Purpose. It has been reported that people who use computers extensively may experience dry eye symptoms which eventually disappear with rest. We wanted to determine whether keeping the eye moist, either by increasing the eye’s blink rate or by periodically supplying the eyes with saline, would help to relieve recurring dry eye symptoms.

Methods. Six subjects (2 females and 4 males, age:26 ± 10) who use computers frequently participated in the experiment. They were not diagnosed with chronic dry eye syndromes or other eye diseases but have often experienced dry eye symptoms while working with computers. All but one were first-time subjects to our experiment. To trigger blinking or to periodically supply drops to the subject’s eyes, the Automatically Medicated Instrument for Eyedrops (AMIE)¹ was used. It was set to automatically eject either a minuscule jet of air every 10 seconds (6 ejections/minute) or a 5m l droplet of 0.9% saline every minute. Subject’s blink rate was monitored. Each subject performed three tests conducted on different days: (1) the subject worked on the computer on a specific task for two consecutive hours, (2) the subject repeated test 1 while wearing the AMIE which ejected a jet of air to trigger supplementary blinking, and (3) the subject repeated test 1 while wearing the AMIE which delivered saline droplets. To prevent the air jet from causing the eyes to dry, only one eye received the jet which was aimed toward the nasal corner of the upper eye lid. In contrast, saline droplets were delivered to the caruncles of both eyes. Before and after each session, the subjects had their visual acuity tested and completed a questionnaire designed to reveal typical dry eye symptoms. Each question was rated from 1 to 5 (1:not at all; 5:extreme).

Results. (1) Performing test 1 caused temporary dry eye symptoms for all subjects; (2) The average blink rates of the subjects in tests 2 and 3 were similar (about 15 bpm) and higher than in test 1 (about 8 bpm); (3) Increasing the blinking rate alone reduced the severity rating of the dry eye symptoms by a factor of 1.5; (4) Periodically supplying saline droplets eliminated all dry eye symptoms; and (5) Comparing the visual acuity before and after each test we found that it decreased in test 1, remained constant in test 2, and increased in test 3.

Conclusions. Increasing the blink rate partially relieved the dry eye symptoms experienced by frequent computer users. Supplying saline drops periodically was effective in preventing dry eye symptoms from recurring.