Adults spend an average of 8 hours and 41 minutes a day on media devices, and on average we check our smartphone every 12 minutes while we are awake.

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Screen fatigue is a condition resulting from focusing the eyes on a computer or other display device for long, uninterrupted periods of time.

Some symptoms of screen fatigue include:

• Dry eyes

• Irritated eyes

• Double vision 

• Difficulty refocusing the eyes.

SCREEN FATIGUE CAN OCCUR WHEN WORKING ON COMPUTERS, LAPTOPS, work stations AND TABLETS FOR EXTENDED PERIODS OF TIME.

Remember the 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes, spend 20 seconds looking at something 20 feet away. This simple rule helps to relax the eyes and alleviate the symptoms associated with screen fatigue.

Posture and screen position can contribute to screen fatigue. If you have to raise your head to much to view the computer, e.g wearing varifocals or bifocals for computers, or the screen is to high, this can cause neck pain.

The 20/20/20 rule combined with the correct glasses, usually a specific computer pair of spectacles is enough to reduce the symptoms of screen fatigue, if not get rid of them entirely.

If this does not get rid of screen fatigue, there are a range of products available to help, e.g eyes drops for dry eye, “blinkers” to encourage blinking and looking away during computer use, anti fatigue lenses, or screen lenses.

Click here to read more about spectacles for screen work