Sleep is the most essential thing in our day-to-day life. It helps in relaxing our mind and do you know it also affects our vision too? After a long day, our eyes need a good nap of about 6-8 hours. Sleep and eyes both have bonded in our daily life. A prolonged lack of doze can cause many vision problems and can compromise our eye health. At every age, each person needs an adequate, uninterrupted nap for optimal wakeful functioning. An insufficient nap may cause many chronic diseases and conditions, such as diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, obesity, and depression. To be aware of the importance of sleep, the World Sleep Society started organizing World Sleep Day, an annual event every year.
The main motto of world sleep day is to raise awareness of how vital it is to our overall health. Getting enough naps is difficult for some people, and several factors contribute to getting the best quality nap. We all know getting enough sleep is essential for staying healthy, but ever thought about what a lack of it can do to our eyes? Let us know what happens to our eyes if we don’t have a good nap.
Related read: How Much to Sleep & Tips to Sleep Better
Do the eyes stay still when you sleep?
Do you know that our sleep has stages? Yes, it is true, our daily nap has 4 stages.
- In stage 1, our eyes roll slowly, opening and closing.
- During stages, 2-4 we are in a deep nap and our eyes remain still.
- In these 4 stages, there is a stage called rapid eye movement (REM).
- During this REM sleep stage, our eyeballs move rapidly behind our eyelids and our bodies become more still.
- REM is the stage where we dream. But the reason till unknown why the eyelids move, some believe it could be because we are watching the scenes in the dreams.
Why do our eyes hurt if we don’t get enough naps?
Our eyes feel strained, dry, and itchy the day after not getting a good and sufficient nap. Lack of sleep can cause eye strain, burst blood vessels, and dry eye. Our eyes go through a lot during the day. Starting from the moment we wake up to the moment we go to bed, our eyes are always working. They need to get enough time to get recover when we are asleep. Getting enough naps will give our eyes moisture throughout the night so that they can function properly when we wake up.
What are the risks of lack of sleep?
Besides causing dark circles and puffy eyes, lack of sleep also poses a threat to our overall eye health. Let us see the risks and side effects that occur due to lack of sleep:
- Eye spasms
- Eye twitches
- Light sensitivity
- Glaucoma
- Blurred vision
- Vision loss
- Dry eye diseases
- Eye infections
What does lack of sleep do to eye health?
Sleep deprivation is the phenomenon that is occurred due to a lack of sleep. The symptoms are grumpiness, difficulty concentrating, and drowsiness. Prolonged lack of sleep can make our immune systems weaker which makes it difficult to lose weight, increase blood pressure, and cause mood changes and memory loss. It also affects our eyes.
Our eyes need at least five hours of nap to replenish themselves so that they can function effectively throughout the day. Over time, the less nap we get, the more we experience eye strain, eye twitches, and dry eye. The good news is that our eyes play a role in getting more and better sleep which will help them!
Impact of blue lights on our eyes:
Nevertheless how tech-savvy we are, we can’t change the biology of the eye. The blue light signals our brains that it is daytime and we should awake. This is the reason why we can’t sleep when we are seeing blue lights. Because when we look at our screens late in the evening, we effectively trick our brains into thinking it’s not bedtime yet.
Turn off the blue lights before bed:
As said in the previous paragraph, blue lights trigger our brain to think it is still a day. So, we can’t able to sleep early. If you are browsing the internet until bedtime can make it much harder for the brain to go to sleep. It eventually cuts our regular napping time. Looking at bright screens in dark rooms makes us more vulnerable to digital eye strain. So, switch the device to night mode or there are many apps for blue light filters use them at night time. If you have a habit of being online before bed, use these apps to reduce blue light.
If are not feeling tired until very late at night or you struggle to fall asleep once you’re in bed, late-night screen usage probably isn’t helping you. So put the screens away before bed and instead of using the electronic devices make a habit of reading books. Reading helps us to get a quick nap which also benefits our eye health.
Also read: Harmful Effects Of Mobile Phones On Children
Take off contact lenses:
Modern contact lenses are having more oxygen-permeable than they used to be. Removing the lenses at night still benefits our eyes. Giving our eyes a break from contact lenses while we are taking a nap will reduce the risk of eye infection and help them recover from all the hard work they had done all day.
So, at last, to maintain good eye health always get a good and healthy nap. Follow the steps that are mentioned here and reduce the habit of using blue screens or else switch the mode in the device that comforts our eye.