How Excessive Screen Time Affects Kids' Eyes

Electronics such as smartphones, tablets, computers, and TVs help you stay in touch with your kids and assist in their education. Between their homework and entertainment, though, it's easy for your kids to spend way too much time staring at screens. Whether your children need kids prescription glasses or their vision is fine, here's what you need to know about screen time's effects on their eyes.

Temporary Blurred Vision

If your kids stare at a phone or computer screen for hours every day, they probably complain about blurry eyes. While these symptoms are temporary, they are alarming for your little ones. Caused by accommodation spasms, blurry eyes happen when your children's focusing mechanisms freeze. Usually, kids only realize that they're experiencing accommodation spasms when they look at something other than a screen.

If your children have accommodation spasms, there's no need to panic or call your doctor. Investing in a good pair of prescription computer glasses and limiting their screen time should reduce or eliminate the problem.

Possible Link to Nearsightedness

When your kids have blurriness at all times and not just when they look away from screens, they probably have myopia rather than accommodation spasms. More commonly called nearsightedness, myopia means it's time to visit your eye doctor for a pair of kids prescription glasses. While the link between myopia and screen time hasn't been proven yet, recent studies suggest that all the eye strain involved with watching and reading materials online damages kids' close-up vision.

In addition to complaints of blurriness, signs of myopia include headaches, squinting, and difficulty reading or seeing something that should be easy. For example, if your kids struggle to read something aloud that used to be a breeze, consider setting up an eye doctor appointment.

Increased Eye Fatigue

When you think about your kids' muscles, you probably think about the ones in their legs, arms, and abs. However, there are many muscles near their eyes that become fatigued after hours of using electronic devices. These muscles aren't used to working so hard to help your kids concentrate, and eventually, they start to experience minuscule tears, as all muscles do when you overuse them and get sore.

If you notice your kids squinting or complaining about headaches near their eyes, they probably have eye fatigue. They also may struggle to concentrate on online activities when their eyes are tired, even if they can't articulate why they're unmotivated.

Decreased Eye Moisture

To function properly and stay comfortable, your kids' eyes need to be moist, a job that their tear ducts handle. When your kids are looking at screens all day, though, they don't blink as often as they do during normal circumstances. Additionally, because your kids are shorter, they have to open their eyes more than they do for other sight-related tasks such as reading a book. Both these factors combine to increase how quickly their eyes' tear film evaporates.

To reduce and prevent dry eyes, remind your kids to blink when they're working on screens. Take regular breaks, and play games to see who can blink the most when you're outside. For extreme cases, call your eye doctor or family physician and ask about eye drops, and consider installing a humidifier to help preserve your kids' tear films.

Decreased Ability To Sleep

Many studies suggest that increased exposure to blue light, which screens emit, makes it harder for people to sleep. When your kids aren't getting at least eight hours, their eyes don't have enough time to recover from the day's strain or restore their tear films. As a result, decreased sleep worsens existing eye problems such as accommodation spasms, dry eyes, and eye fatigue.

Increasing your children's sleep at night is a whole-day affair. Wake them up early and make sure that they get plenty of time outdoors. As bedtime gets closer, turn off all devices, including the TV, for at least an hour.

Reduced Eye Development

Research in this area is still in progress, but scientists are beginning to realize that being outside is important for your kids' eye development. Giving your children healthy exposure to UV light is crucial to their eyes' full maturation, and if they're inside on screens, they can't get this exposure.

To combat this reduction in healthy eye development, make outdoor time a priority in your household. Take walks together during your device breaks, and make sure your kids get outside during daylight hours. When your kids' schools' are in session, talk to their teachers about recess hours and ensure that your lifestyle at home compensates for all the time they spend sitting at desks.

Problems Adjusting Eye Focus

Most of the time when your kids are using screens, they only need to use their close-up vision. As your kids' screen time grows, hours may go by without them exercising their farsighted vision. This one-sided focus is not the way your kids' eyes function healthily or naturally, and if it happens too often, your children may struggle to switch between their different vision capacities. Being unable to shift their focus makes it difficult for your children to pay attention in the classroom, and it will also challenge them when it's time to learn how to drive.

Inserting breaks in your kids' screen time is crucial for protecting their ability to shift between their close-up and far-away vision. When you take breaks, play games such as I Spy that encourage your children to use all their vision capabilities.

Greater Chances of Damage to the Retina

Blue light harms people's eyes regardless of their ages, but for your kids, the risk is even higher. Your kids' lenses are much clearer than yours, allowing more light to come through to the retina. When the retina, which processes light, is overexposed to blue light, it stops working as well.

In addition to limiting your kids' screentime, purchasing blue light glasses for when they're on the computer is essential. While they may think these glasses are unnecessary, treat blue light glasses as you would prescription safety glasses during a woodworking or chemistry project; they're a tool for preserving your kids' long-term optical health.

It's almost impossible to cut screen time out of your kids' lives, but you can take plenty of steps to reduce its negative effects. Invest in kids prescription glasses and blue light glasses from Safety Gear Pro today to keep your kids' eyes healthy.

Maria Shara is a freelance writer who writes about fashion, lifestyle, health and many more.