Computers have grown to be a critical part of modern life and as a result the time expended viewing computer screens has gone up. For those of us who have a laptop the glow of the screen can become even more inescapable - even when your not working you're likely to find yourself in a coffee shop looking at your emails, doing the shopping, chatting on messenger.. An accurate observation is that a number of us spend our days staring at PC screens.

I’m not a doom merchant; I use computers just as substantially as any other person. After a particularly long session hunched over my laptop however I do occasionally imagine the distant echo of my mother's disapproving voice nagging about 'square eyes'. A big concern for a large number of computer users who spend this much time on them is the harm on our eyes when watching a screen for an increasingly long period of time.

Well, whilst there are unlikely to be any long term terrible problems, computer related eye-strain is an increasingly standard condition. The symptoms will doubtless be recognisable to many of you: sore, tired, burning eyes, blurred vision, headache, after images when you look away for the monitor, light sensitivity and dry eyes. The frustration is that however much your eyes are suffering, stopping work and giving your eyes a sustained rest might not be an option, particularly if you're doing something important that relies on using a computer.

Below are some tips to help decrease the strain on your eyes:

Give your eyes an occasional rest - Over the course of a day in front of the PC give your eyes something to focus on other than the screen. Focus on something in the distance out of the window for instance.

Do something else - Try and set aside work that you can do without a PC and use this time as a rest from having to view the display.

Correct Seating - In short, you should sit something like arms length from the monitor with your eyes level with the highest point of the monitor. Tweak the font size or screen resolution if you have difficulty reading the fonts from the right distance.

Blinking - While using a computer intensively you will see you blink less often than expected. Make certain you blink consciously every so often to stop your eyes from drying. If you have seriously dry eyes you can always try eye drop known as “artificial tears” (these can be found online at sites such as Vision Direct Online Contact Lenses)

Use better lenses - It is possible that your eyes are irritated because you are not wearing the correct lenses; or the lenses are not suitable for people using PCs for a long period of time. If this is the situation you can attempt using special hydrating lenses (A popular product is “1 Day Acuvue Moist” available from Vision Direct Contact Lenses). An additional choice is to get specialist glasses for PC use (get more information from All About Vision).

Before making any changes be sure to consult your doctor or optician.