Guide · body · 3 min read
Tired eyes after a long day of screens — a practical guide, when you are too tired to try hard
Eye strain is mostly about distance and blinking, not about blue light glasses.
Start here
Most of the usual advice misses the point. What follows is the version that survives contact with a real week.
Too tired to try hard is exactly the right amount of tired for this.
If you only do one thing from this page, do the first point below. It is first because it removes the most friction for the least effort.
What helps
Warm, dim light in the evening is more comfortable than bright overhead light, regardless of what it does to your sleep.
Use a bigger font instead of leaning closer. Most people scale the font down to fit more on screen, then pay for it.
If your eyes feel gritty every day, get them tested. An uncorrected small prescription causes more strain than any screen.
What to do when it does not work
You blink about a third as often when reading on a screen. Deliberately blinking a few times re-wets the surface.
Move the screen slightly further away and lower than eye level. Both reduce the work your eyes are doing.
Questions people ask
Do blue light glasses work?
Evidence is weak. They are not harmful, but the bigger wins are distance, blinking and a decent font size.
Are eye exercises useful?
The "look far away" break is. Most other eye exercises have very little evidence behind them.
Written for people who want the practical version. No accounts, no tracking, no newsletter wall.