Can you strain your eyes from reading too much?

I really love to read, and for the last week I've been reading quite heavily. Now my eyes hurt, and for lack of better words, it feels like I have a knot tied between my eyes.

Has anyone ever experienced this?

How long does it last?


Scott

Hi Scott

I get that a lot too but doesn't last very long. I just sleep through it and the following day it's gone. I understand good and adequate lighting play an important role here and can lessen the strain but only for so long. I guess the only real way to prevent this is to give the eyes some time to rest in between. Hope this helps.

If you are farsighted you can probably get headaches from reading. It should not cause permanent damage, but using reading glasses will help you relax of this is the case.

Make sure you're not knitting your eyebrows when you read, or otherwise have muscle tension bunching up in your neck/shoulders area. Happens to me... I have a lot of muscle tension for some reason, and have to consciously control it.

fire-stick: Try getting your eyes tested. When I need a new eyeglass prescription that can happen. With age things get worse. By mid 40s most people lose focus accommodation (the ability to focus at different distances) and need reading or computer glasses or bifocals. Now I have mild cataracts and computer work makes my eyes real tired.
--Walter (aka snowleopard)

snowleopard said:

By mid 40s most people lose focus accommodation

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Powernoodle can attest to that one. You look at something a foot or two away for a little while, and when you then look at something a greater distance away, your eyes stay focused at the short distance.

cheers

you could go blind if you're reading the wrong material...

It's funny, I'm nearsighted (amongst other eye problems) and have needed glasses for distance since my teens. But now I'm 43 and I find I can read close up a little better if I actually remove my glasses.

Dont read solidly without looking up. every few pages or minutes or whatever you need to look away from the book at the wall or out a window or just at something far away. Let your eyes relax for 30 seconds or so and then go back to it. That will let you work or read a lot longer.

When I'm working hard at the computer I have to remember to do this or I get dizzy and headaches. As long as I let my eyes relax on something far away for a moment every so often i'm fine.

I read a lot of science fiction novels in my mid to late teens and I often wonder if that's what made me near-sighted.

PhotonBoy said:

I read a lot of science fiction novels in my mid to late teens and I often wonder if that's what made me near-sighted.

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Nope This is an old wives tale furthered by my grandmother and thousands of others like her to get the kids to go to bed and stop reading Just using your eyes doesn't make them get worse any faster. As we get over 40 most of us will need reading glasses. Regardless of what you did with your eyes. It's just the focusing muscles you're exercising when you read closeup, exercising a muscle doesn't make them get worse at their job Our lenses just get harder and less able to be moved by the same muscles over time.

So your reading a lot did not make your eyes any worse.

However, over using those muscles can give you a headache!

Yes...but that only depends on the condition

If you read over an extended period of time at one distance...the eye strains to focus only at one distance, so every once awhile I would try to read the book at arms length or go outside and try to see as far as I can, then return to read the book

Theres a reason why I thumbtack some periodicals on the ceiling....