Do You Have Computer Eyes? 3 Tips to Avoid Fatigue

Editor’s Note: Got a home busi­ness? Then you likely work on a com­puter. Here is a great ‘view­point’ that all of us who spend an unhealthy num­ber of hours gaz­ing at a win­dow to the vir­tual world should heed. Enjoy the great home busi­ness infor­ma­tion pro­vided here from Health and Move­ment Coach Jen Waak. Thanks, Jen for writ­ing this arti­cle for 2ChicksatHome!

Vision Train­ing: Undo Com­puter Eyes

“I’m so tired I can barely see straight.” When was the last time you said that? Did you lit­er­ally mean that, or did you say it as a fig­ure of speech? My guess: It was a lit­tle of both.

The eyes, like every other part of our body, are prone to get­ting tired. Stud­ies indi­cate that there has been a 20% increase in near­sight­ed­ness in the past 30 years, and I per­son­ally believe that com­put­ers and sim­i­lar devices are a huge source of the prob­lem. Home busi­ness infor­ma­tion sources make it clear that work­ing in a home office in no way reduces the poten­tial for eye fatigue.

Com­put­ers, video games, and tele­vi­sions cause a sig­nif­i­cant amount of strain on the eyes—simply because we stare at one object, at one focal dis­tance, for a lot of hours each day. This prac­tice can wreak havoc on our bod­ies because that one thing is what our eyes get really good at doing—they get good at look­ing at one spot 2 to 3 feet away from our faces.

In the short-term, eye fatigue causes headache and makes us tired. Try hold­ing your body per­fectly still for exactly one minute. Go ahead. Time your­self. I’ll wait. It’s a lot of work, right? Now, think of your eye mus­cu­la­ture hav­ing to hold your eyes in more or less one posi­tion all day long.

In the long-term, the effects are more pro­found. Your eye mus­cles for­get how to move. You aren’t as respon­sive dri­ving because your eye mus­cles can’t move quickly from the speedome­ter to the rear-view mir­ror and back to the road. You stop see­ing stuff out of the cor­ner of your eye (includ­ing your kids sneak­ing up on you while you are working).

For­tu­nately, there are a few sim­ple exer­cises and tricks you can per­form to keep your eye mus­cles happy and you more pro­duc­tive. I’ve sug­gested three of my favorites here:

1) Eye mas­sage

This is a lot sim­pler than it sounds. Close your eyes and GENTLY tap and mas­sage around the edges of the socket. Keep doing this for a few min­utes. You should find your­self relax­ing, and when you re-open your eyes, you will feel refreshed and more awake.

2) Eye track­ing

Hold a fin­ger up in front of you, arm out­stretched, and make a large, slow cir­cle. Your fin­ger should trace this invis­i­ble cir­cle near the edges of where you can still clearly see it. Make a cou­ple of cir­cles in each direc­tion (Tip: You can change hands halfway to make the cir­cle large enough). This drill will help ensure that you are see­ing every­thing in your visual field, includ­ing your kids…

3) Loca­tion and Dis­tance

Work with your com­puter at dif­fer­ent dis­tances or loca­tions. Chang­ing light, dis­tance, and height all make a dif­fer­ence. Occa­sion­ally move the mon­i­tor back and forth a few inches, put the mon­i­tor up on some books, etc. If you work from a lap­top, con­sider get­ting an exter­nal key­board and mon­i­tor if you have the room and money. Hav­ing an ergonom­i­cally sound work­place (as Yolanda dis­cusses here) is really impor­tant, and you can’t over­look this, either!

Next time you are on dead­line and need “just a bit more energy to push through,” give one of these tips a try. Let me know how it goes.

Coach Jen Waak

Jen Waak is a Health and Move­ment Coach, focused on help­ing indi­vid­u­als from all walks of life get out of pain, move bet­ter, and feel younger. Jen has been men­tor­ing and coach­ing teens and adults for over 20 years, using a goals-based approach. She believes that hav­ing a healthy body is the foun­da­tion for a suc­cess­ful and happy life, and that every­one owns their own health — teach­ing clients to take an active role in their health. Jen is a Z-Health Mas­ter Prac­ti­tioner, cer­ti­fied RKC (Russ­ian ket­tle­bell instruc­tor), brown belt in Tae Kwon Do, and has a back­ground in Pilates, Tai Chi, and dance. When she isn’t help­ing oth­ers achieve their phys­i­cal goals, she can be found trav­el­ing the globe (sum­mit­ing Kil­i­man­jaro in Sep­tem­ber 2010 is next), hang­ing out with her dog, and read­ing just about any­thing she can get her hands on. You can read more health and fit­ness tips from her by read­ing her Move Fit Fun blog.

And have you checked out Yolanda’s new web­site? Red Hot Momen­tum is for peo­ple who know how to get things done but some­times hit a brick wall. Or per­haps you would like to browse 2Chicks prod­ucts and ser­vices. Con­tact the 2Chicks and ask us about the Co-sult Coop. We can help!

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