Love reading books? Can’t wait to go through the latest bestseller? Gobble up as many books as fast as you can? If you are that person, it is important to know how to read with minimal risk of eye strain.
Eye strain is not serious but quite uncomfortable. It results from eyes being overworked, which could easily happen due to reading, among other things.
Be it a paperback or digital version, it can cause strain. Strained eyes are itchy, burning, watery or dry. In addition, vision problems, light sensitivity, and difficulty concentrating may occur.
The first thing to ensure a healthy reading environment is lighting. Bright lights are recommended, brighter if you are wearing glasses. Light positioning is important since if it is placed behind the shoulder, it can cause glare, which unnecessarily constricts the pupils.
This can be avoided by putting the light on top of the book so it falls directly on it. For desk reading, a shaded lamp is best. In case an armchair or couch is used for reading, a standing lamp can be placed directly behind it.
Continuously staring at the words without rest will definitely harm the eyes. That is why researchers at Michigan State University recommend 20/20/20 techniques.
This technique requires looking at an object 20 feet away from the book for 20 seconds every 20 minutes to keep the eyes fresh.
Also, a larger print may be beneficial if the fonts are too small. Don’t forget to blink as well while reading; otherwise, the eyes will dry up and make the reading uncomfortable.
So where should we read? A lot of us like to cuddle up in bed with a book. This may not be a good idea since it cannot ensure the proper angle for the reading. Books should be held at an angle of 60 degrees, and the distance from the eyes should be 15 inches. Sitting upright while reading facilitated maintaining this position, which is difficult on the bed.
Nowadays, many of us have shifted to digital versions of books. Similar principles apply to those screens, too, especially the 20/20/20 rule.
The lighting of the room also needs to be adjusted to be as bright or slightly brighter than the screen.
There are many apps available, too, which can change the colour of the screen to make it easier on the eyes as the day progresses. These apps could be downloaded and installed for free.
eReader is particularly useful for a long read, as this can adjust several things at once, including font, text size, and brightness, to ensure eye strain doesn’t happen.
Reading on a laptop should be done from at least an arm’s length away. The screen needs to be at or below the level of your eyes. The font and text size has to be adjusted to fit the reader’s eyesight.
Reading is something we have to do almost daily. Not just books; we read official documents, news or anything else. However, eye strain can happen with any of these. So to avoid it and protect our eyes, we should try to incorporate the above-mentioned practices as part of our reading habits.
