Authored by: Dr. Shibu Varkey, MS, DNB, DO, FRCS (UK) Regional Medical Director, MaxiVision Eye Hospitals
Examination season is again around the corner,
students preparing for 10th, 12th, and various entrance exams are in a feverish
pitch of activity. So, a few suggestions on how to take care of eyes during
this period are certainly in order
1. Sleep
deficiency: A minimum of 7 hours of sleep is essential to maintain good
health for the eyes as well as the whole body and mind, sleep deficiency leads
to eye problems like recurrent styes (eye boils), which causes pain and
swelling of the eyelid and results in loss of study time.
# plan and manage study time to get enough
sleep
2. Dietary
deficiency: Students tend to skip meals or depend on
fast foods, nutritional deficiencies tend to cause fatigue and loss of
concentration and again affect the eyes with blepharitis, dry eyes, and eyelid
infections # eat balanced healthy meals at regular intervals. Foods rich in
vitamins A, D, E, B complex, minerals, and Omega 3 are essential for students
preparing for exams.
3. Dehydration: Due
to the intensity of studies, some students forget to drink enough water and fluids,
this results in dehydration and frequent headaches, inability to focus, and
tired eyes.
# Drink at least 3 to 3.75 liters of fluids per
day.
4. Postural
problems: Bad posture affects the neck, shoulders, lower back, and
the eyes, especially in students who have poor eye muscle balance and
astigmatism.
# study, preferably, in sitting posture with
feet firmly on the ground arms and shoulders well supported and book at least
20 inches from the eye, the book kept at 60 degrees. Take short breaks to stretch.
5. Duration of
study: The stress on eye muscles when studying for 8 hours is
equal to the stress on leg muscles from running 50 to 60 kms. So studying
without rest for 10 to 12 hours causes intense pressure on eye muscles and has
now been shown to be related to the development of myopia (glass power), spasm of
eye muscles, eye strain, inability to focus the eyes, eye pain, and severe
headaches.
# take short breaks every 30 minutes and look
at far objects for 10 seconds to relax the eye muscles.
6. Digital Eye
Strain: Earlier known as Computer Vision Syndrome, is very common
among students nowadays. Redness, irritation, foreign body sensation in the eye
are leading symptoms. When computers or smartphones are used for long durations
of time the tears in the eye gradually evaporate. Normally a person blinks
about 20 times in a minute but during computer and mobile phone use, the blink
rate decreases to once or twice in a minute.
This reduces the replenishment of the
evaporated tears and causes dry eye syndrome.
Air conditioning also removes moisture from
the skin and eyes and leads to dryness.
# Students who use computers and mobile phones
must be careful to follow the 20 20 20 20 rule.
#Hold the device 20 inches from the eye.
#take a break of 20 seconds every 20 minutes
#look at any object 20 feet away.
#blink 20 times every minute
#Air conditioning should be frequently switched off and should
never blow directly on to face.
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