A look into how students and professionals are impacted by remote work-from-home jobs and study expectations in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic.
Gianni Laurent, a 19-year-old international student in Surabaya, Indonesia, begins her school day at 10 p.m. Western Indonesian Time. She rubs the dryness out of her eyes and stretches her sore back, crossing the darkness of her bedroom to sit at her desk. Aside from the dim moonlight streaming through her window, her laptop screen is the only light source. At her college campus in Boston, it is 10 a.m. EST, and classes have just begun.
Since the spring semester began in January 2021, Laurent spends nearly every day from 10 p.m. until sunrise in front of a computer screen. She said adapting to online learning through Emerson College has harmed her physical and mental health.
"I feel like I've gotten used to it, but it obviously affects my health too," she said. "I've been falling sick way more often than I used to. I will get so many headaches, or sometimes a cold sweat, even a fever."
The pandemic has transformed the practical uses of technology. Countless daily activities that are usually experienced in person—attending college, work, and family gatherings—now can only happen safely through the internet.
This online adaptation certainly has its upsides, but not without the worrying health effects that come with excessive screen time. Research shows that spending many hours a day in front of a screen can lead to a wide range of health problems.
For people like Laurent and countless others, eye strain and dryness are common side effects of staring at a screen all day.
"Eye strain is one of the most common problems [with excess screen-time]," Dr. Marilyn Horton, an internist specializing in adult medicine at Texas Health Presbyterian Hospital Dallas, said. "While we're looking at screens, we do not blink as often as we normally would, so the tears do not get distributed across our eyes."
Laurent said after some long days of looking at her screen, she experiences vision blurring and severe dryness.
"I was very concerned about it at first because I thought there was something wrong with my eyes," she said. But then I decided to try and stop looking at the screen on both my phone and my laptop unless I have online classes. And it does help; my eyes go back to normal."
Mila Rolston, 20, also attributed several health struggles to staring at her screen, such as headaches and sleep disturbance due to eye strain. She said changing the light of her laptop screen to an orange hue helps relieve the pressure on her eyes.
"I'll have a lot of headaches from staring at the screen and just feel extremely burnt out," Rolston said. I have a really hard time sleeping, but I agree screen time doesn't help that."
Dr. Horton recommended taking 20-second breaks for every 20 minutes of screen time to prevent eye strain, taking eye drops to ease dryness, and amplifying the usefulness of blue light glasses. For Laurent, investing in blue light glasses to protect her retinas has helped with her eye problems, as she has been taking vitamins to promote healthy eyesight, which she buys at her local drugstore.
Prior to the pandemic, many adults lived their lives in constant action, bustling from work to school and then back home again. Now, for millions across the globe, the average workday involves sitting at home for hours on end, shifting from one Zoom meeting to another.
Sitting for long periods of time paired with a lack of physical activity can cause a separate array of health problems. Poor posture can result in back and neck strain, as well as carpal tunnel, which affects the wrists due to overuse.
What worries Dr. Horton most is what she calls a transition to sedentary living, which she said can harm countless parts of the body, and even worsen more pre-existing severe health conditions.
"Other chronic conditions could be affected, like diabetes and heart disease," she said. "Just because people who work on screens all day tend to not stand up so often. And it's been shown that even standing as opposed to sitting, can lower your blood sugar and your blood pressure."
For this reason, Dr. Horton said it is important to stand for at least two minutes per each hour of sitting, and to be physically active for at least 30 minutes a day.
Clarah Grossman, a 21-year-old college student, said she is concerned about her lack of physical activity, which has gone down during the pandemic due to self-quarantining and working from home.
"I think the biggest thing for me is I'm not really moving anymore," Grossman said. "I know it's not actually happening, but it genuinely feels like my muscles are like, atrophying, because I just sit at a chair all day. When I get up, I'm so sore from not using any of my muscles and literally just sitting in the same chair, doing the same thing for 13 hours straight, every single day."
Dr. Horton even said she worries about the long-term effects the pandemic could have on adults' physical activity, citing generational health concerns people could face decades down the line. She specifically cited osteoporosis and osteopenia, two conditions related to bone weakness, which can result in bone fractures.
"I wonder if we will see an increase in the incidences of osteoporosis or osteopenia from people being so sedentary during this time," Dr. Horton said. "To keep bones strong, you have to exercise, and in general, it needs to be walking, or running, or some sort of impact-related exercise. I think that it could affect people's bones, this number of hours of just sitting every day, in the long run."
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