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Joey Dua, an Ayurvedic medical student, describes how burning eyes during long study sessions prompted him to reconsider his screen habits and attention. His personal account reports trying simple eye-rest practices, but does not establish that they treat eye strain or improve attention.
Joey Dua, an Ayurvedic medical student, says recurring burning eyes during long screen-based study sessions led him to change his study habits and reflect on how he directed his attention. In a first-person essay on Tiny Buddha, he describes practices he tried and says his experience does not establish that they are effective therapies.
Dua writes that during his second year of Ayurvedic medical school, his eyes began burning around 9 p.m. each night. As exams approached, he studied from lecture slides, reference PDFs and phone-based practice questions, estimating that he spent 12 or 13 hours a day reading on screens. He says he initially rubbed his eyes, blinked and returned to work.
One winter evening, a brief power interruption made him look up from his laptop. After the light returned, he says he could not focus clearly on the far wall for several seconds. His vision sharpened again, and he describes the episode as not medically dramatic. What stayed with him, he writes, was realizing he had barely looked at the distant view outside his window for weeks.
Dua says the screen-heavy routine also affected how he ate and communicated: he sometimes ate at his desk without paying much attention to the food, skimmed messages and continued scrolling while speaking with his mother. He tried practices described by his professors, including resting his closed eyes in warmed palms, looking at a distant object, rinsing his eyes with cool water and closing them fully during the day. He reports that these pauses helped him notice tension and shallow breathing, but does not present them as clinically established treatment.
How Screen Study Narrowed His Attention
Dua’s account describes how prolonged near-screen work coincided with changes in how he noticed fatigue, his surroundings and interactions with other people. He writes that he came to distinguish extended concentration on study materials from broader awareness of his surroundings. He says eye discomfort prompted him to reconsider his habits.
The essay distinguishes personal experience from evidence. Dua says he cannot establish that the practices he tried are proven therapies, and notes that some have received little study. His account does not establish that these routines prevent or resolve eye problems. People with persistent, worsening or concerning symptoms can seek advice from a qualified eye-care professional.
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A Student Studying Eye Health
Dua says he was studying Shalakya Tantra, an Ayurvedic branch concerned with the eyes and head, while relying heavily on digital materials for his own education. He writes that his coursework included traditional accounts of factors associated with eye strain, such as extended close focus, insufficient rest, dryness and staying up late. The contrast between that study and his own routine was part of what prompted him to reassess it.
The source identifies Dua as a BAMS student and the person behind Darakhtveda, an Indian Ayurvedic brand whose first product is I-Care Eye Drops. That background is relevant to his perspective, but it does not independently verify the efficacy of the practices he describes or establish a medical conclusion about his symptoms.
“I was not paying attention. I was narrowing it.”
— Joey Dua, in his Tiny Buddha essay
What His Account Cannot Establish
The source provides one person’s account, not a clinical assessment or controlled study. It does not establish what caused Dua’s burning eyes, whether his brief difficulty focusing on a distant wall was related to his study routine, or whether any of the practices he tried changed his eye health. He does not give a formal diagnosis or report a measured outcome.
The essay also does not provide a publication date, details of medical follow-up or research citations for the practices. Its statements about the effects of distance gazing and pausing on his thinking are personal observations, not evidence that the same effects occur for others. The source does not establish that screens were the sole cause of his discomfort.
A Routine Built Around Pauses
Dua says he remains a student and continues to use screens. His reported adjustment is to pause, close his eyes or look out at the neem tree and rooftops near his desk when his eyes begin to burn. He writes that he now tries to see the evening view from his window.
The source does not announce a study, a treatment plan or a further publication date. Dua says he intends to continue responding to discomfort with rest and pauses. Whether those changes affect his symptoms over time is not reported.
Key Questions
What happened to Joey Dua’s eyes?
Dua says his eyes began burning around 9 p.m. during a period of intensive screen-based study. He also recalls a few seconds of difficulty focusing on a distant wall after looking up from his laptop during a power interruption. He does not report a diagnosis.
Did the eye practices cure his symptoms?
No cure is reported. Dua describes trying palming, distance gazing, cool-water rinsing and fully closing his eyes, but says he cannot claim these are proven therapies. He says his eyes still get tired.
Does the essay show that screens caused his eye discomfort?
No. The essay describes extended screen study alongside eye discomfort, but it does not establish a cause or rule out other explanations. It is a first-person account, not a clinical study.
What does Dua say he changed?
He says that when discomfort begins, he now takes a pause, closes his eyes or looks at a distant view rather than automatically pushing through. The source does not provide measured results or say whether the change reduced his symptoms.
Source: rss
