A 30-year-old suffered blindness for about 18 months in Hyderabad after she spent long hours on her mobile phone in the dark.
The symptoms started to show after the Hyderabad woman quit her job and started excessively using her smartphone.
“30-year old Manju had severe disabling vision symptoms for one and half years. This included seeing floaters, bright flashes of light, dark zig zag lines and at times inability to see or focus on objects. There were moments when she could not see anything for several seconds – mostly in the night,” said her doctor.
Smartphone vision disorder is a complex of eye and vision-related problems associated with close work during digital screen use. It is one of the rising well-being concerns identified with (phones and tablets) because of constant and prolonged use of screens.
While Manju was treated at the right time, it is alarming that many people are suffering from smartphone vision syndrome (SVS) or “computer vision syndrome” (CVS) or “digital vision syndrome”. What further makes things serious is that this syndrome can even lead to a loss of partial or complete vision. Although with medication and changes in lifestyle one can be cured still, still using the smartphone with responsibility is still the need.
Manju’s vision was restored after a month of corrective action including her momentary loss of vision at night. Kumar further suggested to take a 20-second break after every 20-minute use of digital devices. “Take 20-second break, every 20 min, to look at something 20 feet away, while using a digital screen (20-20-20 rule),” the doctor said.