If you work from home, hybrid, or in a screen-heavy role, your eyes are doing something they were never designed to do. They are holding focus at one fixed distance for eight hours, blinking less than half as often as they should, and processing light that flickers at frequencies you cannot consciously see. By 5pm, something has to give. The headache. The dry, gritty feeling. The blur when you look up from the laptop. The Digital Eye Strain Assessment is built to find out what is actually causing it.
Why standard eye tests miss what is going on with screen workers
A standard eye test checks if you can read letters on a chart six metres away. That is useful for driving. It tells you almost nothing about what happens when you spend nine hours at a screen 50 centimetres from your face.
Digital eye strain is not one problem. It is a stack of small problems that compound. A prescription that is correct for distance but slightly off for intermediate range. A tear film that breaks down because you blink half as often when you concentrate. Eye muscles that fatigue from holding focus at the same distance all day. Lighting and screen position issues that nobody has measured. Any one of these on its own is manageable. All of them together is why your head hurts at 4pm.
A Digital Eye Strain Assessment looks at every part of the stack.
What is included in the assessment
The assessment runs longer than a standard eye test and covers more.
- Comprehensive vision and prescription check. Distance, intermediate, and near. Most people only get tested at distance, which misses the working range where eye strain actually happens.
- Screen-distance measurement. We measure the actual distance from your eyes to your primary screen. Lens prescriptions for screen work need to match the distance you use, not a generic average.
- Tear film and dry eye assessment. Screen use cuts your blink rate by more than half. Over time the tear film breaks down and the eye surface dries. We check for this directly rather than guessing.
- Binocular vision and focusing assessment. How your eyes work together at near range, how easily they shift focus, and whether either is contributing to your symptoms.
- Eye health check. Slit lamp examination, intraocular pressure, retinal imaging where indicated. The same clinical standard as a comprehensive eye exam.
- Workspace and ergonomic review. Screen height, viewing distance, lighting, monitor count. Most patients with screen-related symptoms have at least one ergonomic factor making things worse.
- Personalised recommendations. Whatever the assessment finds, you leave with a written plan. That might mean a lens prescription tuned for screen distance. It might mean dry eye treatment. It might mean changing how your desk is set up. Often it is more than one of those.
Do you actually need glasses for screen work?
Sometimes yes. Sometimes no. This is where most marketing in this space goes wrong.
The honest answer is that blue light filtering glasses, despite the marketing, have weak evidence behind them. A Cochrane review of 17 randomised controlled trials led by researchers at the University of Melbourne found that blue light filtering spectacles probably make no difference to eye strain caused by computer use. If somebody is selling blue light glasses as the answer to your symptoms, they are selling a product, not a solution.
What does help, when the assessment shows you need it, is the right prescription tuned for the distances you actually work at. Anti-fatigue lens designs reduce the focusing effort your eye muscles do all day. Office-style lenses give you a clear zone from your screen to a colleague across the room without making you tilt your head. These are real clinical tools that work for the right patient. They are not the right answer for everyone.
The point of the assessment is to find out which category you are in before anything gets prescribed.
Who the assessment is built for
The assessment is designed for the person who spends most of their day on a screen and has noticed something is not right.
If any of this sounds familiar, you are the audience for this assessment.
You finish work with tired or sore eyes. You get headaches by mid-afternoon. Your vision blurs briefly when you look up from the screen. Your eyes feel dry or gritty. You catch yourself squinting at the monitor. You have started moving the phone further away to read it. You wear contact lenses and they feel worse on screen days. You wear glasses and they no longer feel right at the laptop.
The assessment is also useful if you are over 40 and have started noticing the small text on your phone getting harder. Early presbyopia and screen fatigue often arrive together. The assessment will tell you which is which.
An independent, evidence-led practice
Leichhardt Eyecare is locally owned and independently operated. We have looked after Inner West families and professionals for more than 30 years. The practice has a particular interest in how vision affects daily function, including neuro-developmental optometry, which means we think about the way your eyes and brain work together, not just whether you can read a chart.
That matters when you are dealing with screen-related symptoms. The cause is rarely just the prescription. It is how the visual system is performing under sustained close-up demand. The assessment, the recommendations, and the follow-up reflect that.
What it Costs
What to expect
What you receive
Book your Digital Eye Strain Assessment
Leichhardt Eyecare is at Shop 28, Marketplace Leichhardt, on the corner of Marion and Flood Streets. On-site parking. Easy access from Balmain, Annandale, Rozelle, Lilyfield, Haberfield, Drummoyne, Stanmore, Petersham, Glebe, and the wider Inner West.
Or call (02) 9560 4707 to speak to the team.
Frequently asked questions
Do I need a referral from a GP?
No. You can book a Digital Eye Strain Assessment directly with Leichhardt Eyecare. Optometrists are primary eye care providers and you do not need a GP referral.
How is this different from a normal eye test?
A standard eye test is built around distance vision and general eye health. The Digital Eye Strain Assessment goes deeper into intermediate and near vision, tear film health, focusing and binocular function, and the working environment that is driving your symptoms. The eye health check is still included. There is just more of everything else.
Will I definitely need new glasses?
Not necessarily. Some patients need a tuned prescription for screen distance. Some need anti-fatigue or office-style lenses. Some need dry eye treatment, not glasses. Some need a workspace change. The assessment finds out which applies to you. Nothing gets recommended unless the clinical findings justify it.
Do blue light glasses work?
The current best evidence says they probably do not reduce eye strain or improve sleep. If you want them and they help you psychologically, they are not harmful. We will not recommend them as the solution to your symptoms because the research does not support that. There are better options for most patients.
I work from home. Can I bring details of my actual setup?
Yes, and we encourage it. Photo of your workstation, brand and size of your monitor, how many screens you use, and the distance from your eyes to the main screen if you can measure it. The more we know about the actual environment, the better the recommendations.
Yes, in most cases. We process claims for prescription lenses through HICAPS on the spot. The eye examination is generally covered by Medicare for eligible patients.