Does it sometimes feel like your neck, back and eyes have just spent an hour heavy lifting at the gym, when all you’ve done is sit at a computer or been out for a drive? These seemingly unrelated aches and pains may indeed be related.
Activities that may cause eye strain and discomfort
Eye strain can occur for a number of reasons, but it’s usually a result of your eyes being overworked. Eye strain is especially common in people who spend an extended period of time on near-work activities such as reading, writing, looking at a computer, scrolling through phone messages or playing video games.
Eye strain from these activities can directly contribute to neck and back pain. That’s because people with tired eyes try to reduce their eye strain by tilting their head or neck, which results in poor posture. Leaning into a digital screen or craning your neck over a book may help you see better, but it’s a major cause of back, and neck soreness.
Vision & Eye Conditions
There are a number of vision and eye issues which may contribute to eye discomfort, neck and back pain. It’s always a good idea to go to your optician and get a thorough check if you have any concerns like this.
Neck & Back Tension
Muscle tension in your neck and back can result in eye pain or the buildup of pain around the eyes.
Unconscious tensing of the muscles in the neck, upper back and shoulders can lead to muscle tension in the back of the skull. This, in turn, can cause headaches near or adjacent to the eye area.
Our tips to combat that
pesky pain at work
1. Avoid having to make those micro head adjustments when working at your PC (thinking nodding dog).
We recommend you ask your opticians about glasses with your prescription and lens tailored specifically to your visual needs as depending on your job, as you might need just up close, or a combination of up close and far etc and a coating to protect against blue light or glare. This can reduce how often you need to move or tilt your head which in tern helps with neck aches and pain.
2. Get up and move regularly
Too often we get caught up in work and suddenly realise we haven’t moved for ages. I recommend you move every 30 minutes.
You may find shoulder shrugs useful: Take a deep breath in and shrug your shoulders up to your ears. Breathe out and gently let your shoulders drop down and relax. Shoulder rolls backwards are also very useful to open the chest and reduce neck and shoulder tension
3. Water
Drinking water regularly throughout the day is important for our overall health and muscle health but also for our eyes. If we aren’t drinking enough our eyes can feel dry, itchy and uncomfortable.
Eyedrops are also another option to help the fluid in your eyes be optimum for your eye health.
4. Take a break
A break for your eyes and a break for your body and all from the comfort of your desk.
Because your eyes are working so hard focusing on the screen and not blinking very often, they can become tired and uncomfortable. So remember the 20/20/20 rule. This quick and easy technique will give your eyes that well deserved break they need. Every 20 minutes, look straight ahead into the distance for 20 seconds.
For headaches, just get your neck moving slowly.
First of all bring your ear to your shoulder and do that three or four times and then bring your nose to your shoulder and repeat three or four times. Always stop before it becomes painful. Then bring your chin towards your chest, then take your hands and put them on your head. Not so you are pulling down on the head, just so you’ve got a little bit of weight on the head and you’re just going to hold that for about a minute. Breathing while you’re there, you’re easing the tension into your neck and also helping reduce any tension into the head.
5. Desk setup
If you are struggling with neck ache, headaches and eye strain at your PC it could be your workstation set up that is to blame. This is particularly true if you have been working from home recently. You still need your desk setup to be ergonomically designed work setup which will help with your alignment for your body and your eyes.
6. Breathing
If you are concentrating or stressed you may find you change your breathing pattern to become shallow and mainly from the chest.
If you notice this just pause and take a minute and focus on breathing deeply into the tummy and chest. Do this for 3 or 4 breaths and you may find you feel less stressed but also have less eyestrain or neck pain at your desk.
Sources: https://www.
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