Medical experts warn against excessive smartphone use

Medical experts have urged smartphone users to limit excessive usage as this may lead to damage to eyes in the long term because of the many hours spent staring at screens. 

As much as we depend on our mobile devices for viewing and responding to emails, checking the weather, reading headline news, and posting status updates on Facebook, our smartphones may be causing us some vision problems.

Health expert, Dr Sharaif Astori said long-term blue-light exposure may lead to juvenile macular degeneration and soon, a point may come when the eye cannot see real colours properly.

He said, short-term and immediate effects include the formation of a red eye, lack of concentration and sleep, body ache, change in psychological attitude, etc.

According to some studies, experts suggested less than 2 hours screening time for children under the age of eight.

If a visual skill is lacking or not functioning properly, a child will have to work harder. This can lead to headaches, fatigue and other eyestrain problems.

Parents and teachers need to be alert for symptoms that may indicate a child has a vision problem.

Eye specialist, Dr Sadia Ahmed said the number of cases is increasing and more youngsters are coming to us with this problem. "Exposure to blue lights leads to stress, cataract, unstable concentration, headache and retinal degeneration."

Youngsters are advised to spend less time on video gaming. "They should wear protective glasses, reduce the brightness of the electronic devices and avoid small screen phones. One should keep the fonts big to avoid strain on the eyes," Dr Sadia added.

She suggested to blink eyes again and again, minimize glare, take breaks while using smartphones, adjust brightness, tweak text size and contrast and keeping a clean screen.