Since the advent of laptops, digital notes and especially smartphones, our lifestyle has been revolutionized.

In this article, I will be sharing with you my experience as an eye specialist when I check patients in my clinic. I feel this article can benefit many people if they are experiencing the problems I will be discussing in this short article.

Smartphones are perhaps the most used device worldwide regardless of socioeconomic indicators. Along with the facility of the internet, to use various interesting applications for entertainment is naturally very tempting.

Let’s see its other side of our well being and our feelings about being well and vital.

Many people come with the complaints of simple blurring of vision, slight headache and mild backache to general practitioners unusually and they are prescribed mostly with pain killers, tranquilizers or muscle relaxants, which alleviate their symptoms for short periods.

What actually happens when your screen time is more than what your body can tolerate is a bad question.

When we look at any screen for unusually long times, very delicate muscles in our eyes go into fatigue. We feel tired of our eyes. Then, we keep on watching at the screen, and the muscles inside the body which are fatigued affects the muscles outside the eye on the eyeball which are responsible for our eye movements.

These muscles then send signals to our neck muscles in the cervical area from where 12 cranial nerves emerge which control the whole body autonomously. The contraction of cervical muscles pinch various nerves in the neck which supply to our head and lower body parts as well as our internal organs. So the time passes by and we get relief by different home remedies or we rely on the medicines of general practitioners who most of the time overlook the history and this aspect of our lifestyle.

Having been in this cycle for weeks and months, our whole body feels lethargic, less energetic & we also start having more than normal mood swings. The level of the happy hormones serotonin and dopamine which keeps us happy and feel energetic has decreased. And the level of melatonin which is responsible for our sleep also decreases and as a result of which our normal sleep pattern is also affected.

A combination of all these factors, at a point in life ,we are referred to a psychiatrist as all the reports are usually normal. Unfortunately, in the most developed countries, many psychiatrists rely just on medicines and most of us are diagnosed with some degree of depression. And then we are prescribed with the anti depressants, mostly for lifetime to increase the already mentioned hormones and feeling good. But it's not the solution to this problem, but actually we may enter into more new problems and that are the side effects of psychiatric medicines.

So, let's recapitulate. Not every person goes from the above cycle. But it's one from many of the effects of more screen time many people have to face.

In conclusion, let's imagine all the above scenarios in reverse. At the first point, if we use screens wisely, do proper physical activity and take proper diet, we can stop all this disaster right from the point where we regularly start feeling fatigue in our eyes and mild headaches. Instead, if we suddenly close the mobile and go for a walk and take breaks in using screens with conscious efforts after having known the consequences that possibly happen, we can save our well being and sense of being healthy and from many other health issues.

Being a doctor and an author, what I recommend the far most important point is awareness of the problem , its possible consequences, and supporting outdoor activities in bright sunlight. Only with mindfulness actions can we overcome these issues. Though mobile and similar devices may feel very attractive and non-invasive, but actually they are not, if you don't know what they can do to you.