VisionPlus India

What makes this habit particularly ingrained in India is its invisibility. It doesn’t disrupt the day. It doesn’t demand attention. You can function, perform, even excel while ignoring it. Until, of course, you can’t, when headaches become frequent, focus slips or vision begins to fluctuate. The shift required isn’t dramatic. It doesn’t ask us to step away from screens entirely; that’s unrealistic. It simply asks for awareness in the middle of routine. To look up. To pause. To let the eyes rest before they are forced to. Something as small as breaking your gaze every few minutes, softening the focus into the distance, or even remembering to blink fully can change how your eyes feel by the end of the day. Over time, these small acts build resilience. Eye health doesn’t deteriorate overnight. It fades quietly, shaped by habits we barely notice. Which is why the most important change isn’t technological or medical, it’s behavioural. To stop ignoring what your eyes have been telling you all along. WHAT’STHE ONEHABIT HURTING OUREYES? JUST ONE QUESTION In a screen-first country, the real problem isn’t usage, it’s what we ignore I f there’s one everyday habit Indians need to change for better eye health, it’s this: waiting too long to take discomfort seriously. We’ve become remarkably good at adjusting. A little dryness, a slight blur, the dull ache behind the eyes after a long day, most of us notice it, then move on. We blame the workload, the deadlines, the traffic and the lack of sleep. Rarely do we pause to consider that our eyes are asking for something simple: a break, a reset, a bit of care. This quiet dismissal is where the damage begins. Our days now unfold through screens. Phones wake us up, laptops carry us through work, and televisions or tablets ease us into the night. The eye, however, hasn’t evolved for this kind of sustained, near-distance focus. When we don’t look away often enough, blinking slows, the surface of the eye dries out, and strain builds gradually. Not sharply enough to alarm us, but steadily enough to matter. And so, we carry on. 60 VISION PLUS INDIA EDITION