Got Office Squinting?

Got Office Squinting?

Speed Read

Ask pre-teens how many hours they spend on their computer for school
and socializing, and they grin in embarrassment. Would you believe
six to seven hours daily? So what, it’s good training for their career, right?

Adults tend to ignore the effect of computer use on their eyes. You too?

CVS Computer Vision Syndrome

It is a physiological fact that extended use of your computer (four hours)
without a break ( I used to do seven consecutive hours), are a hazard to
your vision and maybe the eyes themselves.

We have solutions to offer, not catastrophizing. Henny-Penny, the sky is not falling.

Glare

The monitor screen reflects off your glasses, and is often too bright, and without a
comfortable contrast adjustment. So what?

So: dry-eye, irritated, inflamed or sore eyes, headaches, and blurred vision. We can
overlook a lot, but it reduces your personal productivity up to 28%. It makes you
irritable, tired, and less focused on your work. Makes you less competitive?

Solution

Go to: Start – Control Panel – Display – Settings – Screen Resolution.
Now adjust brightness and contrast for your comfort zone. Why? It makes you feel better, think without eye problem distractions, and gives your spirits a lift all day.

Two- more facts:

a) If you wear Contact Lens, remove them for computer-glasses (ask your optometrist). Why? Contact lens reduce blinking, causing less chemical washing
of your eye lens. In fact you want more blinking when you are at the computer.

b) Make this your personal law of computer activity: you must stop reading or
typing after each sixty-minutes and jog around the office for five-minutes.

Sure, some will ask if you are bi-polar, but a minority of expert ophthalmologists claim damage to your eyes can trigger cataracts, macula degeneration, detached retina, and glaucoma. They include excessive computer usage as a dangerous trigger
event.

Eye Exercise

Sure, we know you life is too busy for nonsensical rituals, but would it be nice to
not have to use a white cane and a black German Shepherd dog in retirement?

It takes two-minutes at your desk, is baby-easy and effective.

Google: Extra-Ocular Muscles: you have six muscles in each eye, plus one extra
muscle in each to lift each eyelid. That is a total of twelve, plus two eyelid muscles.

Please sit down, look forward about ten-feet, and keep your head from moving.

a) Move your eyes to the far left, back to center, and to the far right – ten-times.
b) Next, move your eyes to look upward, to your extreme upper left, centered, and upward to your extreme upper right – ten-times.
So far, it is baby-easy, right?
c) Finally, move your eyes looking downward to your extreme lower left – ten
times. Now look downward to your extreme lower right – ten times.

Two-minutes and you have exercised your two Oblique and four Rectus muscles in
each eye. Benefit: four hours of eye protection, and it has a cumulative effect after
21 consecutive days of exercise.

Squinting

At the beach, when the sun hits you in the eye, you partially shut your eyes in a squint. At the office, the glare of the computer screen causes squinting. Doctors
call it Strabismus, and it can lead to cross-eyes in children.

Squinting is a misalignment of both eyes. We see an image in each eye, the brain
causes the two pictures to fuse for sharper vision. It is called Convergence. Squinting disables the brain from fusing the two images.

Office

We squint at the computer to reduce glare, and to bring the letters into better focus.
When we squint, we automatically reduce blinking from 22 to only 7 times per minute.
Reading a book, articles or email reduces blinking to just 10 times per minute.

Google: Optometry and Visual Science journal, and Dr. James E. Sheedy, Ohio
State University, College of Optometry. When you squint, you trigger Dry-Eye and
tearing, straining your twelve eye muscles. You cannot avoid spontaneous squinting,
but you can reduce and eliminate the results of involuntary squinting. How?

The Secret

We can reduce the effects of squinting indirectly. How? Consciously increase your
number of blinks per minute. Too much trouble? Blink an extra ten-times in a row
at the end of viewing each computer page. Takes an extra minute, and save your
sight.

Blinking

It causes three separate layers of tears to form across your eyes.
First layer of tears coats the Whites of your eyes with protein-rich moisture.

Second wash eliminates foreign objects. It simultaneously nourishes your
Cornea with minerals, proteins, and moisture.

Third layer of tears has an oily residual to stop evaporation of the lubricant
between the eye and eyelids.

One-more-once: relaxed you blink and average of 22 times per minutes.
Reading, your eyes blink only 10-times per minutes, and at the computer,
it is down to 7-times per minute.

Ophthalmologists

It is an acceptable practice to advise patients to voluntarily blink while reading,
using the computer and watching tv. One other thought, the aforementioned
exercises appear to reduce or eliminate Floaters in your field of vision.

Endwords

Would it help you be more competitive in your career to read and remember
three (3) books, articles, and reports in the time your peers can hardly finish one?

Ask us how. It may help win the next promotion. It is all about your eye-movements,
baby-easy, and quick to implement.

See ya,

Speed Read

copyright © 2009
H. Bernard Wechsler
www.speedlearning.org
hbw@speedlearning.org
1-877-567-2500
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------