Screens are Hurting our Eyesight

When staring at your phone or computer for a long amount of time (maybe bingewatching netflix) do you ever realize the sting in your eyes? No matter how many times you blink you can’t fix the uncomfortable scratchy feeling?

Yuichi Uchino wanted to determine the relationship between the MUC5AC concentration in tears of VDT users based off of a DED diagnosis and frequency of eye problems. VDT is basically a computer display. DED is dry eye disease which is a disorder in the tear film over your eye that causes discomfort, trouble seeing and eye damage. MUC5AC is a gel forming protein, so in the case it would be the gel that covers your eye.

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Unchio’s study included 96, 60 men and 36 women, young and middle-aged Japanese office workers. The workers completed questionnares about their working hours and their eye problems and then tear fluid was collected after using saline to generate tearsThe results concluded that DED was definite in 9% and 55%. The average MUC5AC concentration in tears was lower in the group that worked longer hours compared to shorter hours.

So, staring at computer screens does affect our eyesight and here are some of the affects. People who are frequent technology users may and can experience eye discomfort, headaches, itchy eyes, dry or watering eyes, burning sensation, or blurred vision. It can also cause eyestrain and dry eye syndrome which means your eyes can become inflamed due to a lack of tears.

So, in conclusion, its good to just put your phone down. I know we’re all struggling to get these blogs done and my eyes are burning a little too because of the amount of time I have spent staring and reading articles, but it’s best for all of us to take some time and turn off the electronics.

5 thoughts on “Screens are Hurting our Eyesight

  1. Yu-ting Chien

    I do realize that my eyes are uncomfortable when I watched the screen for a long time. Your blog is really interesting and helpful for me! The study you mentioned in your blog take 96, 60 men and 36 women, young and middle-aged Japanese office workers as sample. I think this is study is quite reliable since office workers usually spend a long time sitting in front of the computer. But I am wondering whether there is third variable exist since looking the screen might have long-term effect and this study does not mention when the young officers start to work. This variable is not controlled. I think it can have some improvement to make this study more convincing and reliable. Again your blog is really interesting since it is a common problem among people now. here is what I found, it is about the ways to protect your eyes and eyesight, you may want to have a look at it!

  2. Caroline Maria Teti

    In elementary school, I was given glasses because I could not read the chalkboard [third grade]. As time progressed, the use of glasses fluctuated. My eyesight started to become an issues as I entered into Penn State. This had a lot to do with the amount of reading that occurs in college. The more I stare at my computer screen, the more my eyes and head kill me. Honestly, my glasses do not even help much. Like most of us – we will have ‘crunch time’ on some projects and just stare at our computers for hours on hours! I really appreciate you writing a blog on this issue of screens and eyesight. After looking over it and readying the studies provided – I think I am going to give my eyes more of a break! I do not want them to become inflamed and ruin my tear ducts! Great post.

  3. mcm5844

    I found this blog interesting because as I was reading it I thought about how it relates to one of the blogs I posted entitled ” Four-Eyes and 4x Better.” Although my post was focused on how people with glasses may actually be smarter, the experiments conducted all had to do with the development of nearsightedness that could be caused by the amount of time spent look closely at something like a book or homework. In relation to your article, I though that maybe it is possible that screens could be effecting vision for reasons other than those stated in your article, like the proximity to the screen and the amount of time spent and how it could develop nearsightedness similarly to the studies I found.

  4. Hung Chieh Wang

    I think looking at the screen for a long time will definitely hurt our eyes and sights. I use computer a lot. there are times when i finished using the computing and I can’t look clearly at things far away that I can look clearly normally. I need to wait for about 20 minutes until I can see those things clearly. We need to control the time in front of the screen and give our eyes a break once a while. Here are the source I found talking about how computer hurt eyes WebMD

  5. Colby Kranz

    Very well written. I think it’s very important to note however that the type of screen or type of electronic in which we use also plays a roll in what damage it does to our eyes. Also, there are times at which I feel affected by electronic use and times at which I dont. I think it’s important to recognize the possibility of confounding variables suh as the time spent and source. Also correlation does not prove causation and it’s especially true because most of the affects are long term and less experimental in today’s day in age. The experiment done was very well conducted though so nice job in pulling that into your piece.

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