so the back to school season is going to
be very different this year with
distance learning being an integral part
of all forms of education
whether you are a student yourself maybe
you're a teacher or a parent who's
looking over
students this is going to be a big deal
we're all going to be spending
more time in front of computer screens
looking at lectures or looking at a
tablet or doing some sort of homework
or studying on a digital device and that
can lead to a lot of eye problems so
in this video i want to share just a few
tips here are my three eye health
distance learning tips for students
parents and teachers, let's take a look
hello and welcome this is Dr. Allen here
from the dr eye health show helping
learn all about the eyes
vision and finding the best vision
products if you're new here to the
channel definitely consider hitting that
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any of my future education or tips with
that being said
let's dive right into it my first tip is
because all of us are gonna be spending
so much more time
in front of a digital screen whether
it's a laptop
a computer a desktop screen maybe you're
on a tablet
or some sort of a kindle or something
like that still
our eyes going to be focused on a device
just in front of our faces
and with that comes eye strain and with
this increased eye strain you can feel a
pressure between the eyes
it comes hard to focus your vision can
kind of fade in and out and it can even
lead to tension
headaches so best thing everybody should
be doing is to try to
take frequent breaks most eye doctors
will in fact
quote what is called the 20 20 20 rule
which stands for
that every 20 minutes of some sort of
near activity you should take a 20
second break looking
20 feet away now i think that this is a
fantastic rule of thumb
however i personally find it a little
difficult to follow all of the time i
mean especially if you're listening to a
lecture or something like that that you
don't have control over to be like
i'm going to stop and take a break it's
a little tough to follow i expose you
could set a timer on your phone
and if you already do that that's
amazing for you you're awesome but i
think it's a little bit more realistic
that everybody could at least
spend five minutes an hour if you're
listening to a lecture
once it's done get up leave your seat
give yourself a break
and i don't mean to just leave the
computer screen and then flip open your
phone and look at instagram for 10
minutes
unless of course you're checking out my
instagram then go ahead and click that
follow button you know shameless plug
but no in all seriousness you need to
give your eyes and your mind a break so
leave the computer screen go over to an
open window look outside
stretch a little bit get a drink of
water use the restroom
something that'll give your eyes a break
and that'll even give you a mental break
because
it's just better to reset your mind and
kind of regain
focus on the next task at hand trust me
this will help you a lot tip number two
is to be aware of how much blue light
you are being exposed to
all of our digital devices these days
have a lot of blue light being emitted
from them
so much that different developers like
mac
and pc developers microsoft windows they
recognize that blue light is a problem
and they've developed
free apps in their software that'll
shift the blue light
emittance to a lot lower it kind of
makes the screen look kind of a dim
yellow and potentially even orange look
to it it's not everybody's favorite but
it is
at least probably the easiest way to
start dimming your blue light exposure
otherwise exposure to blue light has
been found to affect our sleep cycles
it suppresses melatonin your sleep
hormone
and if you're getting a lot of blue
light exposure throughout the day
particularly in the later evenings
then your melatonin may be suppressed
and you're probably not going to get as
good as sleep that night
and sleep is super important for
developing memories
which is essential for learning. outside
of the blue light and night modes for
tablets
your phone or computer again not
everybody's a huge fan of them because
they don't like how their screen looks a
little bit yellow
and i totally get that especially if
you're an artist like myself or if
you're editing a video
you want the colors to look just right
as an alternative there are many styles
of blue light protecting glasses out
there
there are ones that are super dark
yellow if you want those and you want
the most blue light protection you can
get
they have ones kind of in the medium
range that are just a hint of yellow
and then there's ones that are even
virtually completely clear like the ones
i'm wearing on right now
and because all of us are spending so
much time in front of computer screens
these days
the company jins from jin's eyewear
who's sponsoring this video
is giving out free upgrades from regular
just clear lenses to their blue light
protecting
gin's screen lenses and if you're
interested in even more blue light
protection
gins also offers a gins screen plus and
a gin screen
night which have increased amount of
blue light protection
if you do want to check out jin's
eyewear yourself use the promo code
ihealth15 to receive an extra 15 at
checkout
now my third tip for you has to do with
the eyes getting red and
irritated a big thing that people don't
think about is that when we're staring
at a computer screen
our blink rate drops dramatically just
in normal conversation
you blink around 20 times a minute but
when you're staring at a computer screen
or digital device
we stare so intensely so intensely
focused
that our blink rate drops to only about
four to five times a minute
that's pretty significant in fact
because you're not blinking as much
your tears evaporate and that leads to
dry
irritated eyes and because they're dry
and irritated
that causes an inflammatory cycle and
that causes your blood vessels on the
eye to dilate making your eyes
look more red so a few things that you
can do to help relieve this dryness and
irritated feeling
is to of course one try to remember to
blink more often
and if you do need to take a break make
sure to blink your eyes a hundred
percent
some people like myself we're incomplete
blinkers that means my eyelids don't
completely close 100 of the way when i'm
blinking
so i have to remember to pretty much
completely blink a few times
in addition if you need to keep a bottle
of artificial tears handy just next to
your desk
that way if your eyes are feeling really
dry and you need to use that extra
little bit of help you can just put a
single drop of lubrication into both
eyes
but these dry eye feelings on the
computer is pretty common so if you're
even noticing these yourself let me know
in the comment section if you're using
eye drops
or doing anything else to help relieve
or soothe your dry irritated eyes
but i can tell you that this whole blink
rate issue has a
much larger implication for the
development of dry eye
disease and that's because we're not
blinking as much
that means the oil glands on the eyelid
which secrete and release an oil to
prevent your tears from evaporating
those oil glands work every time you
blink and if you're not blinking
those oils become compacted and they
don't release
and that can further lead to a form of
evaporative
dry eye disease and all eye doctors and
dry eye specialists are recognizing
more and more people developing dry eye
disease not just in their older years
but also younger students people in
college and even into high school
are developing this type of dry eye so
for that reason i do encourage you if
your eyes are red irritated
and becoming a problem make sure to talk
to your local eye care professional
right away to be seen for some form of
dry eye assessment
i do hope you found this video helpful
if you yourself are having dry eyes and
want to know more about what type of eye
drops that i would recommend that you
could try out
i do have a video going over some of my
favorite ones up over here and you can
click or tap the screen to check those
out
or if you just want to learn a little
bit more about eye strain and ways to
set up your computer screen to be more
ergonomic
then you can check out this video i have
over here thanks again for watching hope
you found this helpful
keep an eye on it and we'll talk to you
soon
