The eye is a muscle which, by dint of being overworked, ends up being fatigued, impacting their daily well-being.

To better understand the scale of the phenomenon, VSP Vision Care, an insurance company specialising in vision health, teamed up with Workplace Intelligence to survey 800 HR managers and 800 full-time employees in the USA.

The survey revealed that workers spend an average of 97 hours a week in front of a screen, including 34.2 hours on a computer.

This figure is slightly higher than the 96.1 hours recorded in 2024, but still represents more than four full 24-hour days a week, or 210 days a year.

Prolonged exposure to screens, combined with artificial lighting, is one of the main causes of visual fatigue, also known as “digital fatigue.”

According to the survey, 68% of workers suffer from it. Among them, 17% felt this discomfort four to five days a week, and 10% were confronted with it almost daily, ie, six to seven days a week.

This eye strain manifests itself in various symptoms: dry and irritated eyes, blurred vision, headaches, sometimes accompanied by back pain.

Nearly 63% of employees reported suffering from at least one of these symptoms, compared to 50% last year, an increase of 26%.

There is also an increase in the number of glasses and contact lense wearers with 73% of employees now wearing them, compared with 67% last year.

However, such lenses also are associated with an increase in issues: contact lens wearers are 12 times more likely to suffer from dry eyes than those with normal vision, while this problem affected eyeglass wearers twice as much.

Screen-related visual disorders are not limited to physical discomfort. They also affect mental health and quality of life.

More than 56% of workers said they felt that their well-being was affected, with consequences such as stress, anxiety and even depression.

In some cases, this fatigue even led to a loss of independence in terms of travel and personal care, thus increasing the risk of social isolation.

Lack of awareness within companies

In terms of professional performance, nearly six out of 10 employees said that digital fatigue reduced their productivity and efficiency.

About 50% said it impacted their general well-being, preventing them from enjoying their leisure time after work and making them more irritable at the office.

Even more alarmingly, 27% of employees have already taken time off work because of this fatigue.

Despite such serious consequences, 45% of employees believed that their employer did not care about the impact of digital eye strain.

However, 70% of workers recognised that they should manage their screen exposure better, and 59% believed that their company should provide more support.

Contrary to this perception, HR managers are nevertheless aware of the problem with 87% of them recognising that employees working on a screen suffer from digital fatigue, and 96% believing that this affected their productivity.

In addition, 89% admitted that their organisation should implement more initiatives to help employees. However, to date, fewer than six out of 10 companies have introduced concrete measures, such as encouraging breaks or providing anti-glare filters for screens.

So, how can you protect your eyes and relieve work-related eye strain?

Experts recommend applying the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a break for 20 seconds by looking at an object at least six metres away.

Other solutions exist, such as yoga for the eyes, an eye exercise aimed at strengthening the eye muscles and improving their endurance.

Given the omnipresence of screens in everyone’s professional lives, digital eye strain has become a real public health issue. However, it is still largely underestimated in companies.

While workers must adopt better habits to preserve their vision, it is also essential that employers take concrete measures to limit the effects of this overexposure.

Awareness, regular breaks, ergonomic adjustments and suitable solutions must become reflexes to guarantee the well-being and productivity of employees in the long term.

By integrating these good practices, everyone will be able to better preserve their visual health without sacrificing their efficiency at work.