5 Helpful Tips to Avoid Eye Strain While Reading

It’s the National Reading Month!

As we celebrate with our beloved fictional characters and all-time favorite novels, here are a few helpful tips to keep our eyes healthy and avoid eye strain while reading.

Lighting

Before diving deep into the magical literary experience, adjust your surroundings first. Not only will it help deliver an optimal reading experience for you, but it also gives your peepers some tender loving care.

One thing you can do is adjust the lights in your reading nook. Whether you’re reading a physical book or an ebook, you strain your eyes when you read in a dim room. Have a reading light behind you, not towards you, so the light is focused on the page of your book. If you’re using a digital book, a softly lit room will help reduce glare, hence lessening workload off your eyes. You might also consider adjusting the brightness of any device you’re using.

Proper lighting helps to maintain appropriate reading distance and avoid squinting. If the reading material is too close or too far from you, your eye muscle will work extra hard to remain focused. It is best to hold your novel about 2 feet away from you.

Rest and Sleep

Monitor and set a limit to your screen time. When we get caught in the moment, when it seems we no longer read the individual text but hear the characters converse or see with your mind the place where the story was set, it is easy to forget to blink. This will make your eyes dry and irritated. Consciously avoid staring and remember to blink frequently. You may also use artificial tears or eye lubricants, as necessary.

Another good practice to make sure you are resting enough is to follow the 20-20-20 rule. It means that every 20 minutes of reading, you need to look 20 feet away from you for 20 seconds.

Good nutrition and eye vitamins

Eating a healthy and balanced diet with a good amount of vitamin A, carotenoids, and omega 3 fatty acids can help keep our eyesight in its best condition. Consult a dietician or nutritionist to help plan your meals, as needed.

Eyecare and eyewear

Find good reading glasses that suit you and your optic needs. Reading glasses are for reading at short distances, with different strengths available to fit varying vision needs.

Use sunglasses when reading on an outdoor hammock or a blanket by the sea to prevent eye damage.

Regularly visit your optometrist for eye check-ups and optician for the periodic fitting of any vision-correcting device you’re using.

Eye exercise

There are a ton of exercises you can do to relieve tired eyes. My go-to exercise is straightforward.

First, you’d place a pen or hold your index finger up against the tip of your nose. Focus your sight on the pen, or your finger, while slowly moving it away from your face

Without breaking eye contact, slowly bring it back towards your face after a few seconds. Now do the same, but this time, move the pen or finger to the left and right, up and down.

This simple activity will surely exercise all six of your eye muscles and can avoid eye strain while reading.

Bonus tip!

A warm moist towel placed on your eyes after a long day at work, or luxury reading, helps increase blood flow to the area and can help soothe your tired eyes.

No one can resist a good book. But we also need to make sure that we are taking appropriate care of our eyes to continue to enjoy the beautiful pleasure of seeing.

Which of these tips do you find most helpful?