National Stress Awareness Day

Stress is one of the most common causes of ill health in our modern society that have a direct severe psychological effect on men, women, and children. Stress-related health issues can go from fatigue to anxiety, and depression, as well as more severe stress-related problems that can affect work and school performance and sometimes lead a person to suicide. On National Stress Awareness Day, the first thing that comes to our mind as Optometrists is to communicate with our patients the different types and effects of stress that our eyes experience every day. The sources of daily eye stress include digital devices, smoking, Ultraviolet radiation from sunlight, and elevated levels of Cortisol as a result of anxious thoughts.

Stress can often be the cause of Visual migraines that are characterized by an episode of vision loss in one eye, that lasts a short time and is rarely painful. Stress can cause blurry vision, sensitivity to bright light, eye twitching, floaters, excessive tearing, sometimes dry eye, and eye strain.

A 2018 study revealed that the intense use of digital devices is the common cause of eye fatigue. Researchers recorded students’ eye gaze parameters using an Eye Tracker and various stimuli that were used to analyze the increase in stress level with respect to the increase in cognitive load. At the end of the experiment, they conducted an eye fatigue detection test to detect eye fatigue. The statistical analysis of the eye measures revealed a strong correlation between stress level and cognitive load. Another descriptive study revealed that the employment of digital devices without using an anti-glare screen, rewetting eye-drops, and/or protective goggles was significantly associated with the presence of Computer Vision Syndrom.

A 2018 study revealed that mental stress leads to elevated cortisol levels that negatively impact the eye and brain due to autonomous nervous system (sympathetic) imbalance and vascular dysregulation; hence stress may also be one of the major causes of visual system diseases such as glaucoma, optic neuropathy, diabetic retinopathy, and age-related macular degeneration.