Looking after your eyes is essential for so many reasons. Not only does it help maintain our vision, but it also helps support the fulfillment of basic daily activities such as seeing clearly to read, write, and drive. Taking care of your eyes can seem daunting; however, with some simple steps, you can give them the care they need and deserve.

Your eye health is vital.

Our eyes are one of the most used parts of our bodies every day. They serve as our window to see everything around us. They are critical for many things, like being aware of what's happening around us, reading and writing, and noticing many details in our environment. While it's still possible to live without our eyesight, many opportunities can be lost without them. So we should do our best to care for our eyes just as much as we do for other parts of our bodies. Many things we can do for proper eye health are not very difficult and can easily be turned into habits.

1. Avoid scratching your eyes

Our eyes can get tired and itchy sometimes, and we can get the urge to rub them with our hands. We should avoid doing this or drop the habit if we are into it. To remove the itch, rinse your eyes with clean water or use eye drops to refresh your eyes. If dirt is stuck in your eyes, you can ask someone to blow into your eyes to remove it.

2. Make sure your hands are clean before touching your eyes

If you must touch your eyes to check something, ensure your hands are clean to remove dirt. Touching your eyes with dirty hands puts you at risk of putting dirt or other foreign objects that may irritate or infect your eyes with something.

3. Wear protective eye gear while doing something that can put objects into your eyes

When doing a task that puts your eyes at risk of getting dirt or other small things into it, such as doing construction work that can fling wood splinters or cleaning dirty objects and furniture around the house, it's good practice to wear goggles, safety glasses, or any protective eye gear to protect your eyes from things that can accidentally go into them. Don't risk eye injury that could have been prevented with protective eyewear.

4. Minimize time looking at digital screens

Our modern lifestyles involve heavy technology usage, which means our eyes are most likely glued to staring at a computer screen or any gadget with a screen. We can spend many hours using these devices, which can strain our eyes if we don't take a break from using them. If prolonged usage can't be done, such as if our work demands working in front of a computer, you can take a break once in a while by looking away from the screen and staring at a distant object, such as the sky, and blinking your eyes to refresh them, or you can close your eyes for a bit to relax them. You may also want to take this time to stand up and move for a bit to get your muscles moving. Aside from taking a break, another preventive measure for eye care is to regulate one's usage of gadgets.

5. Adjust the brightness of your screens and stare at a proper distance

Most gadgets we use nowadays have brightness settings that you can tweak to adjust how bright or dim your screen will be. If you regularly use a gadget, such as your cell phone or a computer, adjusting the brightness to around 50% or 60% of the maximum setting can help reduce eye strain and prevent degradation of your eyesight. Some devices even have a dark mode that reduces energy consumption for your device due to reduced brightness and can also lessen eye strain, especially if you use a device during the evenings or when it is dark.

Another good tip for eye care is ensuring you are at a proper distance when looking at the screen for your devices. Position the devices so their screens are not too close to you, such as when using a computer, laptop, or watching TV. Likewise, when using portable gadgets like cell phones, try not to stay too long while looking down at the screen.

6. Maintain a healthy lifestyle

Caring for your eyes also means taking care of your body. You want to keep yourself healthy to reduce the risk of acquiring diseases that can lead to complications, including eye problems, such as diabetes and high blood pressure. Healthy habits include eating healthy foods that contain vitamins and other substances that aid in maintaining healthy vision, regular exercise, and not smoking cigarettes.

7. Get the proper amount of sleep

One way to keep our eyes healthy is to get the appropriate hours of sleep for our age daily. This can be challenging if it is not our habit to sleep the required hours each day and let busyness get in the way of proper rest. Sleeping recharges our eyes so we can keep them working correctly every day and not feel tired from lack of energy due to insufficient hours of sleep.

8. Get your eyes checked regularly

Most of the time, we may think that nothing is wrong with our eyes because it doesn't ache or show something wrong as often as other parts of our bodies. However, checking with an eye doctor regularly is an excellent habit to see if you have any eye or vision problems. You may also want to check your eye grade if your vision becomes blurry. This can mean you may need to start wearing contact lenses or eyeglasses to help you see correctly. Also, if you are already wearing eyeglasses or contact lenses, you have to check with your eye doctor regularly to ensure you are still in the same eye grade, or adjustments may need to be made if it gets higher.

9. Clean your surroundings

Dirt is one of the most common things that can enter your eyes, so an excellent way to prevent this is by cleaning the items in your surroundings, such as your workspace, room, and house. The less dirt there is, the fewer the chances your eye may get irritated if some flying dirt goes into your eyes. Also, if you happen to venture into a dusty area, such as where construction work is ongoing or where there's a lot of smoke, like a road with heavy traffic, look away and cover your eyes when a deluge of dirt is about to go your way or look for an alternate route or pass by quickly to avoid the area.

Keep your vision healthy.

Our eyes are one of the most essential parts of our bodies, so we should take good care of them. Losing your vision can be one of the most significant handicaps one can face, so taking preventive measures before this can happen is vital. Fortunately, there are various things we can do for eye protection and to ensure it functions properly. It will be an excellent idea to turn these practices for eye care into habits as early as possible, so we can see for as long as we can and appreciate everything around us.