When you love reading, you take your books and e-readers everywhere: to the beach, to the pool, to the park. You’ve got books in your bedroom because the last thing you do before sleeping is read, and if you’re alone you keep reading over coffee the next morning at the kitchen table. All that reading is good for your brain, but your reading habits might not be good for your eyes. Make sure that you keep your eyes healthy by following these three important rules:

Make sure you’ve got enough light, but not too much. The glare of the sunlight on the page makes you squint your eyes to read at noon when you’re having a picnic at the beach. Too little light in a dark bedroom makes it hard to see when you’re reading at night. Be sure that you find the right light level so that you don’t have to strain your eyes to read. Forcing your eyes to read in too-bright light or to make out letters in dim light makes unnecessary extra work for the ciliary muscles that help you focus your eyes.

Take breaks from reading. It’s one thing to take “just a few minutes more!” to finish an exciting chapter, but reading for hours at a time will make your eyes tired, and can be mentally exhausting as well. If you’re reading for school or a project at work and are under a deadline, you might have to spend all day reading, but you can pause frequently to rest your eyes and get your body moving. Keeping your circulation going helps get oxygen to your eyes and brain, which helps both function better. Make sure you schedule at least 15 minutes of non-reading activity out of every hour.

Stay ahead of vision problems. Because many vision problems come about fairly slowly – for example, as we age and lose near or far vision – you might not realize that you’ve been gradually holding your book closer and closer to your face as you read. Getting your eyes checked regularly means that you’ll be fitted for glasses or contact lenses when you need them, not years after you’ve been straining your eyes to read without help.