Dry eye from heavy screen use

A normal blink rate is about 15–20 blinks a minute. In front of a screen, it drops to 5–7 blinks a minute — and worse, most of those blinks are incomplete. The lower lid doesn't fully meet the upper lid, so the oil glands don't get squeezed properly and the tear film doesn't rebuild.

Do that for eight hours a day, five days a week, for years, and the oil layer starts to fail. Tears evaporate seconds after each blink. The surface of the eye is exposed for too long, and it starts to inflame.

The result: vision fluctuation, tired eyes, and a sensation of dryness that no drop quite fixes.

• • Tear film breakup time and stability.
• • Meibography — the health of the oil glands.
• • Blink completeness at rest and during screen tasks.
• • Surface staining, particularly at the exposed 3 and 9 o'clock positions.
• • Accommodative posture and any small uncorrected prescription that's making you strain.

• • 20-20-20 — every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Set a timer.
• • Consciously do full, closed blinks — 5 or 6 in a row, a few times an hour.
• • Screen at or slightly below eye level. Looking down slightly closes the lids more.
• • Humidifier in dry rooms, especially with air conditioning or wood stoves.
• • Glasses instead of contacts on your heaviest screen days.
• • Preservative-free lubricating drops, not the cheapest bottle.

If your oil glands are already blocked or dropped out from years of incomplete blinking, habit changes on their own will not be enough. IRPL and meibomian gland expression are usually the fastest way back — followed by a maintenance routine of good drops, warm compresses and better blink habits to hold the gains.