7 Habits That Can Damage Your Eyes and Tips to Protect Them

Habits That Can Damage the Eyes

The ability to perform the sense of sight will decrease with age. This condition can be exacerbated if you adopt bad habits that damage your eyes. Some habits that can damage the eyes include:

1. Using contact lenses is not recommended

Using contact lenses carelessly is often the cause of eye problems, such as infection or irritation. Contact lens users need to be extra in maintaining eye health, namely by avoiding the following habits:

• Falling asleep without removing contact lenses.
• Wearing contact lenses while showering.
• Clean contact lenses with plain water. Contact lenses must be cleaned with a special liquid.
• Using a place to store contact lenses for more than 3 months.
• Storing contact lenses carelessly.
• Using and removing contact lenses with dirty hands.

2. Staring at the device for too long

Some jobs require a person to stare at a computer or gadget screen for a long time. Unfortunately, this habit can cause the eye muscles to work harder, triggering tired eyes , dizziness, and headaches.

In addition, blue light from smartphone screens also has the potential to cause macular degeneration in the retina which, if left unchecked, can lead to blindness. To avoid this, try to rest your eyes by looking away for a few moments and using a screen protector that can block blue light.

3. Smoking habits

Habits that can damage the next eye is smoking. Smoking can interfere with blood circulation which contains nutrients and oxygen, so active smokers have a higher risk of developing macular degeneration and cataracts .

4. Ignoring Symptoms of Irritation

Often ignoring the symptoms of irritation is also a habit that can damage the eyes. Although irritation is often caused by conditions that are not serious, you need to be vigilant if symptoms of infection appear such as sore eyes, thick white or greenish discharge from the eyes, to a lumpy sensation in the eyes.

5. Using Make Up while Sleeping

Often times tiring activities all day make a woman forget or lazy to clean her face from make up before going to bed. This causes make-up debris in the eye area to risk falling into the eye and causing irritation to the eyelid glands. Therefore, avoid this habit by cleaning make-up using make-up remover and washing your face.

6. Reading with minimal lighting

Another habit that can damage your eyes is reading in the dark. This causes the lens of the eye to work harder to thicken and thin. The pupils of the eyes are also forced to dilate so that the eyes get tired quickly.

Not only that, activities that can damage the eyes are when reading while lying down. This position causes the ideal reading distance of the eye to the book to become difficult to adjust, resulting in eye fatigue and soreness.

7. Not Doing Routine Eye Examinations

Routine eye examinations are important to do every year to detect eye disorders early. That way, you can avoid eye diseases, such as glaucoma , macular degeneration, or diabetic retinopathy . Routine eye examinations are recommended for all people, especially people over 40 years old.

Tips for Maintaining Eye Health

If the above habits continue for a long time, then the ability to see will decrease. Avoid this by applying some of the following tips to maintain eye health:

• Eat nutritious foods that contain vitamins A , C, E, omega-3 and carotenoids, such as carrots, salmon, green vegetables and nuts.
• Stop smoking and avoid secondhand smoke.
• Wear sunglasses when outdoors to protect your eyes from UV exposure. You can also use glasses equipped with anti-radiation lenses. Exposure to UV light can cause cataracts, so wearing sunglasses is highly recommended.
• Adjust room lighting accordingly, try not too dark or too bright.
• Limit screen usage time.
• Do eye exercises.
• Regular exercise and enough sleep.