Your Healthy Vision Timeline: Ages 20–40

Healthy sight is a must—regardless of our age. Early adulthood is a time when our attention is often focused on things other than eye health! As your lifelong vision care partner, we want to be sure you’re aware of things you can do to protect your sight during this important time of life.

This is the second post in a four-part series addressing the vision needs and concerns of the age groups shown below. Today’s post focuses on “Your 20–40 Year Old Eyes”.

Most 20–40 year olds don’t experience major eye problems associated with aging—but that doesn’t make eye care any less important! Doing simple things like the suggestions below and visiting your Vision Source eye doctor regularly, go a long way in keeping sight healthy.

5 Ways To Keep Your Eyes Healthy

1. Get Enough Exercise

Working out increases blood circulation and oxygen levels in our eyes and keeps them healthy.

2. Don’t Smoke

Smokers constantly expose their eyes to toxic chemicals—both inside and outside of their bodies. Smoking also increases the risk of cataracts and age-related macular degeneration.

3. Get Enough Sleep

During sleep our eyes enjoy continuous lubrication, allowing them to clear allergens, dust and other irritants. People who sleep enough are also less likely to rub their eyes.

4. Take Eye Safety Seriously

Wear protective eyewear whenever it’s appropriate. Whether you’re enjoying the sun at the beach or skiing, sunglasses are a must. And when playing sports, protective goggles are just smart. Your sight is just too important to risk.

5. Minimize Visual Electronic Stress

Visual electronic stress caused by computers, smartphones, and improper lighting is a huge problem today. Remember the 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes throughout the day, give your eyes a break by focusing on something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. Also, adjust your chair and desk so there isn’t excessive glare on your computer’s screen.

Some Additional Tips For Fighting Eye Fatigue...

Although things like career development, dating, schooling, socializing, and travel consume the bulk of your time at this age, don’t minimize the importance of eye health. Visit with a Vision Source doctor regularly to protect the precious asset of healthy sight.

Top image by Flickr user Tetsumo used under Creative Commons Attribution-Sharealike 4.0 license. Image cropped and modified from original.