Shirin Movahed-Rakocevic added a new accessory to her look since the pandemic started: blue light blocking glasses.

“I am on Zoom most of my day. It helps to ease the fatigue,” Movahed-Rakocevic said.

Movahed-Rakocevic is a partner at KI Legal in the Financial District. She struggles from digital eye strain, a disorder that delivers debilitating pain throughout her day.

“It was something I have never experienced before. Very sharp pain coming from my optical nerve all the way shooting to the back of my head,” Movahed-Rakocevic said.

She says the screen time is also taking a toll on her personal life, especially when she spends time with her young kids.

“Sometimes I have to lie down and of course I have bags of ice all over my head,” Movahed-Rakocevic said.

The National Headache Foundation reports 64% of people who increased their screen time dealt with more headaches and dizziness in the pandemic. Dr. Shae Datta, the co-director of NYU’s Langone Concussion Center and the Director of Cognitive Neurology at NYU Langone Hospital Long Island, diagnoses patients with these symptoms often.

“Digital eye strain happens when you are spending a long time basically in front of a computer, TV, smartphones, anything that emits artificial blue light will cause you to get headaches,” Datta said. “It can disrupt your sleep over time.”

She offers this advice to those who upped their screen time over the past two years.

“Try to take a break from the screen every 20 minutes while you are working and it does not need to be long. Two to five minutes is good enough,” Datta said. “Imagine if muscles are in the same position for a while — they are going to get fatigued.”

Her other recommendations to reduce digital eye strain include staying away from your phone starting two hours before bed, making sure your workspace allows for your elbows to form a 90-degree angle with your desk, wearing blue light blocking glasses, and taking breaks from your screen every twenty minutes.

As for what’s next for Rakocevic? She says even as pandemic restrictions have lifted, some clients prefer communicating remotely.

“They’ve come to not only expect it, but demand that the firms that they work with also continue to allow them to stay virtual,” Movahed-Rakocevic said.

She plans to continue to wear her blue light blocking glasses because her virtual business isn’t slowing down any time soon.