Deliberately blink every five seconds or so. If you find this too distracting, try taking breaks. Every 20 minutes, look away from the screen for 20 seconds. This allows you to blink naturally and re-moisturize your eyes.

Your eyes will often tell you if your screen isn’t lighted properly. If your eyes are feeling strained, try adjusting your brightness settings in relation to your work environment.

Keep your computer screen clean. Dust on your screen can further reflect light into your eyes. Dust your screen on a regular basis with either a specialized cleaning cloth or spray. Avoid sitting with a window behind you. The sun’s rays will reflect off the screen and back into your eyes. If this is unavoidable, cover the window with a drape or sheet to help reduce the glare. Use lower wattage light bulbs. Very bright bulbs from desk lamps and overhead lights will reflect off the screen. If your work space is very bright, try switching to less powerful bulbs.

This isn’t only good advice to protect your eyes, but your health in general. Sitting for long periods of time can be bad for your back, joints, posture, and weight. Use these breaks to stretch and walk around to prevent the adverse effects of prolonged sitting.

Make sure you only use lenses specifically designed to reduce computer glare. Reading glasses won’t help in this situation.

Symptoms include headaches, eyestrain, blurred vision, dark or discolored eyes, and neck and shoulder pain. By using the steps in this section when using the computer, you can significantly decrease your risk of developing digital eye strain. Sometimes, however, the best answer is taking a long break to let your eyes rest.

Hold your phone or tablet 16 – 18 inches from your face. Holding it closer puts significant strain on your eyes. Although many people look at their phones while in bed, this is a bad habit. Remember, if the screen is significantly lighter than the environment, it puts strain on your eyes. Try to keep this habit to a minimum. If you continue doing this, at least put the brightness settings all the way down to minimize eyestrain as much as possible.

Wash your lenses after every use with the cleaning solution your eye care professional recommended. Wash your hands before handling your contacts. This ensures that you won’t transfer any bacteria from your hands to your lenses. Also wash with a mild, fragrance-free soap. You could also transfer chemicals and fragrances onto your lenses and cause eye irritation. Apply makeup after your lenses are already in, and remove your makeup after your contacts are out. Never sleep with your contacts in, unless they are specially designed for extended use.

Oranges. One orange will provide you with a whole day’s worth of vitamin C. It is better to get your vitamin C from a whole orange rather than orange juice. That way, you can avoid the added sugar that comes from orange juice. Yellow peppers. Just one large pepper will give you 500% the necessary daily intake of vitamin C. These are easy to cut up and snack on throughout the day. Dark green vegetables. Kale and broccoli specifically are high in vitamin C. With a cup of either kale or broccoli, you can get an entire day’s worth of vitamin C. Berries. Blueberries, strawberries, blackberries, and raspberries are all great choices for vitamin C.

Carrots. For decades carrots have been hailed as the food for good vision. While they are by no means the only food that will help your eyes, they’re packed with vitamin A and are a great food for maintaining eyesight. Sweet potato. This is another food filled with vitamin A. It makes a tasty side dish to many meals.

Shellfish. Lobster, crab, and oysters all provide high doses of zinc. Spinach and other green leafy vegetables. In addition to vitamin C, these vegetables will give your body the zinc it needs to protect your eyes. Nuts. Cashews, peanuts, almonds, and walnuts are all high in zinc. They are easy to snack on throughout the day.