How to keep your eyes fit and healthy as a designer

Have your eyes every felt sore, itchy, or tired, or even like they’re burning as you’re working? Have you ever suffered from blurred or double vision after long periods of screen time? If so you might have been suffering from eye strain.

Eye strain is relatively common, and it happens when you don’t take the time to look after your peepers. It’s something that’s often overlooked but so important, especially if you’re a maker of any kind because your eyes are one of your greatest tools. Eye care doesn’t have to be complicated though, here are 6 simple steps you can take to look after your eyes right now.

Eye Checks

First things first, make sure you go for regular eye tests. The NHS recommends that everyone (even if you don’t wear glasses) goes to get a check up every two years. But if you’re having issues, or lots of headaches, you should definitely go sooner. Eye tests are normally around £25 but you can quite often get a discount, or claim back through your work place if you’re in the UK. If you want to read more about why you should get your eyes tested the lovely Natasha Nuttall has a great post all about it.

 

Breaks

Take screen breaks. Seriously, take a break (not to look at your phone!). I know we all know that we should be doing it, but it’s easy to forget. When I got my eyes tested at the end of last year, the optician recommended going for the 20-20-20 method, which is to look 20 metres (or as far as you can in your room) away every 20 minutes for 20 seconds. Sparing 20 seconds doesn’t seem too onerous right? Then you can take bigger breaks when you need to.

 

Active blinks

Another regular bit of eye TLC you should be doing is “active blinks”. When you’re working for a long time, especially on a screen you don’t blink properly which means that your eyes dry out and the glands that keep your eyes fresh can get blocked. So every once in a while you need to do a really overacted blink, squeezing your eyes together as if you were 5 again and making a wish. You could even make this part of your 20-20-20 routine.

Find your best light

As well as those little tasks you should also make sure that your workspace is set up in the best way to look after your eyes. Ensure there’s no glare on your screen and that your desk is well lit to avoid eye strain.

 

Optimise your screen

Once you’ve optimised your desk set up, move onto your screen itself. Go granny style and increase the size of the text on your screen by a few points so you don’t have to strain to look at it. You can also increase your screen’s refresh rate to reduce any flickering that might wear out your eyes. Where you can reduce the amount of blue light you’re exposed to, as continual exposure to blue light can damage your retina. While, if you’re working on colour sensitive pieces it might be hard to change the colouring of your screen to something more in the soft yellow range, can always use tools like night shift mode on your screen which shifts the colour dynamics on your phone at a certain time to reduce the amount of blue light you’re taking in. Plus it will help you sleep better too!

 

Don’t get too close

When you are working on a screen don’t get super duper close. I know the temptation is real when you’re working on a really detailed piece, but try and zoom in, instead of placing your face 2cm from your laptop, and your eyes will thank you for it.

Natalie