Maintaining your eye health is not a full-time job. There are very simple things you can do to keep your peepers healthier. The first of the lifestyle changes as you can imagine would be to lower your daily screen time. But before you try and do that right now, there are still many more important things you need to do to keep your eyes healthy. Only reducing your screen time, won’t be enough.
You also need to protect your eyes from the harmful effects of the sun, sleep well and regularly, and fix your posture. These changes may sound little but together they have a profound effect on maintaining your eye health. So, let’s take a look at the various lifestyle changes mentioned above and how they are crucial in helping you maintain and improve your eye health.
Importance of Sleep for Eye Health
When talking about eye health, sleep is the most important factor. As unrelated as they may seem, sleep and resting your eyes is crucial for the continued health of your eyes. Every waking minute your eyes are seeing things by flexing the muscles there. Often it even has to strain to give you proper vision in less than ideal situations. Sleep and that too healthy and appropriate hours of sleep are important to keep your eyes healthy. Because your eyes and their muscles relax when you sleep and it helps reduce the strain on your eyes.
But that’s not where it ends. Sleep also helps moisturize your eyes, which protects you against conditions like dry eyes and eye irritation. Any dust, dirt, or debris that has entered your eyes, they are expelled from them during sleep. That’s why when you wake up, you find goop in your eyes. These are only the benefits of good sleep on your eye health. If you don’t get good sleep or if you are sleep deprived, it can negatively impact your eye health too.
Not having enough sleep at night can cause uncomfortable side effects for your eyes like having red eyes in the morning. You will also have dry and irritable eyes throughout the day. The lack of moisture in your eyes leaves the door wide open for infections to affect your eyes, which can hamper your overall health and not just your eyes. Your eyes can also twitch and spasm when you lack sleep. So, if you are thinking about lifestyle changes for better eye health, getting a good night’s sleep every day tops that list. This will help you protect your vision longer and maintain your eye health throughout your life.
Benefits of Wearing Sunglasses
The sun and your body don’t get along very well. The ultraviolet radiation from the sun and its glare can definitely harm your eyes and over time it can cause loss of vision. In extreme cases, the harmful effects of the sun can lead to cataracts in your eyes. And even in non-extreme cases, UV rays affect different parts of your namely your cornea, lens, and retina. So, what’s the solution? The simplest solution is often the most useful one that’s the case here too. You just have to wear sunglasses. Sunglasses protect your eyes from the glare and UV rays of the sun. It protects against dust, dirt, and other allergens too. And to add to the list of benefits, it amps up your appearance making it a no-brainer choice for you.
While there are different types of sunglasses with varying benefits, you should choose any and make sure you regularly wear them when it’s sunny out. If you have an active lifestyle and go out every day, sunglasses should be a must for you. Based on your requirement of whether you drive or not, you should wear polarised sunglasses. Or if you are into sports, wraparound sunglasses can be a great way to protect your eyes too.
How to Reduce Screen Time for Better Eye Health
There are no easy ways to reduce screen time, it has to be an active effort from your end. In this digital age, reducing screen time is becoming all the more difficult. The golden rule of looking away for 20 seconds for every 20 minutes of work in front of the screen becomes nothing more than an annoyance when you are working diligently. So clearly, you have to make an effort to ensure you are able to reduce your screen time. How can you do that? Let’s find out.
1. Have A Fixed Schedule For Your Work
Given many works revolve around using digital devices every day, you can’t possibly reduce your screen time when you are at work. However, if you have a dedicated work time and schedule, you can at least make sure you are able to give your eyes the rest they need every day. Plus, if you are able to get out of work at a regular time every day and then spend the rest of your evening not looking at electronic screens, you will be able to give your eyes the rest they need. So, having a fixed schedule helps you reduce your screen time over time.
2. No Phones Before Bedtime
Phones emit blue light and that confuses your circadian rhythm. So, instead of feeling sleepy since its the night, due to the phone’s blue light, your body feels like the day is still going and doesn’t let your body feel sleepy. This leads to staying awake late and not getting enough sleep. Not enough sleep has its own set of problems for your eye health, so you must stop using your phones before bedtime. As this is a common practice by most nowadays, stopping yourself from doing it, will also help you reduce your screen time to some extent.
3. Wear Blue Light Protecting Glasses
Lifestyle changes that help you reduce your screen time will help your eyes better. But, for the hours you are at the office, you can wear blue light-protecting glasses to protect your eyes. They help you stop the blue light from electronic displays from entering your eyes, and maintain your natural circadian rhythm. If you have problems sleeping at night, even after stopping the use of phones before bedtime, you should definitely look into wearing blue light protecting glasses. These glasses are relatively cost-effective and they offer excellent protection from blue light, dirt, dust, and allergens.
Best Posture for Eye Health
Posture has a big impact on your eye health. Proper posture is needed to maintain your eyes and protect them from conditions like blurred vision. Fixing your posture would mean you sit straight, stand straight, and not slouch or bend your neck in awkward angles for long hours. With that being said, here’s the best posture that you should maintain for your eye health.
There are three parts to a good posture. The position of your head and neck. The position of your shoulders, and the position of your elbows. To maintain the best posture for your eye health, all of these elements should work together and create a cohesive posture that feels comfortable and natural for your body.
Your head and neck should be straight, relaxed, and your ears should be in line with your shoulders. You can look at yourself in a mirror and fix your posture this way. Once your ears are aligned, next move your shoulders back and open up your chest. You don’t have to push your shoulders back but have them naturally stay in a position where your chest is open and aligned over your elbows. And lastly, your elbows should stay inwards and close to your body. They should be in the same line as your shoulders and hips.
This posture will help you maintain good eye health. So practice it no matter if you are standing or sitting. When you are lying down, while it is not possible to perfectly align to this posture, you can at least try to keep your head and shoulders aligned. These small changes work together and immensely help you protect your eyes in the long run.
How to Maintain Good Hygiene for Eye Health
Personal hygiene is extremely important in maintaining your health. Given your eyes are prone to infections, personal hygiene can help you maintain your eye health. But how do you do that? There are a few golden rules that will help you maintain good hygiene for your eye health, and they are very easy that anyone can follow.
Washing your face and eyes is one of the best ways to ensure your eyes are cleansed from all the dirt, dust, and impurities that enter your eyes. Plus, washing your face and eyes reduces the chances of being affected by any type of irritation or inflammation in your eyes. Washing your face and eyes is the first step. The second one would be to wash your hands. This is because your hands are used to touching different surfaces and the same hands when touching your eyes can transfer germs and bacteria into your eyes causing infections.
You can also use over-the-counter lubricating eye drops to moisturize your eyes during the day if you feel your eyes are dry. These drops can also be used to cleanse your eyes from foreign particles and keep them clean and moisturized.
Conclusion
When you don’t have any eye conditions, to begin with, these lifestyle changes can be a great way to protect your eyes from any damage. Even if you have any eye conditions, these lifestyle changes can be used to improve your symptoms. However, even with these lifestyle changes, you need to go for annual vision check-ups to make sure your eyes are in fact healthy.
Even if your eyes are healthy, certain physical conditions like diabetes can put them at risk. So, regular health checkups are important, and what better place for your eye checkups than Sanjeevan? We offer complete care services for any and all eye conditions and offer non-invasive and holistic treatment for any and all eye conditions. For more information about our treatment processes, check out our website.