Our brains and bodies are not designed to work 24/7 and this lifestyle can lead to computer eye strain symptoms and searching for headache remedies.
Dr Joyce Brothers, American psychologist and TV personality, certainly hit the nail on the head when she said, “No matter how much pressure you feel at work, if you could find ways to relax for at least five minutes every hour, you’d be more productive.”
Our bodies require food and relaxation, even during the busiest times at the office. In fact the busier we are, taking a break becomes even more important. Do you need some convincing?
Reduce Computer Eye Strain And Remedy Headaches
No matter what type of work we do, we need to use our eyes to do it. Our eyes need a rest too, especially if we spend a lot of time looking at the computer or do close up work.
Computer eye strain symptoms include eye pain, blurred vision, red sore eyes, headaches, sore neck, back and shoulders and watery or dry eyes. It is helpful to take a 5 minute break to focus your eyes on a range of objects of different sizes, colours and at a range of distances.
This relaxes the focusing muscle in the eye and prevents accommodative spasm, which is when the eyes ‘lock up’ due to prolonged periods of focusing.
When we have a 5 minute break every hour, we rest and revitalize our minds and bodies. This allows us to continue to give 100% to our work and achieve more over our working day than if we did not have breaks. This period of rest is one of the best headache remedies and prevention of computer eye strain.
Here are more great reasons to take a five minute break every hour while at work.
Reduce Our Body Mass Index (BMI)
BMI is a measure of body shape, based upon height and weight. Sedentary office work can increase our BMI if we are not careful.
If we use our five minute break to take a quick walk up and down the stairs or try a few exercises, we raise our metabolic rate, or the speed at which we burn calories.
Just by walking around for five minutes every hour during an eight hour work day, the average adult will use an extra 132 calories. As long as we don’t replace what we are using with poor food choices, our BMI will reduce, as well as our waistlines!
Reduce Our Stress Levels
Even if we don’t admit it, being busy does make us more stressed. Just a short five minute break will reduce the level of stress our bodies are under.
A study in Finland found that office workers who did not take a break were more stressed and more likely to suffer from cardiovascular disease due to a build-up of the level of plaque in their arteries. Their colleagues, who did take a break, were less stressed and consequently did not have the same levels of plaque.
When we are less stressed we also tend to think more clearly and are consequently more productive at work.
Reduce The Likelihood Of Making Mistakes
Walking to get a drink of water or standing and stretching for five minutes each hour, will increase our levels of alertness and concentration.
This in turn will mean we are less likely to trip over the rubbish bin or type embarrassing and potentially business losing errors in our emails!
As our levels of alertness increase we become more accurate, creative and productive, which means we would achieve more than if we just pushed through and continued working.
Reduce Physical Discomfort
Did you know that sitting down can hurt your back? When we remain in a sitting position for over thirty minutes, an unhealthy amount of stress is placed upon our spines.
Muscular atrophy and vertebral disk problems can be caused by sitting continuously for long periods of time. But when we take short breaks often and use this time to walk around, we can significantly lower the risk of this happening.
Walking moves our muscles and bones, which prevents repetitive strain injuries caused by using the same muscles in the same position for too long.
Ovid, a Roman poet born in 43 BC, whose poetry inspired European literature and art and who is one of the most important sources of Greek mythology, had it right when he said “Take rest; a field that has rested gives a bountiful crop.”
We all benefit from a break, so go on and take one now!
Tags: Body Mass IndexComputer Eye StrainEye Strain SymptomsHeadache Remedies
