Health challenges of working with laptops and how to deal with them

Nowadays, almost every working vibe around the world have similar view like image above. A person sit down with laptop and next chair fill with other person also with laptop. Working anything they working at, web developing, product designing, replying emails, calculate transactions, zooming call, etc. I’m also doing this almost everyday while working, maybe you too? But do you know that spending too many hours sitting is dangerous to our health?

Sitting for a long time is dangerous

A growing body of evidence suggests that spending too many hours sitting is hazardous to your health. Habitual inactivity raises risks for obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, deep-vein thrombosis, and metabolic syndrome. Researchers aren’t sure why prolonged sitting has such harmful health consequences. But one possible explanation is that it relaxes your largest muscles. When muscles relax, they take up very little glucose from the blood, raising your risk of type 2 diabetes.

According to Harvard Health Publishing

people working while sitting (credit)

Sitting for a long time make your lower body muscles weak, because you’re not using it while you sit down. You need a strong leg to live a life, to walk, to run, ride a motorcycle, drive a car, almost any activity will need legs. Sit down all day also cause weight gain, depression, cancer risk, heart disease, diabetes risk, and back or neck sore or both if you don’t maintain your posture while sit down.

I was also experiencing this pain first year of my working career. I have to work at least 7 hours a day, 6 days a week. Then I realize all my pains are causing by sitting all the day and rarely doing exercise. I knew if I continue those lifestyle that can impact my health. I’ll share what I do to change that habit later.

Looking the screen for a long time is dangerous

Not only sitting all day is dangerous, looking at the screen (laptop, smartphone) also can harm your eyes.

Viewing a computer or digital screen often makes the eyes work harder. As a result, the unique characteristics and high visual demands of computer and digital screen viewing make many individuals susceptible to the development of vision-related symptoms. Uncorrected vision problems can increase the severity of computer vision syndrome (CVS) or digital eyestrain symptoms.

According to American Optometric Association

eye strain (credit)

Pain causes by level of contrast of the screen, the brightness of the screen, the screen angle so if the screen to low you need to lower your head also it cause pain on your neck and shoulder, the viewing distance, the environment light.

The most common symptoms associated with CVS or digital eyestrain are:

• Eyestrain.

• Headaches.

• Blurred vision.

• Dry eyes.

• Neck and shoulder pain.

How to deal those danger

If you working all day while sitting and looking at the computer or any digital screen, here are tips I can share with you as I also doing these to avoid the health issues :

sitting posture (credit)

1. Straighten yourself when sitting, how straighten is right for you? Checkout this article.

2. Find a good chair to sit. A good chair will make you comfort while sitting

3. Drink water regularly

4. Stretch occasionally after 1 hour sitting, you can stand up or walk

5. Use anti-radiation glasses to help you against the blue light of the screen

6. Try the 20-20-20 rule, every 20 minutes break for 20 seconds to look at 20 feet away

7. Exercise or stretching at least 15 minutes a day. Any exercise is good as long as makes you move your body.

8. Eat fruits or vegetables, don’t just have a coffee

At least those are what I do to keep my health, you can try to do that and see if that improve your health. Make you can think more creative, make a decisions fast, feel more happy and enjoy at work. If you have experience or any tips, you can share it in the comments. Thank you for reading.