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Coping With Computer Related Eye Strain?
Dimus asks: "There were several very useful discussions on Slashdot about curing and preventing problems with wrists and fingers. But what about your eyes? How can you prevent eye deterioration? Do you have any tricks, exercises to fight eye pain, fatigue, and other problems? What monitors are better for eyes? Big ones? Smaller ones? TFT or CRT? What company do you think makes monitors that are better for your eyes?"
High refresh rates
and properly adjusted monitors.
Teach everyone how to adjust there monitors
because there isnt any one setting that is best for everyone.
With monitors mostly you get what you pay for go high end.
Most of all no florescent lights!!!!
2) Higher refresh rates obviously help.
3) It seems to me that TFT displays would be better on your eyes than CRT displays, because they don't generate their own light so much as filter other light (from the room, or from the cold cathode backlights, which run at very high frequencies IIRC).
4) Take breaks, for crying out loud! Go do something that doesn't involve focusing your eyes at close range.
Based on this, the Apple Cinema Display would be the perfect monitor. Mmmm, 24 inch LCD...
Use a good wrist rest and switch to a trackball. That's what I did a couple of years ago after my wrists started acheing. My wife did the same thing. My wrists never hurt now.
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I've found the best wrist rests are these:
http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10
http://www.us.buy.com/retail/product.asp?sku=10
They are much nicer than the other gel filled rests that others have. Last longer, and aren't too soft. I now use a Logitech Marble+ trackball at home and work. The new Microsoft trackballs are good too..but either way go optical. It takes a little while to get used to a trackball but now I'm just as fast and accurate with it as I was with a mouse, even in games.
The last time I saw an eye doctor in San Jose, he told me about the PRIO test, which calculates a prescription specifically for use when working with a computer -- if you already wear glasses, you wear the PRIO glasses instead; if you have contacts, you wear the PRIO glasses with your contacts.
The idea is that the computer glasses allow you to focus on the screen without having to strain your eyes -- according to PRIO, when you look at a computer screen, your eyes tend to focus beyond the screen, resulting in eyestrain as your eyes constantly try to focus closer in. That seems to fit with what I remember my doctor saying about the glasses encouraging underfocusing.
Alas, I never followed up on these, but there's a fair bit of stuff out there on the Web (look for ``PRIO''). Two articles on the Motion Picture Editors' Guild website might also be of interest:
You might want to try some or all of the other suggestions people have made here first (replacing overhead fluorescent lighting with indirect lighting, increasing your system's refresh rate, lowering the resolution of your monitor so you have larger characters, adjusting the brightness and contrast, etc.), but if you're still having problems, you might want to look into these glasses. If you have a health plan that includes eyecare, these glasses might be covered, and you also might be able to get coverage under the new OSHA ergonomics regulations.
Needless to say, you should take anything that PRIO says with a grain of salt -- while their product may do wonders, they have a vested interest in people believing that it works. Your eye doctor may, too, especially if he or she is selling the glasses, too, and not just examining your eyes (at the very least, there's the cost of the test; if you decide to get PRIO glasses, you're talking about new lenses and frames, and fashionable frames tend to be very expensive). Do some research -- see what people on the 'Net have to say, and if you know people with these glasses, be sure to talk to them about their experiences!
I find that most people (including myself) tend to set their monitors to be far too bright. As a general rule of thumb, try to keep the monitor's intensity no greater than the intensity of frame surrounding the monitor. Too many people seem to like staring into a monitor that's as bright as a fluorescent light bank.
Frequent breaks are really important- staring at something that is a fixed distance away for a long time is something your eyes aren't really suited for. Take a break, find a window and look at a distant object- give your eyes a chance to focus at a variety of distances. I find these breaks also help in my problem solving and general stress level.
My eye doctor said that when people stare at monitors, they tend to not blink enough. I screwed up my cornea(sp? by allowing my eyes to get to dry. My doctor suggested that I use lubricating eye drops once for every hour on the computer. After using the drops for a week, my cornea was nearly healed.
When my sister was diagnosed with Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome, a learning disability in which people have trouble seeing printed or written words, she was outfitted with a pair of specially colored glasses and colored overlays that she put over paper. Her doctor told us that black print on white paper is the absolute worst thing anyone can do for their eyes becuase it causes eye strain. Studies have shown that peacock blue print on a yellow background is the most beneficial combination to reduce eye strain.
The placement of your computer monitor is also an issue. It should be about 20 degrees below eye level and 20-26" away from your eyes. Copies should be at the same height and distance. Room illumination should be three times brighter than the screen background. Natural lighting is best, but for those of you without windows in your office, non-flourescent bulbs do fine. As for eye dryness, air conditioning or fans can help keep your eyes moist, as well as eye drops.
There are several exercizes you can do to strengthen and relax your eyes (thanks to Marc Grossman, OD):
1) Try rubbing your plams together until they're warm and then placing them over your eyes for one or two minutes.
2) Hold up a pencil about 6 inches from your eyes. Focus on the pencil, and then on something further away. Repeat about 15 times.
3) Scan your eyes from right to left and then back again across the room.
4) Roll your head around on your neck every once in a while. This reduces tension in your neck, shoulder, and scalp muscles.
Some time back, I was wearing glasses, and decided to "update" my look, and get contacts. When I went in to the doctor, I told him the after working all day on the computer, my eyes would start to itch and burn.
He checked my eyes, did the lens-flippy thing, and said I had astigmatism in one eye (my left), that wasn't being corrected by my glasses. So, he gave me a toric lens prescript for my left eye (very expensive).
You know what? Pain and itching are now gone!
So, the moral is, if you wear glasses or contacts, make sure they are the right prescription - or if you are having problems, see the eye doctor - you may need a new prescription, or you might find out it is something else...
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If you spend a lot of time typing rather than mousing, consider moving your keyboard to the edge of your desk. When you do this, you can't rest your wrists on the desk, and will avoid the worst CTS cause. CTS is caused when pressure on the wrists put pressure on the carpal tunnel, and squeeze the nerve inside.
I used to have problems with my wrists, even when using those gel rests. Then I remembered how my teachers in grade 10 typing were trying to get us to type without resting our wrists. I tried it, and it worked wonders. Of course, I have large hands, so sometimes I will rest the heels of my hands on the edge of the desk, and still be able to type, but never my wrists.
I have not yet found a comfortable position for mousing which keeps my wrist off the desk. Any suggestions?
It may look like I'm doing nothing, but I'm actively waiting for my problems to go away.
--Scott Adams
Wherever it's possible to set the appearance defaults of a program or environment, it's a good idea to use light text on a dark background. I find I need far fewer "eye breaks" if I set my editor, terminal, browser, etc, to use light text on a black background.
Apparently this also makes computers easier (or possible) to use for people with some sorts of visual handicaps.
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