In today’s digital screen world, eye strain is a rising health concern. Long hours looking at screens has led many people to experience dry eyes, headaches, and an inability to focus. In the long term, these types of repetitive injuries can lead to lifelong damage to your health.
Studies have shown that the blue glow of the light emitted by screens is known to reduce the body’s melatonin production –which can interrupt our natural sleep cycle by keeping us awake longer and making it harder to fall asleep at night.
So how can you protect your vision and health? Optometrists recommend giving your eyes a regular break from looking at your screen – by focusing on things further away for a short amount of time. Good room lighting, appropriate screen brightness, and correct ergonomics can also help you prevent bleary-eyed headaches and insomnia symptoms.
But even knowing what to do, it isn’t always easy to remember to do it consistently. That’s where simple software applications can help. They can make automatic adjustments to your screens and provide simple reminders to help you improve your behavior. Here are six similar tools you can download to help you better protect your eyes. Choose the one that works best for you:
eyeCare
This app is a Chrome browser extension. It uses the “20-20-20” principle for reduced eye strain, reminding you every 20 minutes to take your eyes off your computer screen and look at something that’s 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds.
Twilight
Depending on the time of day, this phone app automatically adjusts your screen’s color tone to remove blue light emissions. After sunset hours, the screen will display warmer color hues. The adjustment is so gradual that you may not even notice the change as it occurs.
Night Shift Redux
Like Twilight, this Chrome extension alters your browser’s colors toward the warmer end of the spectrum, minimizing any emitted blue light during the evening and night hours.
TimeOut
If you spend a lot of time glued to a desk and screen, it’s even more important to protect your eyes. TimeOut is an app for macOS users that operates quietly in the background. Every 10 minutes, the app will automatically dim your screen to black for 10 seconds and 10 minutes of every hour. You can always override it if you can’t take a break.
Iris Mini
This free software was designed to protect your eyes and your productivity. It works on macOS, Windows, and Linux platforms, allowing users to adjust their display’s color temperature in a variety of ways. Users can filter the blue color spectrum and control screen brightness without reducing screen flicker.
f.lux
Free for macOS users, the goal of f.lux is to make your screen lighting mimic the light level of the room in which you are. You can set your preferences and forget it’s even there as it adapts to changes throughout the day.
Caring for your eyes has never been more critical than in our modern digital world. Schedule an appointment to get your eyes checked today.