It’s been a year now of online meetings, birthday parties, schooling, social gatherings, events, and work. I know I am not the only one who longs to look at friends and family in person instead of through a computer screen. Let’s face it; it’s exhausting. A large percent of the population is experiencing what has been called zoom fatigue (sometimes called virtual fatigue).
My husband Mark and I just hosted a three-day online event, and the first words out of my mouth when he said it was going to be virtual were, “Mark, we need to be careful that our participants don’t experience the dreaded zoom fatigue.” In a different world, this event would have been live and in person, but we are all having to make shifts in the way we conduct business. Last week, we had over 200 individuals join us online via Zoom for three days, and these weren’t short meetings; we are talking from 11-6 pm, and my mission was for everyone to leave each day as they had come in happy and energized.
It’s not just adults that are experiencing this fatigue; it’s children too. The virtual fatigue from online school was so bad for my children that although we had committed to doing virtual school through at least the first quarter, they were back in the brick-and-mortar school building four weeks into this school year. Thankfully we had that option; not all do.
So what can we do to combat Zoom fatigue?
Here are six tips that will help you not only combat fatigue but protect your eyes and health.
Take a break from sitting
Long periods of sitting can lead to fatigue and, even worse, chronic health conditions. In fact, the Mayo Clinic shared in an analysis of 13 studies and found that those who sat for more than eight hours a day with no physical activity had a risk of dying, similar to the dangers of dying posed by obesity and smoking. Make sure you are taking a break from sitting every thirty minutes if possible, but if not, at least once an hour.
If you are in a Zoom meeting and it’s possible, turn off your camera to take that moment to stand. If you are like me and need a reminder, set a timer on your phone or, better yet, purchase a fitness watch. Side note – I love mine!
Get moving
Of course, if you are in the middle of a long meeting, it may not always be possible to take a walk or climb some stairs, but make sure you have some time built into your day for movement. There are even working treadmills and under desk bike pedals that will help you add exercise to your day. Just say yes to deskercise!
Stretch
Another way to get the blood pumping and fight off the fatigue is some simple stretching. The great thing about stretching is that you can even do it at your desk. While I was non-weight bearing on my broken foot last year, I discovered a plethora of online Youtube videos that were chair exercises and stretching, so you can do a Google search to find something of interest.
Now, what about our eyes?
At my son’s last eye appointment, there was a drastic increase in his prescription needs. The main culprit, being on the computer all day. Even though he went back to school, his learning, even in the classroom, is on a laptop this year. It’s just a fact that all of these online meetings and long hours at the computer are impacting our eye health.
There are several things that you can do with little effort to protect your eyes and give them a break from the fatigue.
Eye exercises
Yes, that is right, you can exercise your eyes! My favorite that even children can do is what is called the “20-20-20 rule”. After 20 minutes of screen time, stare at an object in the distance 20 feet away for 20 seconds. This relaxes the focusing muscles of the eyes.
There are many other exercises for your eyes, including palming, focusing near and far, and flexing. Yes, you can flex your eye muscles. Once again, with a simple Google search, you can find a lot of how-to videos for this.
Get outdoors
Take time each day to go outside. Gaze at the moons, stars, clouds, and trees. It is important for our eyes to see the 3D world around us especially with so much of our day being on the 2-dimensional screen world. It is especially important for children to be outdoors as there are studies that show even just two hours of outdoor play can help reduce myopia in young ones. So get outside, your eyes will thank you.
Blue light protection
The last thing I want to mention is the importance of blue light protection. Blue light is known to cause eye strain, headaches, and disruptions in your body’s sleep cycle. With blue light protectors, you filter out the harmful blue-violet light rays that are commonly emitted from digital screens.
If you wear glasses like my son Xen, you can add a blue light filter to your prescription. In our household, for those of us who do not wear prescription glasses, we have the traditional blue light glasses as well as the blue light screen protectors on our phones and computers. It really does help with eye strain and fatigue.
Do you have any other ways that you fight virtual fatigue? Drop them in the comments below.
