Asthenopia Or Computer Vision Syndrome Explained

Asthenopia is an ophthalmic condition that occurs due to tedious or repetitive visual tasks such as reading for long lengths of time, or working on intricate tasks such as fine embroidery or stitching, uninterrupted computer use, etc.

The Computer Vision Syndrome is a term specific to the condition that causes difficulty in focusing the eyes due to uninterrupted computer use. The symptoms of these conditions are:

• Dry or irritated eyes are the primary symptom of Computer Vision syndrome or CVS as it is also known.
• Headaches are also experienced due to the strain placed on the eyes in CVS
• Blurred vision could also result from CVS and in Asthenopia there is occasionally even double vision that may sometimes be experienced
• CVS may also cause neck pain and fatigue
• There is also difficulty refocusing the eyes. For instance, if you have focused on a computer screen and then shift your focus to something else, you may have some difficulty doing that.
• Asthenopia is also characterized by pain in and around the eyes as well as red eyes.

It is thought that the older CRT monitors had a low refresh rate and due to the flickering image, it could cause eyestrain. This is less of a problem with the newer LCD monitors that have a lesser propensity to flicker and don’t go out of focus as earlier CRTs used to.

CVS and the dry eye problem associated with it caused by intense focus of the eyes on the computer monitor reduces the rate of blinking, whereas, ordinarily the  human eye blinks 16 to 20 times a minute, this gets reduced to as little as 6 to 8 blinks a minute when working on the computer.

This is what induces the symptoms of CVS and Asthenopia which includes fatigue of the eyes after long hours of work at the computer.

The difficulty in refocusing that these conditions cause can be the cause of early onset presbyopia, which is the condition where the eye exhibits a progressively diminished ability to focus on near objects with age.

Relief from these eyestrains can be obtained by consciously blinking the eyes more often and periodically looking skyward or a long distance away to rest the ciliary muscles and rest them momentarily.

It is also advised that the person rest their eyes by closing them for half a minute or so every half hour or less. Wearing low powered eyeglasses obtained over the counter is also sometimes advisable to alleviate this condition.