Hyderabad Woman loses her eyesight due to 'smartphone vision syndrome.'

Hyderabad woman loses her eyesight due to 'smartphone vision syndrome.’  

After investigation by the doctor about her daily life activities, came to know that she left her beautician job because to take care of her abled son.

A 30-year-old woman from Hyderabad lost her eyesight after spending 8-10 hours on a smartphone screen every day.

She is suffering from eyesight issues for a year and a half with symptoms like seeing floaters, flashes of lights, dark zigzag lines, and episodes of blurred vision, which happened several times during the day.  It used to last only for some seconds to minutes and it used to happen repeatedly after every 10-15 minutes. Sometimes, during the night she used to go totally blind in middle of the night while she used to go for washroom.

Initially, she consulted an ophthalmologist who after a detailed eye check-up ruled out any eye disease and then she was referred to Dr Sudhir Kumar to rule out any neurological cause for her vision-related symptoms.

The doctor said, “Detailed clinical neurological examination was normal and moreover, her symptoms did not point to any specific brain nerve-related disease".

Further investigation by the doctor about her daily life activities revealed that she had quit her job as a beautician one and a half years ago to look after her especially abled son. At the same time, she had started spending too much time on her smartphone. She would look at the smartphone screen for 8-10 hours during the day and 2 hours at night in darkness.

Dr has told that her vision symptoms were related to looking at a smartphone screen for long hours. “As I had seen similar cases in the past too. I did not order any investigations, nor did I start her on any medicines. I counselled her and advised her to restrict the usage of smartphones. She agreed to reduce the time spent watching the screen of her smartphone. She returned for review after a month and to our pleasant surprise, all her vision-related problems had subsided. She reported that her vision was normal. This confirmed our suspicion of her being a case of ‘smartphone vision syndrome’,” said the doctor.

Why do vision-related problems occur?

· Muscles involved in moving the eyeballs and for eyes to focus may get fatigued or weakened with excessive use. This can adversely affect the clarity of vision and may cause double vision at times.

· Digital screens generate heat. so that, people start to blink their eyes less frequently while watching a digital screen. Both these can increase the chances of dry eyes, leading to a blurring of vision (refractive index) and other eye-related symptoms like glaucoma, cataract, diabetic retinopathy etc.

⠂Many people who are addicted to smartphones don’t get proper sleep, and sleep deprivation is known to increase eye strain and visual problems.

⠂''Text Neck''. Looking down at your phone for a longer hour in a day may cause serious pressure on your eyes and neck.

⠂Short-duration blindness in one eye may occur after using a smartphone at night during darkness. The prevailing hypothesis is that while in the lateral recumbent position (with head resting on one palm), one eye is blocked (such as with a pillow, or bed sheets) and subsequently becomes dark-adapted while the other eye is exposed to the bright screen of the device becomes light-adapted.

⠂ After the screen of the device is deactivated and the room is once again lit with low ambient light, the light-adapted eye is perceived to have poor or no vision. The vision returns to the patient’s baseline after several minutes.

⠂Although there is not yet clear evidence that smartphones have a long-term negative effect on the brain, health experts advised that excessive use of mobile can be harmful- especially to the children's whose brains are not fully developed.

How to decrease screen time?

· Completely avoiding digital screens is impossible because now a days digital screen is also used for educational purposes. so, people should utilize for their use only. They should not use for fun and entertainment purposes. it should be avoided. children should be aware of mobile screens.

· Watching screen time beyond work or studies should be reduced.

· One should maintain an adequate distance from the screen (avoid being too close to the screen), at least three feet away from your body

· Avoid watching the smartphone screen in darkness.

· Follow the 20-20-20 rule: take a break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds.

· In any vision-related symptoms noted, one should consult a doctor for proper diagnosis and treatment.