20-20-20 Rule

Every 20 Minutes, Look 20 Feet Away, For 20 Seconds

As a college student, spending hours at a time with your head in a book, or using a computer is a normal activity. Unfortunately doing this for hours on end, multiple times a week is extremely harmful to your eyes. Why is this a problem? The answer lies with the idea that when you are that focused on your work, your eyes are also focused on very close proximity without a break. After this amount of time your eyes can become fixed and not be readily adjustable to focusing on farther distances away.

The 20-20-20 rule helps to serve as a quick and easy way to take a break from what you are doing and rest your eyes. As it only takes 20 seconds, three times an hour, it requires very little time and effort to be completed. Everyone should be able to give 1 minute for every hour to protect his or her eyes.

Ophthalmologists recommend completing this when you are on the computer as this also helps to alleviate symptoms of Computer Vision Syndrome. When working on the computer or studying, an easy tip is to set a silent timer on your phone or computer for 20 minutes at a time. By doing this, even when we become engulfed by work we can have a simple reminder to take a short break to rest your eyes.

Finally, dry eye is another result of not resting your eyes. Dry eye can cause incredible pain and obstacle to normal everyday activities. Although it may seem minor it is better to avoid it whenever possible. To see more about this, as well as many other problems please visit the “Eye Problems” page of this website.