Winter Eye Health Tips
Before we hop into the tips on how to maintain and improve your eye health throughout winter, it is essential to understand precisely how winter weather impacts your eyes and vision. If you don’t know the changes that winter bring and how they affect your eyes, you won’t know how to address any potential problem sources adequately.
One of the best ways to protect your eyes this year is to be aware of such hazards and to prepare accordingly. Here are a few problems you may encounter during wintertime.
- Winter means cooler temperatures for most of the country, and especially our area here in western North Carolina. As the air cools, it loses a lot of its ability to retain moisture, so with cold weather generally comes much lower natural humidity. This lowered water vapor in the air can easily lead to severely dry and itchy eyes.
- It doesn’t matter if you spend most of your time in or out of doors. A drop in humidity also occurs indoors. But indoors, the air is processed through heating systems that naturally drop humidity even more while recirculating dust and other particulates that can amplify itchy eyes.
- While some people may be stuck with dry eyes from the drop in humidity, for some, this shift in seasons can backfire and cause their tear production to kick into overdrive. This overproduction of tears leads to excessive and constant watery eyes.
- Daytime on any typical winter day can be deceptively bright. Light reflects off far more surfaces without vegetation, giving a diffuse but present light everywhere. This can cause light sensitivity issues in many individuals.
- The greatest danger, which needs to be remembered, is the temporary and permanent damage that can be caused by overexposure to UV light to our eyes. This risk is increased, especially on bright days when there is also a lot of snow or ice. The snow easily reflects the light into our eyes, leading to both thermal and photochemical damage that is essentially “sunburn” on our eyes.
Now that you know some of the most significant winter hazards for your eyes, let us look at some simple and effective ways to keep your eyes healthy throughout the cold winter months.
1) Humidify Your Indoor Air
Lack of humidity in the air and dry eyes are the two most common issues for eye health. One way to help combat developing dry eye during the winter months is to humidify the air. Obviously, you can’t do this outdoors, but investing in a simple humidifier for your home or office can give you a significant amount of time with good air.
One additional tip when indoors to avoid dry air and eyes, make sure you keep some distance from heaters. Radiators and the air pumped out by central air units can create pockets of incredibly dry air. So as tempting as it may be to cozy up where it is warm, try not to for your eyes' sake.
2) Moisturize Your Eyes
If you do notice you are starting to develop dry eye, take action to balance it out before your eyes start to kick into overproducing tears, or things get itchy, and you begin to rub your eyes frequently. Some helpful tricks include:
- Close your eyes for a few long moments and make sure that you are blinking enough. Doing both will prompt your eyes to produce lubrication and get it to your eyes.
- One thing that most eye specialists will recommend is putting a cool, wet cloth over your eyes in order to soothe eye irritation, allow them to rest, and remove any sort of bacteria or debris which may have entered them.
- If you can’t seem to shake your dry eyes, speak to an eye doctor. They can help determine if it is a more serious problem or if a simple eye drop or artificial tears may help get you through the winter.
3) Use Sunglasses Up to the Task
With sunlight reflecting off all those surfaces, it is an excellent time to check that your sunglasses are sufficient for being outdoors and driving. Invest in a pair of good polarized glasses that blocks 100% of both UVB and UVA radiation. Even when it seems overcast and gray, make sure to have them on when driving.
4) Keep Your Eyes Protected
The most obvious way you can keep your eyes healthy this season is by protecting them with sunglasses, goggles, and other eyewear. Sand, wind, and dust can all painfully irritate your eyes or scratch the cornea, sometimes causing permanent damage, and winter winds can whip up a significant amount of dust.
Snow, while less abrasive, reflects UV rays from the sun into your eyes. If you are spending a lot of time in the snow without sunglasses, it can cause “snow blindness,” a temporary loss of vision due to overexposure to the UV rays reflected off the ice and snow. Protective goggles while playing in the snow or doing winter sports has the added benefit of preventing snow or ice chips from getting into your eyes and causing painful damage to your corneas.
5) Limit Screen Time
A big temptation during the colder months is to spend more and more time in front of a screen at home. Why be out in the cold when we can instead hang out at home and watch Netflix (or one of the thousand other online streaming platforms)?
However, overexposure to screens is another main cause of eye dryness which can lead to eye itchiness and irritation.
To prevent this, try to follow the 20-20-20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at something other than the screen that is at least 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. Doing this gives your eyes the opportunity to rest and reset, preventing irritation and discomfort from long-term screen exposure.
6) Eat a Healthy Diet
Maintaining a healthy diet and lifestyle keeps your entire body healthy, including your eyes. You don’t need to follow any specialty or fad diet. Focus on eye-healthy foods, especially leafy greens, citrus fruits, nuts, and whole grains. You don’t need to eat everything recommended. Work a few into regular meals that sound good to you. A small change still helps and will be easier to stick with long term.
For winter, we recommend adding a little extra cold-water fish into your diet as their increased levels of omega-3 fatty acids can help your eyes retain moisture. And as always, make sure you are keeping yourself adequately hydrated! Not only your eyes but the rest of your body will thank you. And it can help keep you from developing the winter blues.
7) Wash Your Hands
As our eyes dry out and get itchy, the first instinct is often to rub. While we recommend not doing that and instead focusing on keeping your eyes moisturized (see point 2 above), rubbing is almost inevitable for most. Help keep your eyes healthy by washing your hands regularly. It will lower your risk of introducing bacteria or debris that might cause infection.
8) Treat Your Eyes When Necessary
Additionally, we need to be aware of when it’s time to seek outside help. If none of these tips are helping, and if your eye issues are continuing or worsening, then it is probably time to set up an appointment.
Thankfully, that’s where we come in!
Asheville Vision and Wellness
The team here at Asheville Vision and Wellness is happy to help you figure out a more detailed solution for the healing and protection of your eyes. We all have different histories and lifestyles, making everyone's eye care needs unique. You should have an eye doctor that takes you into consideration and can give common-sense recommendations.
For help with your eye issues or for further questions regarding winter eye protection, do not hesitate to contact Asheville Vision and Wellness. We have over thirty years of experience helping patients protect their eyes and improve eye health with a wide variety of eye care, including comprehensive eye examinations, eyeglasses, sunglasses, contact lenses, and medical eye evaluations.
Our staff is always happy to assist you with any of your eye care needs. Give us a call or book an appointment online today.