By Matthew K. Adams, MD, MBA
By the time you finish reading this article, there is a good chance you’ll have checked your phone, glanced at a text, looked at a television, or wondered why the font on your screen suddenly seems to have been designed for ants.
Welcome to life after 50 in the digital age.
Smartphones, tablets, computers, televisions, and even car dashboards have become part of everyday life. While these devices are incredibly useful, hours spent staring at screens can leave our eyes tired, dry, irritated, blurry, and generally unhappy. These symptoms are commonly called digital eye strain. And despite what you may have read on Facebook or Reddit, your smartphone probably isn’t permanently ruining your eyes. But it certainly can make them feel miserable.
Why Screens Make Our Eyes Tired
When we look at a screen for long periods, our eyes work harder than we realize. We constantly focus, refocus, track words, adjust to glare, and deal with differences in contrast and lighting.
One of the biggest problems is surprisingly simple: we forget to blink!
Normally, we blink regularly to spread tears across the surface of our eyes. When concentrating on a phone or computer, blinking can decrease significantly, resulting in dry, burning, and gritty eyes.
And after age 50, dry eye is already more common. Add several hours of scrolling through Facebook, reading the news, answering emails, or watching videos, and your eyes may feel like they just spent the afternoon in a West Texas haboob (that’s a big dust storm for those of you who did not grow up in Texas).
Your Arms Aren’t Getting Shorter
Many adults notice another phenomenon around their 40s and 50s: menus, medicine bottles, and phones seem increasingly difficult to read unless they are held farther away. This loss of near vision as you age is called presbyopia. Screens can make this more noticeable because we spend so much time looking at small print at close distances.
If you are constantly increasing the font size, squinting, removing your glasses, or holding your phone halfway across the room, it may be time for an updated prescription.
What About Blue Light?
Blue light has received plenty of attention, and blue-light-blocking glasses have become a booming business. Current evidence does not show that normal exposure to blue light from phones or computers causes permanent damage to your eyes.
However, bright screens, especially at night, can interfere with your sleep cycle and contribute to dry eyes. Turning down screen brightness and limiting screen use before bedtime may benefit both your eyes and your sleep.
Give Your Eyes a Vacation
Fortunately, reducing digital eye strain does not require moving to a cabin without Wi-Fi. Try the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something approximately 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This allows your focusing muscles to relax and gives your eyes a break.
You can also make a few other simple changes:
Increase the font size rather than squinting.
Keep your screen approximately an arm’s length away.
Reduce glare from nearby windows and lights.
Match your screen brightness to the room around you.
Remember to blink.
Consider artificial tears if your eyes frequently feel dry.
And yes, scrolling through your phone while watching television technically counts as looking at two screens, not taking a break from one.
Don’t Blame Everything on Your Phone
This may be the most important point. Blurred vision, difficulty reading, headaches, dry eyes, or changes in vision should not automatically be dismissed as “too much screen time.”
After age 50, conditions such as cataracts, glaucoma, macular degeneration, diabetic eye disease, and changes in your prescription become increasingly important to detect. Many serious eye diseases can develop with few or no symptoms in their early stages. That is why routine comprehensive eye examinations should be a priority, even if you think you see perfectly well.
Your eye doctor can check your prescription, evaluate the health of your eyes, identify causes of dryness or discomfort, and look for potentially serious conditions before they begin affecting your vision.
Technology is not going away, and thankfully, neither are cat videos, FaceTime with the grandkids, online shopping, or whatever rabbit hole YouTube sends you down at 11 p.m. Enjoy your screens. Just remember to give your eyes an occasional break.
And most importantly, make sure those eyes get checked regularly. You only get one pair, and unlike your smartphone, there is no upgraded model coming out next year.
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