1. What is eyestrain?

Eyestrain is the soreness we experience in the region just above or around our eyes. Many of the hobbyists among us deal with this pain in silence for many years, but there are some tips which will greatly reduce your overall discomfort.

2. What causes eyestrain?

Eyestrain results from focusing on fine detail for long periods of time, without resting the ciliary muscle in our eyes. This controls the focusing of the lens, and as we age, it has to work harder due to the lens slowly becoming less flexible.

Having an excellent light source is a great way to reduce the workload of our ciliary muscles, because focusing in sub-optimal conditions makes our eyes work even harder and exacerbates the issues you may already suffer with.

3. How does eyestrain affect our vision?

Eyestrain does not directly impact vision in the same way as other eye conditions, but it is tied to others through symptomatic relationships. For example, people suffering with presbyopia will have to work their eyes harder to see fine details, which will create eyestrain. This will worsen the health of a patient on two fronts, and examples like this apply to other eye conditions.

4. How does eyestrain impact our day-to-day lives?

If you can’t read, sew or craft in comfort, you won’t be able to enjoy your hobbies for as long as you would otherwise like to.

Furthermore, eyestrain resulting from poor lighting conditions will change the way we sit, negatively affecting our posture. This could cause numerous problems, such as neck strain, back pain and even breathing difficulties.

5. Is eyestrain treatable?

Since eyestrain is related so closely to muscle fatigue, its treatments involve resting and relaxing the muscle. Booking an appointment with an optometrist is going to provide you with the best understanding of what has been causing your pain.

The best temporary treatment that optometrists recommend is employing the 20:20:20 rule. This simple rule assists by relaxing your eyes while you’re working hard on a focused task.

Take a long glance away from the task you’re doing, by staring at something 20 feet away, for twenty seconds. Then repeat every twenty minutes.

This relaxes the ciliary muscle, which has to contract tightly when you’re focused on a task. Doing this just a few times over the duration of a hobby session can improve your comfort dramatically, so we highly recommend it as a simple solution.

6. How does a Serious Light help?

A Serious Light possesses an expertly designed, customisable light engine which replicates the daylight spectrum. This mirrors the light of the sun, which is what our eyes are best evolved to interpret and allows for greater comfort. These also come in a variety of colour temperatures, further catering to your eyes specifically - meaning you can create a personally designed reading environment.

Our HD model also gives readers the option to both dim and adjust the beam width, meaning that the light you read with can be adjusted based on what you’re reading. This will illuminate the page and get the most out of your eyes, with the lowest input of effort on your part.

Sources:

1. Health Harvard.
2. NHS.
3. NHS Inform.
4. SBS NHS.