Dry eyes when reading

Reading dries the eyes for a simple reason: when you’re absorbed in a page, you blink less, and the tear film evaporates between blinks. A low reading position helps, because looking down narrows the eye opening. Regular pauses, a good light and lubricating drops used as the label directs, Apply 1 drop 3 times per day in each eye, cover the rest.

Why a good book makes you blink less

Blinking slows down whenever attention locks onto something, and a gripping chapter is about as locked-on as attention gets. Each skipped blink leaves the surface of the eye exposed a little longer. Readers often notice it as a scratchy or heavy feeling after an hour or two, sometimes with the words starting to swim, and the urge to rub their eyes when they close the book.

Looking down vs. looking straight ahead

Where the page sits matters more than most readers expect. When you look down at a book in your lap, your upper lids drop and cover more of the eye, so less of it meets the air. Hold a tablet up at eye level, or prop a book on a stand in front of your face, and the eye opens wider.

• In a chair, rest the book on a pillow in your lap so you’re reading slightly downward.
• At a table, a low book stand angled toward you keeps the page below eye level without hunching.
• In bed, lying flat on your back with the book held overhead opens the eyes wide; sitting up against pillows is gentler on them.

Print, e-readers and tablets

All three involve the same reduced blinking, but they differ in other ways. Paper and e-ink screens don’t give off light of their own, so you depend on the lamp in the room. Backlit tablets and phones carry their own light, which makes reading in the dark possible and also tempts people to read far later than they would with a paperback.

• Print: choose editions with larger type when you can; squinting at small print is tiring.
• E-ink readers: raise the font size and line spacing instead of pulling the device closer.
• Tablets and phones: match brightness to the room, and hold the screen at a comfortable distance instead of right under your nose.

Getting the light right

A reading light should land on the page, not in your eyes. A lamp over your shoulder, on the side opposite your writing hand if you take notes, lights the page without glare. In a dim room your eyes work harder to make out the text, and a single bright spot in a dark room is uncomfortable too, so keep some general light on as well.

Watch where the air comes from as well. A favorite reading chair beside a heating register, under a ceiling fan or by a window air conditioner puts moving air across your eyes for the whole chapter. Moving the chair a few feet can make a noticeable difference.

Use the book’s own breaks

Books come with natural stopping points. At the end of each chapter, or every few pages if the chapters are long, look up and across the room for a moment and blink slowly a few times. A page turn can be a cue too: blink fully each time you turn one. It sounds fussy, but it quickly becomes automatic.

Long reading sessions: where drops fit

If you settle in for an afternoon with a novel, or spend a long evening with a stack of work documents, plan your drops around it. One before you start and one when you stop is a reasonable use of two of the three daily drops. Quell may blur things for a short moment, so read the next sentence after your vision clears rather than straight away.

Quell is designed to reinforce the tear film’s oil layer to help reduce moisture loss. That outer layer is what slows evaporation while your blinks are spaced out, and the tear film’s oil layer explains how it works. Keep the bottle on a shelf near your reading spot rather than on a radiator cover or a sunny windowsill; the label says Store between 15° to 30°C (59° to 86°F).

Reading on trips

Planes, trains and cars are dry places to read. Cabin air is dry, and car vents aimed at your face make it worse. If you read in transit, point the overhead vent or the dashboard vent away and take more breaks than you would at home. Traveling with eye drops covers packing the bottle.

When reading isn’t the whole story

If print looks blurry, if you hold books farther and farther away, or if headaches come with reading, an eye exam makes more sense than drops; many people simply need reading glasses or an updated prescription at some point. And if dryness continues even on days you barely read, see an eye doctor. The label is clear: Stop use and ask a doctor if you feel eye pain or changes in your vision, if irritation or redness continues, or if the condition worsens or persists for 72 hours. You can also take the dry eye self-check to organize what you notice before an appointment; it’s not a diagnosis.