Can screen time cause dry eyes?
Screen time can contribute to dry eyes because people blink less often and less completely when concentrating on a screen, which allows the tear film to break up between blinks.
- Subject
- Eye conditions
- Topic
- Dry eye
- Kind of question
- Other questions
- Last reviewed
- 22 September 2026
In more detail
The effect is about blinking behaviour rather than the light, which is why breaks that involve looking at something distant, and making a point of blinking fully, tend to help.
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It is one of 483 answers in the vision and eye health knowledge base, filed under Eye conditions & diseases in Dry eye . The subject page carries the answers either side of it, and the hub is searchable.
Subjects this question touches
The pages that answer the subject behind the question, rather than the question itself.
- Condition Dry eye
This information is for educational purposes and does not replace an examination by a qualified eye-care professional.
General answers cannot tell you what is happening in your own eyes. Only an examination by a qualified ophthalmologist can do that.
Sources & further reading
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- EyeSmart: eye health information for the public
Patient-facing material from the largest ophthalmology professional body, covering conditions, tests and treatments outside refractive surgery.
Used for Cross-checking patient-facing explanations of non-refractive eye conditions; Describing what tests such as dilation and OCT involve.
Link checked 23 September 2026