance focus, like with the previous exercise you will need to use your hands.
- Hold your thumb about 10 inches from your face and focus on it for 15 secs.
- Find an object roughly 10 to 20 feet away, and focus on it for 15 seconds.
- Return your focus to your thumb.
- Repeat five times.
If you are like me and suffer from eye strain then the 20 / 20 /20 rule is something easy that you can implement into your everyday life that will help. It is also highly recommended to anyone who spends a lot of their day looking directly at a computer screen. All you have to do is follow the below:
Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.
Et voila!
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Eye Protection:
Using eye protection helps keep your eyes working to their full potential. If you are in need of visual support solutions, spectacles and contact lenses offer various types of protective coverings on their lenses which provide a barrier against damaging light and UV.
Speaking of UV, sunglasses are not only fantastic eye protection but a great way to express your style or hide a hangover. If you’re not a sunglasses person, using hats and visors to keep eyes out of direct sunlight is another way to go.
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For on the job eye protection, goggles are perfect for the job of keeping the eyes protected at all times.
Do you do anything to keep your eyes in good condition, or do you have anything to add to the list? Let us know below and continue the conversation over on our social channels.