Eye strain is another word used for tired eyes, under which the eyes feel weak, heavy, and achy due to their intensive usage. It’s not a disease and no immediate medical treatment is required for it, but it won’t hurt to learn how to prevent it, isn’t it!
Causes of Tired Eyes
Several actions can cause eyes that are weary. These include:
Working behind a computer screen for a long time
Not enough sleep
Reading too much
Driving a car for a long drive
Allergies
Viewing TV for as long
Poor lighting state
Wearing the wrong, or no, prescription glasses or contact lenses
Farsightedness, in which you can’t see things near you
Astigmatism, that is an abnormal curvature of the retina, which means your vision isn’t focused properly
Dry eye syndrome (DES), whereby your tear glands do not produce sufficient tears, or where the tears are of bad quality
Presbyopia, that is a common condition that you grow as you age. You may also experience headaches
All of the above causes point at one common fact that the muscles of the eyes have to work harder than usual. According to ophthalmologists, tired eyes is actually caused due to excessive dryness. You likely not have blinked enough, or have experienced DES. On average, we blink about 12 times per minute. But when we get tired, this obviously slows to just four or five times a minute. Interestingly, when we stare at a computer screen, we tend to blink less.
Though you can definitely be more productive by blinking significantly less, your eyes will not love it. Heavy computer users certainly develop what is called ‘Computer Vision Syndrome’, which can be quite uncomfortable. This is a well-documented ergonomic issue that’s believed to affect 90 percent of computer users, or some 150 to 200 million people in the country.
Remedies for Tired Eyes
Tired eyes are an annoyance more than anything else. There are a number of methods to prevent eye strain if they don’t work you may choose to talk to your eye care practitioner. From time to time, there is an underlying medical cause of eyestrain that requires further therapy.
Some common practices which can reduce the effects of eyestrain are:
Get sufficient sleep
Ensure that your eyeglasses or contact lens prescription are up-to-date — the prescription of the eye contains natural changes over time
Check your light: Make sure you have the room lit evenly, so that your eyes don’t have to work as hard.
Take breaks: give yourself regular short breaks from near work jobs, whether this is using a pc or doing fine embroidery
It is also possible that exhausted/tired eyes are symptoms of some another eye disorder. If you also experience eye problems like significant vision shift, double vision, or discomfort, in addition to headaches, then you must seek medical care. While it is probably that there is no actual problem, it is always better to be safe than sorry. In the end, your eyes are valuable.
