Along with updating your eyeglass or contact lens prescription, your eye doctor can also advise you on the best ways to ensure your vision stays clear and your eyes stay healthy as you get older. Part of this advise is identifying daily habits that may be destroying your eyes. Here are 5 of the most common of those habits:
Too much time on screens.
These days, people are spending more and more time at home, spiking media consumption by as much as 60%, to an average of around 13 hours a day, compared to between 7 and 10 hours per day only a few years ago. This can cause an overexposure to blue light, which has been linked to problems with sleep, as well as eyestrain, headaches, blurry or double vision and more.
Screens also lower your blinking frequency, causing symptoms such as red, dry, itchy eyes. If these and related symptoms become severe enough, they can cause painful scratches on the cornea known as corneal abrasions.
Rubbing your eyes too much or too hard
Rubbing your eyes occasionally isn’t a big deal. However doing so too much or too hard may cause damage to the cornea, and even result in a condition known as keratoconus. This occurs when the tissue that covers the front surface of the eye is damaged and begins to thin and bulge outward into a cone shape. This can severely harm your vision and may require surgery to correct.
Sleeping in your contact lenses
Here’s one that a lot of people are guilty of! In fact, one in three contact lens wearers admits to sleeping or napping in contacts not designed for this.
Most contact lenses are not designed to be slept in, and when this happens bacteria can get trapped underneath the lens. This can lead to serious eye infections that can cause severe and permanent ocular damage.
Smoking
If you smoke, here’s yet another reason to stop. It can lead to eye irritation and significantly increase your risk for developing macular degeneration by almost four-fold.
If you smoke, you’re at much higher risk of developing macular degeneration five years earlier than those who never smoke.
Not wearing sunglasses
Everyone knows about sunburns from not protecting your skin against the sun. But did you know that your eyes can also suffer from overexposure to the sun? Overexposure can cause macular degeneration, cataracts, cancer and cataracts. Wear your sunglasses while out to help protect yourself from these harmful effects.
For more information on ways to keep your vision clear and your eyes healthy, contact our eye care team at today.