How to stop straining your eyes

Screen time is not the only thing that can tire your eyes. Try these tips to minimise the discomfort

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NEW YORK – After staring at your laptop for hours or scrolling through social media on your mobile phone, you may sense a heavy achiness or bleary-eyed feeling creeping in.

These common, uncomfortable sensations are signs of eye strain, an umbrella term for symptoms like dry or watery eyes, temporary blurry vision, eye redness, soreness and headaches.

Computer vision syndrome, or digital eye strain, falls under this umbrella too. But screen time is not the only thing that can tire your eyes.

Activities such as reading, writing and needlework can also make your eyes ache, said Dr Mika Moy, a clinical professor in the Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley.

It is often the first-year law students with tonnes of reading assignments who visit her office with eye strain, she added.

Symptoms can be "really, really annoying", but they are temporary, said Dr Avnish Deobhakta, an ophthalmologist at the New York Eye and Ear Infirmary of Mount Sinai. And you do not need to worry about eye strain leading to long-term eye damage, he added.

WHY EYE STRAIN HAPPENS

There are several reasons for eye strain.