Is using screens in the dark bad for your eyes?

How much do we use screens?

In today’s modern society, heavy screen use is completely normal. When you consider that a huge number of jobs require you to be looking at a screen of sorts for 8 hours, and then you factor in leisure activities like watching TV in the evening or scrolling social media, it’s not surprising that 13 hours and 2 minutes is the average Brit’s daily screen time. This is a huge number, and a whopping 92% of people also admit to using more than one screen at once – such as scrolling on your phone while also watching TV.

When we use screens, we blink much less because we’re focusing on the digital displays in front of us. A lack of blinking typically means that your eyes aren’t as well hydrated as they could be, leading to dryness and an unpleasant scratchy sensation. While this is pretty standard for screen use, watching screens in the dark actually strains your eyes even more.....

How does looking at screens in the dark affect your vision?

We’ve probably all heard that staring at screens while sitting in a dark room is bad for our eyes, even if was just our parents nagging us not to do it as kids. Interestingly, this contrasts with the widely accepted view that going to the cinema involves sitting in a dark theatre and actively paying to stare at a screen for a couple of hours. So, what’s the truth? When a screen is on and is displaying something like a film or TV show, the levels of lighting regularly flicker and change. This means that your eyes constantly need to adjust to different lighting levels throughout the film or show. These fluctuations mean that your eyes are having to work harder to focus, resulting in eye strain. This isn’t just true at home, but also in the cinema – although we are likely to accept a dark cinema theatre as an essential part of the immersive film experience, rather than associating it with eye strain.

In order to combat eye strain caused by watching screens in the dark, we can rely on something called bias lighting. This is when you light the area around your TV, smoothing out the contrast between the bright light emitted from the screen with the dark environment you’re sitting in. The lighting contrast promotes a quicker response from visual cues in your brain waves, overall leading to less visual discomfort and strain. You can achieve this either by having lamps switched on next to the TV or, for a more subtle approach, installing specialist bias lighting lamps behind your TV.

How do you know if your eyes are strained?

There are a number of symptoms of eye strain, some of which you may not even notice if you regularly live with strained eyes. You should be aware of the following signs:

• Tired eyes, as if you haven’t slept much
• Burning or irritated sensation
• Watering eyes
• Blurry vision
• Light sensitivity

We blink significantly less when we’re focused on screens compared to the amount we blink when not looking at screens. This can lead to our eyes feeling dry due to a lack of lubrication from tear film regularly coating the surface of the eye. That’s the main culprit for most of the symptoms listed above, which brings us onto our next section.....

How can you prevent screen-induced eye strain?

Preventing eye strain caused by too much exposure to digital screens mainly involves ensuring you blink more. One of the most straightforward ways to do this is to simply make a conscious effort to blink more often, squeezing your eyes tightly closed when you do. The squeezing motion helps to stimulate your lacrimal glands, encouraging more hydration in the eye. If this doesn’t work for you, using hydrating eye drops instead should help to alleviate any uncomfortable symptoms you have.

You can also implement the 20/20/20 rule which encourages you to give your eyes a break from screens. You can do this by looking at something 20 feet away from you every 20 minutes, and focusing on it for 20 seconds. This technique is also recommended in the workplace, particularly when you have a job which requires you to look at screens for long periods.

Other tips to prevent eye strain from too much screen use are:

• Wear blue light glasses
• Turn down your screen brightness
• Avoid screens in the lead-up to bedtime
• Install matte screen covers to prevent glare

Prolonged eye strain has historically been associated with glaucoma and astigmatism. You can read more about glaucoma and the way in which it threatens your sight on our blog, but its effects on your vision are devastating. Doing what you can to avoid its development and rapid progression, including reducing your screen exposure where possible, is absolutely crucial.

We can treat astigmatism here at Optimax with our range of vision correction surgeries, including laser eye surgery, implantable contact lens treatment, and lens replacement surgery. If you have any questions about how to improve your vision with these procedures, give us a call on 0800 093 1110 or send an email to enquiry@optimax.co.uk. Our advisors will be more than happy to help you.