A New Year’s Resolution for Eyesight

As the new year approaches, many people anticipate what a change in the calendar will bring. Some subscribe to the Chinese lunar zodiac, which runs on 12-year cycles. Twenty-twenty-five was the year of the snake, which many took to be a year of shedding habits that no longer serve them. Twenty-twenty-six, on the other hand, is the year of the horse, which many take to symbolize as a year of taking charge of one’s life.

For others, though, things like the Chinese lunar zodiac aren’t helpful, because it gives the idea of fate too much power. For those who want to plan for the new year with more agency in mind, the idea of a New Year’s Resolution is helpful. It’s estimated that 31 percent of all Americans will set goals this year, most of which are related to health or exercise. In fact, gyms are typically most crowded in January when people are still committed to hitting their fitness goals.

However, there is one part of the body that we tend to forget when making New Year’s Resolutions: the eyes. This is unfortunate, since clear vision is one of the largest predictors for having a good quality of life. So, this year, as you consider bulking up or eating healthier, add taking care of your vision to the mix. A New Year’s resolution for eyesight could pay dividends in the future.

Choose an Achievable New Year’s Resolution

One of the best ways to ensure that you meet your New Year’s resolution goals is to make them achievable. One way to do that is to make your goals concrete. It’s awfully hard to decide when you’ve succeeded at “exercising” without a goal. But it’s much easier to hold yourself accountable for the three weekly gym visits you resolved to make. Your eyes need some goals, too. Look for areas where you know you can improve your vision habits and make changes that will have some positive impact.

Make sure to match your eye-healthy New Year’s resolutions to lifestyle, profession, and other personal considerations. You’ll want to consider any pre-existing conditions that could make setting some habits more difficult. On the other hand, if you already have cataracts or glaucoma, for example, an easy resolution is to get treatment. However, if you have young, healthy eyes, knowing where to start when building healthy eye habits can be more difficult.

Hit the Gym!

The most common New Year’s resolutions have to do with getting physically fit. The good news is that improving physical fitness is also one of the best things to do to improve eyesight. For example, running has been proven to significantly cut down your risk of developing eye diseases. Exercise has been proven to reduce your risk of developing eye conditions ranging from cataracts to glaucoma.

Regular exercise can also help prevent age-related macular degeneration. AMD is a condition that seriously impairs vision in the center of the visual field (macula) and is caused by age-related damage to the retina. It’s a serious and relatively common problem for anyone over 50 years of age. And, like cataracts, it’s seemingly affected by exercise. So, adding this one healthy habit to your routine this year could potentially be the most helpful New Year’s resolution for eyesight.

Improve Your Work Routine for Healthy Eyes

The workplace is one of the biggest threats to our overall health. Before the advent of office spaces, most Americans were getting a lot more movement in their daily routines naturally. However, now that so many of us are tied to our computers, we are much more sedentary than we used to be. This is obviously bad for our overall health.

Staring at computer screens all day is also bad for our eyes. Not only do we spend much of our workday on screens, but then we head home and unwind by scrolling social media or watching TV. These long, unbroken stretches of screen time can cause some serious eye-related troubles.

Prolonged computer work harms the eyes in several different ways. For one, prolonged screen use can contribute to dry eye. Chronic dryness will very occasionally cause nastier problems and can even lead to a loss of vision. Second, all that time staring at a screen right in front of your eyes will strain your eye muscles, leading to intense discomfort. Digital eye strain is a condition that continues to become more prevalent as time passes.

However, you don’t have to just accept that digital eye strain and chronic dry eye are just a fact of life. You can develop some good routines for healthy eyes that can prevent the long-term negative impacts of too much screen use.  First, give the 10-10-10 Rule a try to give your eyes a rest. All you have to do is look away from your screen at an object 10 feet away from you for 10 seconds every 1o minutes. Doing so breaks up that stare, helping to fight eye dryness. And letting your eyes focus on a far-field object for a change prevents muscular strain. This is an easy way to incorporate habits for good health into your normal workday this year.

But What If You Work Mostly Outside?

If you don’t sit in a cubicle and type at your computer all day, you will luckily avoid some of the risks of digital eye strain. However, that doesn’t mean that you should write off making a New Year’s resolution for eyesight. If your day-to-day often takes you outside, then there’s a different set of risks to keep in mind. Being outside for too long without the proper eyewear can lead to photokeratitis. This is basically a sunburn of the eyes that’s often described as feeling like sand in the eyes. Even worse, cancerous tumors can also develop after excessive UV exposure.

The best thing to do to prevent photokeratitis is to wear sunglasses. Make sure your shades are 100% UV-blocking, too. This will ensure that you can enjoy the benefits of being outside without the risks.

And, it’as important to note that getting outside can be really good for your eyes, too. In fact, this is one of the best New Year’s resolutions for kids you can make. It will greatly reduce their risk of developing refractive errors like myopia as they get older. Just make sure they wear their sunglasses!

Do Eye Exercises Work?

One of the biggest things we prescribe here at Rebuild Your Vision is eye exercises. But do these actually work? In short, the answer is yes – adding daily eye exercises to your regimen is a great way to improve your eye health, both in the short term and the long term. This is a fairly easy New Year’s resolution for eyesight to make, too, since so many eye exercises can be done quickly at your work desk. A simple eye care routine can take as little as 10 minutes spread throughout your workday.

Another easy thing you can do to improve your vision this year is to consider taking daily supplements for eye health. By ensuring you are getting the proper nutrients to support good eye health, you can prevent a lot of future eye conditions and even improve your eyesight in the short run.

How can you ensure you keep up with your vision-related resolutions? Consider using a habit-tracking system. In your planner or on your calendar, designate a special symbol for each resolution. Each day you complete the habit, mark it in your calendar or planner. The satisfaction of checking off a task is enough to keep many of us motivated.

We know that there are many benefits of routines that we can reap throughout the year. Whether it’s packing your lunch more often or hitting the gym, your body will feel better if you commit. By adding a good routine for healthy eyes to the mix, you’ll enjoy a better quality of life for years to come.