How to Take Care of Your Eyesight While Working from Home

But, aside from being bad for your overall wellbeing, the extended time working on a screen can also be really detrimental to your eye health.

New research has identified the fonts that could be putting the eye health of on-screen workers at risk - and therefore the websites we should be happy to browse, and those we should avoid.

The best and worst websites for your eye health

Americans spend an average of 45 days per year on their phone. It’s clear developers need to consider eye health when developing a new site and for users to ensure they take the appropriate measures to protect themselves when spending significant amounts of time online.

It’s no secret that many health experts believe there is a clear link between excessive screen time and myopia (short-sightedness), however websites such as Wikipedia and The Guardian could be making better choices to protect your vision.

Fortunately for those that need a bit of respite during the working day, the research from contact lens specialist, Feel Good Contacts, showed that Instagram, Twitter, Google and Facebook are all up there with the best fonts for your eyes.

Here are the full website rankings, from best to worst for your eyes:

3 tips to protect your eye health while working from home

While avoiding the worst of these websites might not be possible, there are other steps home workers can be taking to protect their eyesight.

1. Take regular breaks

Your eye health is hit worst when you spend elongated periods of time staring at a screen. When working from home, it can be easy to ‘forget’ to take screen breaks - in the office, we’ll stop to talk to colleagues or customers, or nip to grab a coffee - so it’s important to set frequent breaks in your daily routine.

One simple way to do this is to think of the 20-20-20 rule; for every 20 minutes you work on a screen, you should take a 20 second break where you look at something at least 20 feet away.

2. Ensure your device is of a good quality

Especially if you’re working from home on a different monitor to the one you’d normally use in the office, it’s important to make sure that it’s of a good quality and that you’ve set up the brightness, contrast and other levels to suit your own eye needs.

Anti-glare screens are one tool many businesses use to protect people’s eyes and, if you don’t have one at home, it might be worthwhile investing. Also, be sure that there’s sufficient light in the room you work in.

3. Set up your work from home desk appropriately

There have been plenty of pictures on social media of people’s home working spaces, but it’s not just about how ‘pretty’ you can make the space; be sure to create a good working environment by having your chair and monitor setup so your screen is within your eye line and at least 25 inches away from your eyes.