The Covid-19 pandemic has made learning and work activities carried out online. Many employees also implement a work from home system to complete their work without having to come to the office. This condition makes people spend more time in front of a computer screen. Meanwhile, staring at the screen for too long causes the eyes to get tired, dry, and even cause eye abnormalities.
Eyes are one of the most important sense organs for humans. Through a series of processes that occur in the eye, we get a lot of information about objects around us. Therefore, it is important for us to maintain eye health, especially in the online era like today, where most of our activities are carried out in front of a laptop/smartphone screen.
To respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, the government has issued various regulations, one of which is online learning and meetings. In practice, these online learning and meetings require devices such as smartphones, laptops, computers, tablets, and others to access information anytime and anywhere.
With the online learning system, we inevitably have to stare at the laptop/smartphone screen for a longer duration than usual. If our eyes stare at the laptop/smartphone screen continuously, there can be problems with vision called Computer Vision Syndrome. This problem is characterized by two things, namely dry eye / dry eye and eyestrain / eye strain / tired.
Dry eyes can occur when we stare at the screen for too long and forget/blink less. Blinking is necessary to restore the thin layer of fluid in the eye that serves to protect the eye’s surface. If we blink less, our eyes will feel dry, uncomfortable, and vision can become blurry. Meanwhile, eyestrain / eye fatigue is a problem that occurs because the brightness of the electronic screen is too bright.
Ophthalmologist Hermina Arcamanik General Hospital, dr. Bella Pratiwi Sudjana, Sp.M, said that maintaining eye health is very necessary during the current pandemic, because many patients in this pandemic era experience dry eye fatigue, as well as refractive errors (blurring of vision). Patients experiencing blurred vision or tired eyes, after being examined, it turns out that they have been diagnosed with myopia or astigmatism (refractive disorders).
The cause of tired eyes in the online era is the long duration of close work. When looking at a close distance, the eye will adjust to receive a clear image of the object being seen, then the muscles in the eye will contract, causing eye fatigue. If you look closely, the eye muscles will contract more. Like lifting heavy objects, it may last for a few minutes. However, the longer you lift heavy objects, the more tired you will be.
So, how to maintain eye health in the online era?
– Keep a minimum distance of 30-50 cm from the computer screen
– Reduce screen brightness level
– When using the computer layer for more than 2 hours continuously, apply the 20-20-20 formula or with eye relaxation (formula 20:20:20) every 20 minutes staring at the screen of the device, rest your eyes for 20 seconds, look at objects 20 feet away or about 6 meters
– Avoid touching the eye area when outside or the hands are not clean because germs, bacteria, viruses, fungi on the hands can cause direct infection in the eye area, therefore don’t forget to wash your hands often with soap
– For children or adults who have refractive errors (using minus glasses or plus glasses, these glasses must be used when in front of the computer to avoid viewing distances that are too close to the computer screen)
– Relax the eyes with a warm eye compress (using a towel / cotton / gauze or a clean cloth that has been dipped in clean warm water) then place the warm cloth over the closed eyelids or by gently massaging both temples for 3-5 minutes.
– Invite the children to take a break by doing “Green Time”, which is outdoor activities by looking at green things, such as leaves, grass, trees while doing physical activities such as pulling weeds, watering plants, drawing/painting in the yard and other physical activities that we can do with our children in the yard.
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