Want to make the most of your scholarship? You’ll have to be smart about not just what you study but how you study it. That involves building good habits, which is why we’ve previously recommended setting study goals and striving hard to reach them by staying curious, asking questions, and always learning.
Studying smart also involves ensuring you don’t neglect your health and well-being as you learn. All work and no play can stress you out, for example, and you might experience neck or back pain if you prefer studying on your bed instead of an actual desk. As a student and a digital native, however, you’ll also want to be wary of eye dryness.
Currently, more than 16 million Americans experience dry eyes. Despite three in every four of them being extremely bothered by the redness, irritation, and fluctuating vision it causes, 70% of dry eye sufferers don’t know how to treat the condition.
If you’ve experienced similar symptoms, you know that they can distract you from your studies by causing pain and discomfort. Unfortunately, more severe cases can see your inner eyelids scratching your eyes—and potentially causing infections. Read on to learn more about how you can fix dryness and study smarter:
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What causes dry eyes while studying?
The biggest reason is excess screen time—something that’s not always avoidable for today’s students. Plenty of the research and assignments you’ll have to do will require you to use the internet, and that means looking at digital screens. Unfortunately, doing so means you’re laser-focused on processing the information you see, and that makes you blink less. The result? Your eyes get lubricated less often and stay open for longer, causing your natural tears to dry out.
Your particular case of dry eyes can be exacerbated by a number of factors. Do you wear contact lenses for vision correction or cosmetic purposes? Since they sit directly on the eyes, they can block oxygen from passing through, limiting tear production. More concerningly, you may be sleep-deprived. You may already know that regularly pulling all-nighters can slow your brain and cause fatigue. What you may not know is that doing so can limit tear production even further by withholding the rest your eyes need—resulting in more dryness.
How can you fix dry eyes?
Get more sleep
Simply planning your study sessions can help you make enough room in your schedule to get at least seven hours of shuteye a night. Consider establishing a study cycle. Focus on your work for an hour at a time, but limit yourself to four or five study sessions a day. You can do other things in between these sessions, like playing sports or hanging out with friends. Just make sure you’ve done everything you need to do by a certain time, like 10 pm. That way, you can both give your eyes a break from looking at screens and ensure they get enough beauty sleep—putting them in the best position possible to produce more tears and combat dryness.
Wear moisturizing contacts
If you use contact lenses, you’ll want to be more discerning about the type of lenses you’re using. Contacts come in different materials, with varying amounts of water content, and use a diverse range of technologies—meaning some are better for dry eyes than others. ContactsDirect stocks a whole host of industry leaders on its website. The Acuvue Oasys® 1-Day with HydraLuxe™ Technology, for example, will be better for warding off dryness than PRECISION1® because the former uses an internal wetting agent to ensure consistent moisture and comfort even if you wear them all day. Simply switching to contacts with similar features can prevent dry eyes while studying.
Try computer glasses
Of course, longer study sessions and even all-nighters may be inevitable at times—especially toward the end of a semester or term, when you’ll be rushing to complete a number of requirements or study for multiple exams in a short amount of time. In these cases, try optimizing your device use as you study to prevent eye dryness from worsening. For this, it’s important to note that digital screens emit artificial blue light. Its glare is what prevents you from blinking, so it’s worth wearing blue light-blocking computer glasses during study sessions. The lenses on Gunnar’s Amber Max models, for example, can block up to 99% of blue light to improve visual comfort while preventing dryness and strain.
Stay with us on the World Scholars Hub for more study tips and information on international universities and scholarships.
