Top 5 ways you might be hurting your eyes

Our eyes are sensitive things. Everyone can remember a time when a simple spec of dust completely derailed whatever you were doing because it decided to land precisely in the wrong spot on your eye.  

With most things, our eyes could benefit from some extra attention. Every day we unintentionally do things that could harm us, but do them anyway. Whether that be for ease, confusion, or just plain lack of knowledge.  

Well let’s put a stop to accidentally hurting our eyes since we simply didn’t know any better. Here are the top five ways you might be hurting your eyes.  

1. UV and light damage 

The mighty sun is both a fantastic and terrifying thing. It provides warmth, light, and happier moods in people who spend some time in it. But it’s also responsible for sun burns, heatstroke, and eye damage.   

While the sun may be well known for causing damage to skin through sun burns, its light can also significantly impact your eye health. Too much bright light in any capacity is bad for your eyes, but the sun’s light is especially potent. Sunlight isn’t regular old light; it contains a specific wavelength of light called ultraviolet.  

These UV rays can cause irreversible damage to your eyes, which is why you should never look at the sun during an eclipse.  

UV rays are thought to be responsible for increased risk of macular degeneration, cataracts, and photokeratitis. Avoiding these disabling conditions for as long as possible is key to having happy, healthy eyes. Luckily, avoiding UV rays is super simple. Most contact lenses come with built-in UV protection, and if you want to be extra safe, adding a pair of UV rated sunglasses will eliminate a lot of risk from UV damage.  

Put in your contacts, slide on some shades, and soak up the sun (safely).  

2. Physical damage

We have all rubbed our eyes. It’s a human thing. Not only does it feel good after a long day, but it also might feel necessary to wake you up, clear debris, or help your eyes readjust to a situation. We have some bad news though, it’s not great for your eyes.  

Rubbing your eyes might feel good, but in most cases, you’ll just be making your eyes red and irritated. Beyond just minor irritations, habitual eye-rubbing, can lead to eye infections, cornea thinning, wrinkles, and corneal abrasions.  

Most people don’t think twice about rubbing their eyes, but you should. Start by identifying why you need to rub your eyes and consider a better option. Do you need to change your contacts? Are your eyes tired? Did a stray dust spec kamikaze your cornea?   

Taking a moment to reflect, and assess, is the best way to cut down on eye rubbing.  

3. Incorrect prescriptions  

While wearing the wrong prescription for an extended period may be uncomfortable, or cause symptoms like vertigo, it won’t cause lasting eye damage. It’s largely a myth that having the wrong prescription contacts or glasses will cause your eyesight to deteriorate.  That being said, eye fatigue, vertigo, blurriness, and general discomfort are not fun things to deal with. If your prescription feels incorrect, we’d always recommend visiting your regular eye doctor for a checkup.  

You can rest easy knowing those backup-to-your-backup glasses won’t damage your eyes when you’re in a pinch.  

4. Computers and blue light  

Computers get a bad rap for causing eye damage. Thankfully, this is also a myth. Your eyes may get irritated from looking at a computer screen due to several factors, but there are no lasting effects. The usual suspect for causing problems when looking at computers is blue light. You mostly don’t need to worry about blue light. Digital devices don’t produce enough to cause long-term discomfort.  

If you find yourself getting fatigued after looking at a computer all day, there are a few solutions. You can always try blue light glasses or practice the 20-20-20 rule. If you spend 20 or more minutes looking a computer screen, take 20 seconds to look at something 20 feet away. It is a much-needed break for your hyper focused eyes.  

5. Abusing your contacts 

Lastly, misusing your contacts or over wearing them can lead to serious eye damage. We believe contacts are a fantastic innovation in vision correction, but they do come with a significant level of responsibility. Over wearing your contacts can lead to things like keratitis, corneal ulcers, and infections. Some of the damage can be so extensive it can require surgical intervention.  

The best way to avoid having to deal with any of that is to always follow your eye doctor’s recommendations on wear time. If you have a daily lens, wear it for no more than one day. Pretty simple, right?  

Hopefully, you’ve found some ways to improve your eye health and are ready to take on the challenge to have the happiest, healthiest eyes ever.