It may now seem normal to teach children how to use computers even before they go to a pre-school. But health educators disagree. They say it is unhealthy to allow a child to look into the computer screen or use the mobile phone to play games for extended periods of time. The estimated prevalence of childhood blindness/low vision in the country is 0.8 per thousand.
While computer vision syndrome is a new problem faced by children, refractive error, another easily correctable disorder, continues to be one of the major causes of childhood blindness.
The aim of the National Programme for Control of Blindness is to bring down the prevalence of childhood blindness to 0.2 per cent by 2020.
A. P. Irungovel, patient educator and counsellor with Sankara Nethralaya, says: “Every year, we conduct a survey of school children. Last year, we found that around 25 per cent of children in Chennai Corporation schools were unaware that they had refractive errors.”
Since more than 75 per cent of the learning process is visual, it is important to watch for changes in the way the child holds a book.
“Make 20-20-20 the rule. That is, every 20 minutes, take your eyes away from the computer, blink 20 times for 20 seconds,” he adds.
Parents and teachers need to keep an eye on how the child holds her book or if she sits too close to the monitor. It is also important to ensure that the child wearing spectacles is not teased about it, he says.
How do you know if you're snoring in your sleep? Or what that disturbance is that causes you to wake up?
For some who are constantly frustrated by their quality of sleep, a number of apps and fitness gadgets that monitor their bed time abound.
From tracking the number of hours you sleep and calculating when you need to sleep and wake up to giving you white noise or soothing meditative tracks to fall asleep to and even keeping track of when you are dreaming, the apps and gadgets can do plenty. They are available on both Android and iOS and, depending on your requirements and what you would like to have monitored, there are a number of options.
For one resident of Chennai, who uses a wearable activity tracker, the experience has been useful. “The fitness band shows how many hours I sleep and also manages to show my 'light sleep' and 'deep sleep' time separately. This is extremely useful when we increase activity and workouts as our sleep patterns should improve in relation to this, and we can observe it on the app,” she says.
However, cautions, Suresh Kumar, a city-based consultant in neurology and sleep medicine, the apps are no substitute for medical advice. “They give you some amount of information and can be used by patients with sleep disorders for diagnostics in a limited fashion, but if you think you have a problem sleeping, it is best to consult a doctor,” he says.
(Reporting by R. Sujatha and Zubeda Hamid)
