You may not believe it but sitting too close to the TV can be quite damaging for your eyes and even cause you stress. The medical community has warned about this many times but still, there are people out there who don’t take it seriously until they seriously damage their eyesight.
Early TV sets produced x-radiations that were harmful to our eyes. Thanks to LCD and LED TVs this modern flat panel screens don’t generate this kind of radiation.
Though many people haven’t overcome this fear yet and they think that sitting too close from the TV will harm their eyesight, sitting too close to the TV set will not cause damage to your eyesight but it might cause a temporary eye strain.
Now the question is…
What is the ideal distance when watching television?
I’ll be honest with you: there is no magic formula to calculate the right distance to watch TV.
Ideal TV distance and watching position
Eye care professionals recommend one should sit at least eight to ten feet away from TV screen while watching it. But the general rule of watching TV depends on the TV screen and one should sit at least 5 times distance from the TV set.
For example – If you are watching a TV that is 54 inches big then sitting distance would be 270 inches or 21 feet.
According to some optometrists as long as you are comfortable watching the television is your ideal distance. If you can see the screen perfectly without experience any discomfort it is okay.
Apart from distance, the position of your TV also matters when it comes to avoiding eye strain. No matter where you put your TV it should be meet with your eye position.
If it isn’t on the right position you might end up with the neck injury as you’ll have force your eyes muscles to watch the screen.
Is the screen cause eye strain?
Of course, yes. But first, let’s take a look.
What is eye strain?
Eye strain is an eye condition that responsible for multiple eye problems including itching, pain in around the eyes, blurred vision, headache, and many more.
You may have already noticed after watching TV from too close your eyes feel uncomfortable while reading, doing work ona laptop, or any work that use the eyes.
Following are the symptoms of eye strain:
- Sore and itching eyes
- Can’t focus properly
- Dry or watery eyes
- Blurred or double vision
- Pain in the neck shoulders or back
One of the common reason for eye strain happen we blink less while watching the television or working on a laptop. The average person blinks 18 times in a minute that refresh the eyes.
According to some eye experts’ people half blink while watching the TV or working on the computer screen. Blinking less causes dryness that results in burning and itchy eyes.
Additionally, when people watch TV in the darkroom their focus shifts to the bright object in the darkroom that put too much pressure on your eyes’ retina and results in eye strain.
How to avoid eye strain?
One of the first you can do is to contact an eye expert as they would provide you with the best suggestions to avoid eye strain. The second thing you can do is to check from which distance you are feeling comfortable to watch TV.
If you are feeling uncomfortable after watching TV or looking at your laptop screen, there are a few things you can do.
- Gently massage the eyes
- Put a warm cloth to the affected eyes area
- Get good sleep of at least 8-10 hour
- Get branded LED TVs as they are designed to protect our eyes
- Blink more while watching the television
- Don’t sit too close to the TV or computer screen
Dry eye syndrome
Besides eye strain, a common eye problem that people face is dry eye syndrome. A person with dry eye syndrome doesn’t have enough water in the eyes to keep it lubricated.
Tears are important to keep your eyes healthy and provide a clear vision. Staring a TV or laptop screen can dry out the tears from your eyes.
Over to you!
Now as you know that sitting too close to the TV screen is harmful to your eyes. I hope you would take the lesson and pass it to others who you care most.
Technology is here for our help and we should use growth with care and in a limited manner. TV and smartphones are common devices which people can stare for hours. Many conversion rate optimization advocates know this and defend the need to moderate the usage of mobile devices or indeed any device that involves looking at the screen.
You should follow these guidelines if you don’t want to experience headaches, eye strain or the dry eye syndrome. Contact to the eye specialist if you find any symptom of eye strain in you. Please share this post with your friends if you like it.
The above article has been written by Sarah Williams. She works as a content creator in a project for San Sebastian Hotels. Sarah is a London-based coffee enthusiast who practices yoga and the one thing that she truly loves is travelling.