Protecting your visual abilities is an important investment in your future, as although many fantastic prosthetics have been developed for augmenting the other four human senses, not one inventor has ever been able to develop a synthetic human eyeball with the ability to truly see. In other words, you get only one pair of eyes per lifetime, so it is imperative that you treat your visual sense well so that you will still be seeing clearly in the future.
Adjust Your Computer Screen’s Brightness and Tint at Night
If the digital world were not constantly beckoning us to be productive and social, even into the early hours of the morning, this step might not be so much of an issue. But the habits of our generation have presented a problem never faced by generations before us: increased exposure to unnatural blue rays of light at night. The blue-tinted light that illuminates your keyboard can seriously throw off your circadian rhythm and hormonal cycles within your body, never mind causing serious strain on your eyes. Often, this eye strain is exacerbated by the fact that the blue light triggers insomnia, as the delicate tissues that are crucial to proper damage do not experience proper rest and repair during the dark hours of each day. Several free programs out there – the most popular being f.lux – can adjust the tint of your screen according to the time of day, removing the excess blue tone from your computer screen at night if you must stay up working past sunset. That being said – if you can simply shut the laptop or power off the monitor, your eyes will be much better off.
Follow Your Optometrist’s Orders: Obtain a Prescription
Wear your contacts and glasses as prescribed, but only if prescribed – and only in the manner that your optometrist has recommended. Your prescription as determined by a licensed optometrist or similarly-qualified eye health professional should be followed strictly, without any substitution or shift. If your eyes do not need a prescription, do not train them to become unfocused and need correction by wearing a friend’s glasses or contacts. Though it may be tempting to purchase fashionable reading glasses from a drugstore despite their different prescription, the damage that can be done to your eyes is astronomical as they will no longer operate correctly.
Furthermore, only a professional will be able to recognize if your eyes are suffering from astigmatism or other issues that require particular prescription adjustments. Store-bought imitation glasses and lenses often fail to correct for this and similar eye issues. Remember to only wear the glasses or contacts you have been prescribed for the length of time recommended by your doctor. Overusing your contacts can dry them out and lead to excessive protein buildup on the surface, both of which can scratch damage the delicate surface of your eyes. Plus, not following your doctor’s orders about the importance of wearing glasses during suggested activities – such as reading or playing sports – can lead to blurry vision, loss of focus, and severe headaches that take months to heal.
Keep Your Contact Lenses Squeaky Clean
Whether or not you wear prescriptive or aesthetic contact lenses, it is critical that you keep them moisturized and completely clean. If you purchase lenses from a reputable company such as the contact lenses retailer Lenses Online, you can ensure that your lenses will be crafted as to not dry up quickly and damage your eyes. Despite the quality of your contact lenses, however, proteins and bacteria will still naturally build up on their surface through extended use if not cleaned thoroughly. Of course, the first step in maintaining the cleanliness of your lenses is by properly washing your hands before touching them for insertion or removal. The next critical step is finding a moisturizing contact lens solution that will help to remove those proteins from the plastic, while sterilizing the lenses for their next use. Sometimes, wearers will be instructed by their optometrist to scrub the lenses clean in the palm of their hand using the soft pad of a fingertip.
As we live in a primarily visual culture, and information is obtained through our vision, our eyes serve as our window to the world. Therefore, it is important to keep them in full health to ensure that we will be able to see clearly throughout our lifetime. Those who wear contacts or glasses are lucky that their vision can be corrected – but they have additional responsibilities when it comes to maintaining eye health.
