Treating Monitor-Related Eye Strain?

bergeron76 asks: "Like many of you, I look at CRT and LCD displays constantly when I'm at work and when I'm at home (and even when I'm in my car). As a result, I was wondering if any of you have any neat ideas or ways to help reduce eye strain and dryness while looking at displays continuously? I've tried vitamins, eye drops, increased blinking, and combinations of glasses / contacts with little success thus far. People make assumptions about me because my eyes are constantly blood-shot, and I'm wondering what I can do to heal my eyes? I recently heard about Punctum Plugs and was wondering if anyone has had any experience with them and if they're worth the cost. They're little plugs that reduce the size of your tear ducts so your eyes retain more fluid and stay 'lubed'. Does anyone have any experiences with these or have any other recommendations for reducing eye strain and dryness (aside from not computing)?"

Comments

You're a towel

[cheezus]

People make assumptions about me because my eyes are constantly blood-shot

um, yeah... it's just monitor strain

i gotta remember that

Not meaning to be funny . . .

[MaxwellStreet]

As others have (less politely) said . . .

Try to find ways to spend less time looking at the screen. Really.

Draw UML on a whiteboard. Step outside for a minute or two every so often. Outline test cases on a piece of paper. Organize things on real to-do lists, instead of running your life off the screen.

(This advice has helped me avoid carpal tunnel, too - I got to the point where my wrists ached, and found ways to break up long bouts of typing. It helped quite a bit.)

Get your refresh rate on your monitor up as much as is reasonable - even the slightest flicker can cause trouble after a few intense hours.

Also, if you can, find a way to get rid of fluorescent lighting in your work area. It makes a big difference.

Do everything you can to break up those long bouts in front of a screen, even for short periods. Rest your eyes. Good luck.

Invert Your Colors

[Asicath]

Invert the color sceme that you use when coding. I use white text on black background, it takes a bit of getting used to, but the difference is well worth it.

My eyes used to spasm and all sorts of nasty crap before I did this. A monitor is basiclly a large lightbulb, when the screen is mostly white, they will light the whole room.

The only problem is that many sites use white as a background and look ugly if you force your own colors on them.

Another career threatened by dry eyes

[John Q. Public]

Just today, the SF Chronicle had a column on Rich Aurilia (baseball player) who is dealing with a similar issue and his hunt for a solution. Since he has far more cash for doctors than I do, his solutions may not match yours but they may help...

• (for those who don't click through)
• drops in his eyes
• two flaxseed oil tablets a day
• clear wraparound glasses, essentially protective goggles
• sealed off his tear ducts so that fluid wouldn't drain easily from his eyes

Sealing off the ducts seems like a radical solution to me. I can't imagine monkeying that much with my body just to avoid dry eyes.
---

Dude you are not using the correct drops

[snoopdug]

Normal drops like visine have weird stuff in them like bascaline or something like that. Your eye will become immune to its effects. If you want to use drops, use Thera Tears or any that is simulated tears. Your eyes never get immune to real tears. Also, look away from your computer and focus on a far away object like a tree or a bird.

Ergonomics

[KurdtX]

A few bits of ergonomics will help you out significantly (hopefully).

• Get a high quality monitor
  If you can't get one at work, at least have a good one at home. I went looking for a 19" monitor that could do 1600x1200 four years ago, and while I could have paid $450 (prices in USD), I instead opted for a $600 model (I used pricewatch for these prices). Why? Because any eye care and related discomfort to me wasn't worth $150. And the monitor really should be able to do at least 70Hz at the resolution you use, I can't tell you how many people I know who've had monitor-related headaches that were fixed by upping the refresh rate.
• Balance your color settings
  I've used Macs for a long time, which come with excellent color-balancing software. But PCs don't have this, and I'll often notice they present an image onscreen that is horribly out of whack. A lot of monitors allow you to adjust the strength of the color outputs, and I assume there's some software to do the same (try Adobe?). You shouldn't notice any adjustment in your eyes between looking at the monitor and the real world (such as if you putting on or taking off tinted glasses). That's not good for your eyes either.
• Don't sit too close to the monitor
  You're supposed to have your eyes 2 feet from the screen. I don't know anyone who actually does this, but most people are at least 1 foot away. If you're sitting closer, or finding that you often have to lean in to see things (such as small text), you should probably get a larger (physically) monitor, or run at a lower resolution (or, adjust the sizes of how all your fonts display). This will make a big difference, and you'll see results almost immediately.
• Align your monitor with your eyes
  Your eyes should be even with the top of the screen (not the bevel). Ok, this doesn't have to be precise, but if you are constantly looking down or up it's going to suck for not only your eyes, but your neck and back, too. It's easy to fix, too, mostly people have monitors that are too small, so they stack books or bricks or whatever underneath to raise it up.
• Eliminate glare
  Almost forgot this one. If you're getting too much glare from windows or overhead lights you're going to be squinting constantly while using your monitor. You probably don't even notice it, as (like all of these things) your eyes just adjust to it automatically and you don't notice until they're bloodshot or you've got headaches. But if you find that you're squinting, get a filter on your monitor, or buy one that has some sort of anti-relectivity technology built-in. Well worth it.

Ok, that's not going to solve everyone's problems, but it will help. And most of the adjustments you make once, and then forget about. Seriously, you really don't want to cheap out when buying a monitor. $50 more spent on a monitor is going to affect your life significantly more than $50 on any other part of the computer.