Asthenopia (Eye strain): Causes, symptoms, and remedies

Do your eyes feel tired, burnt, or itchy sometimes? Well, this could be quite usual and showed some rare severe cases.

Asthenopia (eye strain), is when your eyes feel fatigued, sore, or burning. This usually takes place when the eye muscle is in constant function

What are the common causes?

• Reading on any electronic device

• Writing

• Driving

When you constantly keep staring at anything with bright light or into a dim environment. It can tire your eyes.

Sometimes, spending the whole time with your computer or smartphones, your eyes are on constant exercise. They might feel tired or burnt if you keep on staring at these objects. Optician referred to this as digital eye strain. Especially in this digital era where everyone is spending much of their time near computers, laptops, smartphones, etc, this case is pervasive. Sometimes staying up at night for much longer hours sitting right before the computer or smartphones, might also be a reason. Long-distance driving could be a reason for fatigue eyes since they are compelled to concentrate on just one direction for a longer time. This highly impacts your eyes since they are on constant functioning much more as they are expected to function. This doesn't completely ruin your eyes instead it might be harmful to some extent. Hence, these habits lead to dry, itchy, tired, and burning sensations in the eyes.

What are the signs?

If you are observing the below-mentioned signs, then you are facing asthenopia. They are:

1. Sore or irritated eyes

2. Eye ache

3. Headache

4. Tough to focus

5. Dry or watery eyes

6. Double vision

7. Sensitivity in bright or too dim lights

8. Ache in the shoulder, back, or neck

As mentioned earlier, eye strain is actually common and generally happens on account of the above-mentioned causes. It doesn't do permanent damage rather providing some rest to them could be quite helpful.

How can you treat this?

There exists no medication or systematic treatment for it but there are some things that you can do on your own to prevent your eyes from it. Below are some options:

Resting:

Your eye too needs rest like your body. If you are facing eye strain, just give some rest to it by closing or maybe looking at any object that is soothing and doesn't need much concentration.

Maintain the lighting:

Just maintain the display lighting while writing or reading something on any device.

Avoid working in a dim environment:

Too much dim light can impact your eyes so avoid working in too much dim environment.

Maintain a bit gap from the screen:

Maintain at least one arm distance when using any devices.

Balance the size of the font:

You must firstly balance the font size of any device so that it doesn't be too tough to read.

Note: If you are facing certain unusual signs then it would be better to take advice from your doctor.

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