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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?"
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!