Too Much Screen Time Giving you Dry eyes, Neck tension or Headaches?
Now that many people are working from home, I’m noticing that it means more prolonged time at the screens, less walking around or resting the eyes, and patients are reporting neck tension and headaches.
I was always sensitive to too much screen time, being prone to headaches and migraines for most of my life. However, after many concussions, I found that I could barely tolerate even a few minutes of screen time without starting to feel some strange symptoms start to come on.
Working with patients, I started noticing that many people experience screen time fatigue and screen related symptoms to a certain extent, and some to a much larger extent.
Most Common Symptoms I See Related to Screen/Computer/Phone Use:
- Headaches — usually around eyes, temples, but also often in the back of the head where the muscles that control our eyes are
- Headaches sometimes leading to migraines in individuals who are prone to them
- Tension around the eyes
- Dry gritty eyes
- Tired eyes — trouble focusing, blurriness, soreness in the eyes
- Nausea
- Stiff sore neck and shoulders – often this is an underlying cause of headaches, or can exacerbate them. Especially over time as trigger points develop, this can lead to chronic head and neck pain despite breaks from screens
- Neurological fatigue — brain fog/feeling foggy, trouble focusing, dizziness, lightheadedness, irritability, anxiety
- Insomnia — similar to neurological fatigue, the blue lights and the flickering of the screens that we don’t perceive, but our brains do, all lead to overstimulation of the brain, lowers our melatonin production and GABA production (our calming brain chemical) all leading to nervousness, restlessness and trouble sleeping
What Can You Do? — In this day and age, it’s nearly impossible to avoid screen time if you want to be part of society. So what can we do to minimize the stress on our brains and body and continue living productive and connected lives?
- Warm Up Your Screen: Apps like F.LUX for your computer & Nightshift/True Tone for the iPhone filter out the blue light that is so problematic for the above symptoms. Blue light reduces our relaxation brain chemicals, is stimulating, and can lead to eye and head tension. This has made the MOST difference for me in my life and I credit it for being the reason I am able to use computers and screens now.
- Adjust the brightness of your screen: (F.LUX will do this for you too automatically). Some recommend adjusting your screen brightness to match your surrounding environment so your eyes don’t have to do extra work to focus.
- Blue Light Filtering Glasses & Screen Filters: Many companies now sell glasses and also screen covers you can buy that filter out the problematic blue light.
www.theraspecs.com Is an example of a company that specializes in blue light filtering lenses. There are some cheaper versions sold on Amazon, though I’m not sure about their effectiveness to be honest.
4. Re-Focusing Your Eyes to Give them a Break: Every so often look up from your screen and look around you, and look off in the distance to give your eyes a break. Move your eyes around — it’s similar to getting up and walking around after being seated for a long period of time to get your muscles moving and stretched out.
5. Blinking Rapidly: Every so often blink rapidly 5x or so in a row. This will moisten your eyes.
6. Relaxing Head and Neck Muscles and Watching Your Posture: when we focus on something, especially our screens and phones, we often will unintentionally squint, hunch over, tighten our necks and shoulders, and/or go in to forward head posture. All these things create tension in our muscles and can create or exacerbate headaches and eye tension.
The little muscles in the back of our head right under the skull are connected to our eyes. So when they are tense, we can feel eye symptoms, and when we are straining our eyes, it can also tighten these muscles leading to a viscous cycle of pain and muscle dysfunction. In addition, over time, poor posture and muscle tightness can create inadequate blood flow to our muscles creating trigger points.
Trigger points are stubborn knot-like areas in our muscles that lead to chronic aches and pain. Trigger points are major reasons for chronic headaches and tension that I see in my practice. Hence why it is so important to focus on your posture, relaxing, and working out neck tension. I recommend to patients to use a product like the theracane (see link below) or a ball to do self-massage on the neck and shoulders after excess screen time. Just be careful to not press too hard or for too long, and make sure you know where it is safe to press on your neck.
NOTE: A licensed professional can consult on this for you. I have had patients exacerbate their symptoms before by overdoing self-massage or doing it incorrectly. Keep in mind that there are also important blood vessels in the neck area that you don’t want to massage. Best to consult with a professional bodyworker, acupuncturist, PT or chiropractor, or better yet, make an appointment with one to help you.
Make sure your screens are at eye level so you’re not hunching over or looking too far up or down, straining your neck and muscles.
Theracane — I use this at least 3-4x/week to work out trigger points, relieve neck tension and headaches. Make sure to follow instructions, email us how to use it if you have any questions, and avoid boney structures or pushing too hard on your neck.
7. Warm Compresses on Eyes: One of my favorite things to do at the end of a long day is to put a nice warm compress over my eyes to relax the muscles and help with the dryness. Hot towel does the trick for me, though some practitioners will recommend dry heat sometimes
8. Hot Packs: I recommend these to put on her neck and shoulders either at work, or at the end of your day. It will help to relax your muscles which will help with muscle strain and pain
9. Check Your Computer’s Refresh Rate: Lastly, every screen device has something called a refresh rate. It’s how often your computer or device refreshes the screen or how many times per second it renews its image. It is imperceivable to our brains because it happens so quickly, but a slower refresh rate is more tiring for our brains. Just like how flickering lights can trigger seizures, a slow refresh rate can contribute to headaches, fatigue or migraines and eye strain. Some computers allow you to adjust the refresh rate. Newer monitors tend to have faster refresh rates as well. You will want to set your refresh rate to as high as possible/fast as possible.
10. Omega-3: if you are struggling with headaches, migraines or frequent dry eyes, you can try adding in a good source of omega-3 supplements in to your diet. Food sources include: Wild Salmon, Macadamia nuts, Walnuts, Hemp or Chia Seeds. Or you can opt for supplement form, just make sure it is from a reputable brand that tests for heavy metals and other potential contaminants. We use only the most pure and tested forms in our practice.
11. Essential Oils: Peppermint, Frankincense (especially for vertigo), Chamomile, Lemon. Just dab on neck and back of head or diffuse in diffuser. Careful to avoid eyes.
Browse high quality essential oils HERE
12. Magnesium: relaxes muscles and can prevent or relieve certain types of headaches. There are some forms of magnesium that are more able to cross the blood brain barrier to address neurological issues (eg. magnesium threonate), and others that are better for muscle relaxation (magnesium citrate and glyconate). Consult with health professional for dosages, types, brands and safety.
13. Turmeric: this natural anti-inflammatory herb can be helpful for migraine and headache sufferers. I use it a lot for my patient who suffer with post-concussion headaches or pain. It can help with general aches and pain as well. Again, dose, brand, types all matter for absorption. Consult health professional to ensure this is appropriate and safe for you.
14. Acupressure: specific acu points can be pressed or stimulated with or without acupuncture needles to provide relief and also prevent headaches or migraines. We work with people in person or online to provide DIY programs for acupoint stimulation for migraine and headache relief. Learn more HERE
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Email: Nicole@SageBostonAcupuncture.com
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