Eyes and screens, answered
Plain answers to the questions people ask about blinking, breaks and tired eyes at a screen, each with the studies behind it.
All guides
- How often should you blink at a screen? People blink about 17 times a minute at rest and about 4 or 5 times while reading. Why screens lower your blink rate, why incomplete blinks matter, and what helps.
- Does the 20-20-20 rule work? Every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. What studies found about the 20-20-20 rule for eye strain, where the evidence is thin, and how to use it anyway.
- Blink exercises for dry, tired eyes (the squeeze blink) Close, squeeze, open, 15 times, three times a day. The blink exercise that came out best in a 2025 trial, how to do it, and what it can and can’t do.
Blink. Then carry on.
Free for Chrome, Edge and Firefox. A minute to set up, then it stays out of the way.
No camera, no account, no tracking. Coming soon to Chrome, Edge and Firefox. Phone browsers don’t run extensions. Add it on your computer.
Almost in the Chrome Web Store.
BlinkPause is on its way to the Chrome Web Store. This button will take you straight to it the moment it’s live.
Almost in Edge Add-ons.
BlinkPause is on its way to Edge Add-ons. This button will take you straight to it the moment it’s live.
Almost in Firefox Add-ons.
BlinkPause for Firefox is on its way to addons.mozilla.org. This button will take you straight to it the moment it’s live.