the good doctor on: Quarantine

A weekly blog, well let’s get started.

Quarantine - from the French for 40, quarante, the number of days a ship would be left in harbour if it had disease.

During these interesting times, most of us find ourselves at home, in isolation or even quarantine, our time being spent in front of screens, working, watching the Covid drama unfold, zooming with friends and family or binge-watching 11 seasons of Friends.

And yes, our nerves are frayed and our eyes are not far behind. It is a good time to remember that positive steps can be taken to help your eyes. Your eyes start to dry when you stare at a screen, because staring slows your blink rate down, as much as half for some. The tear film evaporates on the eye and causes drying to occur, with resulting redness, foreign body sensation, and even transient blur. You need to remember to consciously blink, so that your rate is more normal, about every five seconds. If you still are getting symptoms, then an artificial tear can be of help. And finally, if dry eyes still persist you can turn the screen off and do something else for a while.

Then there is exposure to high energy visible light, the blue-violet variety, that comes off of screens. This exposure causes fatigue and messes with our sleep patterns. Blue filters are helpful if you can get a hold of them, or you can change your display settings to reduce blue light.

Finally, take breaks. Everybody knows it is the year of the optometrist, 2020, which helps us remember the rule 20/20/20. The WSIB recommends that after spending 20 minutes on screen, take a 20 second break, looking at an object at least 20 feet away from you. Another great habit you can adopt.

All this should help your eyes during these trying times.

Keep Safe, until next week,

The Good Doctor

Dr. Mark Germain, Optometrist, Burlington Eyecare