Reading tips to ease eyestrain

The eyes need enough rest and relaxation during long time of reading. It is quite important to keep some useful tips in mind while reading materials. Some readers usually plunge into a book or newspaper and never take any break during several consecutive hours. In fact, it is necessary to take frequent stop or pause and get a rest. For example, a reader can stop at the end of each page, take a deep breath and raise the eyes. It is also helpful to look across the room and change focus from near to far.

Correct reading habit eases eye strain

With proper practice or habit, reading tasks require little effort or no effort at all. But for many people, materials reading may strain the eyes easily. Readers should take useful tips to relax the eyes. Maintaining correct reading habits, reading can be easier and the speed will increase. The importance of cultivating good reading habits still lies in that eye strain and stress are the leading cause of visual refractive errors, e.g. myopia and hyperopia.

Mental relaxation is equally important

Both mental and physical rests are needed. Reading tasks require continuous understanding, so that mental relaxation is also important. Appropriate mental rest usually helps improve the efficiency of understanding once return to work. To a large degree, these two facets are cooperative. During relaxation, a reader can try to visualize the last word he or she has read, and then the last letter of the word.

Staring at printed letters should be avoided

The eyes will get fatigue easily if they concentrate on each letter for a certain time. In fact, this condition is typically called eye staring. It should be strictly avoided during reading, since eye strain and stress will be caused quite soon. The eyes should simply move along the line of type. Staring at printed letters usually makes the eyes become strained frequently. The white space under the line of type is helpful for relaxation if readers take proper awareness of it.

The benefit of white space under each line

More specifically, white space under each line can be used to enhance contrast between lines of letters. The type itself will then be blacker and easier to read. Readers can close their eyes and imagine pure whiteness at the end of a paragraph. After reopening the eyes, the white spaces between lines of type will become whiter than they were before. In contrast, lines of letters can be more distinct.

Cross eye particularly requires coordination

People with cross eyes need reading tips particularly. Lazy eyes must be forced to work in unison, because there is a muscular imbalance. Such a reader can cover his or her strong eye with an eye patch and force the weaker eye to read more pages than the good eye. In this way, the weak eye can be strengthened gradually.