Guide · body · 3 min read
Tired eyes after a long day of screens — a practical guide, when you want something simple
Eye strain is mostly about distance and blinking, not about blue light glasses.
Start here
A short explanation first, because knowing why makes the doing easier.
Simple is the point. There is no advanced version to graduate to.
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
Move the screen slightly further away and lower than eye level. Both reduce the work your eyes are doing.
Use a bigger font instead of leaning closer. Most people scale the font down to fit more on screen, then pay for it.
Warm, dim light in the evening is more comfortable than bright overhead light, regardless of what it does to your sleep.
What to do when it does not work
If your eyes feel gritty every day, get them tested. An uncorrected small prescription causes more strain than any screen.
You blink about a third as often when reading on a screen. Deliberately blinking a few times re-wets the surface.
Questions people ask
Are eye exercises useful?
The "look far away" break is. Most other eye exercises have very little evidence behind them.
Do blue light glasses work?
Evidence is weak. They are not harmful, but the bigger wins are distance, blinking and a decent font size.
Written for people who want the practical version. No accounts, no tracking, no newsletter wall.
If this is not the angle you need, try The five minutes after a difficult meeting — where to start, when you want to be left alone, Preparing for a conversation you are dreading, without the usual nonsense, when you have been on screens all day or How to get through the first hour without your phone — what nobody tells you, if you are doing this in the middle of the day.