As we all know what an addiction to smart gadgets can do. Still, many of us intend to ignore or don’t follow precautions and let their addiction take a toll on their health. A woman from Hyderabad had a similar addiction to using her smartphone at night. And her habit of night scrolling over social media made her lose her eyesight.
One of the Neurologist from Hyderabad, took to Twitter and reveale how a 30-year-old woman damage her vision due to her routine behaviour of looking at her smartphone at night in a dark room.
In his Twitter thread, the Neurologist reveale that one of his patients name was Manju came to him with the symptoms of seeing floaters, intense flashes of light, dark zigzag patterns, and occasionally a lack of vision or concentration on objects.
When she went through the medical examination, it was diagnose that she is suffering from smartphone vision syndrome (SVS), which can lead to eye-relate problems including blindness.
And according to the Neurologist, the reason behind her vision loss was her habit of spending a lot of time on her phone in the dark.
A routine habit she was following for around one and a half years.
As per Neurologist :
“I reviewed the history. Symptoms had started after she quit her job of a beautician in order to take care of her specially abled child. She picked up a new habit of browsing through her smartphone for several hours daily, including >2 hours at nights with lights switched off,”.
Then after noting her routine, Neurologist advise her medication and ask her to reduce her screen time.
Following the medication and avoiding screen, she was able to recover her vision.
Neurologist Said :
“At 1-month review, Manju was absolutely fine. Her vision impairment of 18 months had gone. Now, she had normal eyesight, did not see any floaters or flashes of light. Moreover, her momentary loss of vision at nights also stopped. Our suspicion was proved right,”.
And Manju was treat at the right time, it is alarming that many people are suffering from smartphone vision syndrome (SVS) or “computer vision syndrome” (CVS) or “digital vision syndrome,”.
What further makes things serious is that this syndrome can even lead to a loss of partial or complete vision.
Although with medication and changes in lifestyle one can be cure still, still using the smartphone with responsibility is the need.
As per the mobile analytics firm, the average smartphone consumption duration in India has increase to 4.7 hours a day in 2021 from 4.5 hours in 2020 and 3.7 hours in 2019.
Forget about the increase screen time or the impact of blue light from digital devices, the statistics of people using smartphones in low light in dark rooms is also increasing.
These things are not only affecting mental but are increasing chances of vision damage, which can only lead to regrets.
And it is not possible to ignore smartphones, what is highly advisable is to control screen time and adopt a healthy lifestyle.
Even for the techy, the technology itself will help you reduce your screen time.
For example :
- Turning on Zen mode will help you stay away from your smartphone.
- Turning on the blue light filter will help you reduce strain on your eyes.
- Set a timer and take a break from the screen every 20 to 30 minutes.
- Start exercising and bring that smartwatch to use.
Neurologist advises people to “Avoid looking at screens of digital devices for long, as it can cause severe and disabling vision-related problems. Take 20-second break, every 20 min, to look at something 20 feet away, while using a digital screen (20-20-20 rule).”
