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Treating Monitor-Related Eye Strain? 103

Posted by Cliff from the reducing-the-risk-of-occular-burnout dept.
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)?"
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Treating Monitor-Related Eye Strain? More

Treating Monitor-Related Eye Strain?

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  • You're a towel (Score:5, Funny)

    by cheezus ( 95036 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:41PM (#6109617) Homepage
    People make assumptions about me because my eyes are constantly blood-shot

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

    i gotta remember that

  • Perhaps (Score:3, Funny)

    by smoondog ( 85133 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:41PM (#6109621)
    Perhaps this ask /. should have been combined with the previous [slashdot.org]. After all, it really is just another aspect of the same problem. Unfortunately, Photoshop can't fix your vision. Dunno about GIMP....

    -Sean

  • Not meaning to be funny . . . (Score:5, Informative)

    by MaxwellStreet ( 148915 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:45PM (#6109654)
    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.

  • Are you generally healthy? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by stienman ( 51024 ) <adavis@@@ubasics...com> on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:45PM (#6109656) Homepage Journal
    You may have eye problems because you aren't eating well, aren't fit or don't get enough sleep on a regular basis. My eyes are still recovering from a late night (20 hours awake) - it usually takes a few days. Also note that near the end of your twenties you will find your body doesn't heal from such activities as quickly. If you stay up for more than 16 to 20 hours at a time more than once a week I wouldn't expect you to ever recover.

    But you are talking about two seperate (but related) things - eye strain, and dry eyes. There are two seperate remedies if you have taken care of health, fitness, and sleep. First, look away from the screen at a far away object for 30 seconds or more at least every 10-15 minutes. There are programs which cover the screen and force you to do so for periods of time. Second, make a program that flashes something large on your display every 10-30 seconds extremely briefly. Your eyes will instinctively blink, and you will not be distracted after getting used to it - much less distracting than a beep, or other stimulues, and uses your reflexes so you don't need to take your mind off what you're doing.

    I find that reading and coding cause me to keep my eyes open for far longer than they should be. I would be surprised if you were actually blinking enough when you were trying to blink more frequently.

    -Adam
    • You may have eye problems because you aren't eating well, aren't fit or don't get enough sleep on a regular basis.

      Also, the author of the article didn't mention exactly the contacts/glasses combinations he/she tried. At one point several years ago, I had to go several days without contacts just to get my eyes back to normal. A couple years ago, I had to give up on contacts entirely after one especially irritating episode (I'm happy enough with glasses, anyway).

      If contacts are the source of irritation,
      • If you have appreciable astigmatism, contacts are evil.

        I NEVER was able to get anywhere close to the vision quality I got with glasses when wearing contacts, thanks to severe astigmatism. Contacts just don't mix with it, even if your contacts are supposed to be correcting for it.

        I eventually had LASIK surgery. Short-term, the haloing made monitors painful to use, but long-term (after the haloing went away), things are VASTLY improved. I have better vision than I ever did with contacts OR glasses.
        • I NEVER was able to get anywhere close to the vision quality I got with glasses when wearing contacts, thanks to severe astigmatism.

          Hard contacts are best for astigmatism...but no where close to the comfort of soft contacts. There are hybrid soft/hard contacts, but they are also very expensive. I agree that astimatism makes contacts a real pain in the ass (or eyes).
    • First, look away from the screen at a far away object for 30 seconds or more at least every 10-15 minutes. There are programs which cover the screen and force you to do so for periods of time

      This is good advice. I recommend looking at something far away, then close, then far away, then close, then far away. I find that just a few seconds at each range is enough for me, but you can increase the number of reps to suit yourself. The changing of focus far-short-far-short gives the eyes a good workout. Do

  • Invert Your Colors (Score:5, Interesting)

    by Asicath ( 522428 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:47PM (#6109676) Homepage
    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.
    • I find a mostly bright yellow (#EAEA06) on black works best for me.
      • Very bad on eyestrain is a bright monitor in darkened room. Try to lit your cubicle wall behind and around the monitor evenly, with a lightbulb lamp.

        Part of the eyestrain problem is also the blinking of the monitor, unfortunately this is hard problem to fix. I wonder if there is a defice, like a fluorescent screen with afterglow - which would even-out the blinking. (The downside would be that you would not be able to scroll fast - or it would produce "tails")

      • I find a mostly bright yellow (#EAEA06) on black works best for me.

        Ahh, I remember the good (bad?) ol' days of coding on an amber screen terminal. I almost never got eyestrain. Of course, I had reams of greenbar paper that needed to be referenced from time to time, so I wasn't just staring at the screen for eight hours a day.

        Try orienting your screen so that you can glance out a window or down a corridor from time to time. I would try to alter my environment and work habits before putting plugs in my tea
      • A little more subtle, I simply go into my Windows screen settings under Appearance and set the background to Black with no wallpaper, and I change the active window color from bright white to light gray (bottom left color box selection.)

        This changes it across the board and not just within the developer's IDE (Studio or whatever.)

        Back on my C=64 I used bright yellow on black as my normal display mode and I agree it works very well.
      • I usually go with green on black, for 2 reasons:

        First, my first computing experiences were on a Commodore PET, so I will probably always have warm fuzzies for green on black.

        Second, green is a primary color on monitors, so it also reduces the blurring problem that many crappy monitors have, and those are usually the monitors that I feel the need to use an inverted color scheme on.

        • FYI (Score:2)

          by Andy Dodd ( 701 )
          The reason older monochrome monitors were green/black or amber/black was BECAUSE of eyestrain - Green or amber text on a black BG caused less eyestrain. I believe the phosphors were cheaper too.

          I would love a "green text on black BG" option for /. :)
      • Which is also the reason a lot of hunters and marksmen wear amber glasses. Better resolution through the gravy lens.
    • Konqueror has an option to force a custom stylesheet that also makes webpages white text on black background. try it for a while together with a dark kde theme.
      • Mozilla can also do this. I tried it just a few minutes ago; it really makes a big difference! Don't forget to change the colors of the links too.
    • I just tried inverting the colors in Opera [opera.com], and it's pretty nice. However, black-on-white is still a lot of contrast... maybe grey on black, or yellow (as another poster wrote) would be even smoother.
    • i'll second that...

      i switched to dark green background and silver text for everything and lost a tic that i used to get

      i thought it was too much pot, but was white background the whole time

      do some checking on google, but the basic problem is that a book's lightsource is reflecting off of the white page, whereas a monitor is blasting that white light directly onto your retina. that is why black text on white back is good for books but nasty for CRTs

      mozilla is very good at making the web look the way
    • For those of you using Macs: OS X has the ability to invert the screen colors system-wide.

      Look for the 'Universal Access' module in the Preferences.

    • A call for new optional black background on slashd (Score:5, Insightful)

      by fluor2 ( 242824 ) on Wednesday June 04, 2003 @02:33AM (#6112679)
      This is a call for new optional black background on slashdot! Please make something like this optional in preferences.

  • Another career threatened by dry eyes (Score:5, Interesting)

    by John Q. Public ( 113556 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:50PM (#6109700) Homepage
    Just today, the SF Chronicle [slashdot.org] had a column on Rich Aurilia [sfgate.com] (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.
    ---

  • Same problem here (Score:4, Informative)

    by TheRoachMan ( 677330 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:52PM (#6109728) Journal

    I'm in the middle of my exams, and my studies require me to sit at a computer screen for 10 hours a day (or more). Perhaps compared to some of you that's not much, but I'm experiencing itchy eyes, and sometimes I rub them vigorously because I can't take the itch anymore, and the result is: blood-shot eyes as if I just downed 15 tequilas. I'll sure keep an eye out (sorry for the pun) for any good solutions and if I find any, I'll post them up.

    So far the only thing I can think of is Teramycin (TerRamycin?), a very mild desinfectant, comes in the form of a clear liquid or, more known to the public, ointment. I often use it if I get blood-shot eyes from swimming (I'm very sensitive to chlorene). Haven't tried it yet this time, but I'm gonna give it a shot. I read you have already tried eye-drops, but since Teramycin is a more viscous, oily stuff, it might help to keep your eyes wet and lubricated better (sounds gross doesn't it?)

    Perhaps in the US this medicine is called differently, try to google it and find an alternative name.

  • Dude you are not using the correct drops (Score:5, Informative)

    by snoopdug ( 639823 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @05:52PM (#6109738) Journal
    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.

  • Some ideas (Score:4, Insightful)

    by dnight ( 153296 ) <dnight@lakkaCHEETAHdoo.com minus cat> on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @06:02PM (#6109811)
    #1 Go Outside.

    #2 Make a new friend; have a co-worker lick your eyeballs.

    Seriously, though, a couple of vision breaks watching the birds every three-four hours, using lubricating eye drops occasionally will help a lot. It's what I do to solve the problem (I compound it with wearing contacts).

    And having plugs stuck in your tear ducts sounds damn scary to me. Remember they're there before you get the MRI.

  • Humidity? (Score:2, Informative)

    by StormForge ( 596170 )
    Do you work in a dry place? Heated in winter and/or air conditioned in summer? Try a humidifier -- works well for me!

    -Bill

  • An ounce of prevention.... (Score:5, Informative)

    by dacarr ( 562277 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @06:08PM (#6109870) Homepage Journal
    Simple answer: so don't do that!

    My response is going to echo a lot of posters here for this question. These are things you can do while you're (say) writing code.

    First and foremost, don't be afraid to take yourself away from the problem. Side effects: you can sometimes focus more on a problem when you distance yourself from it.

    Second, fluorescent lighting will contribute to the problem. They are HORRIBLE for your eyes. If at all possible, use halogen - it's closer to the sun's lighting than even incandescent. Keep in mind that there is a latent flicker in fluorescent lighting that only becomes very obvious when the bulb or ballast starts to go bad. It will strain your eyes, and no polarized or UV protected lens will stop this. This is why people wind up doing the bifocals thing after years and years in office environments.

    Third, don't be afraid to go outside into the big room. You know, that room outside the installation with the bright blue ceiling during the day, or buncha pinprick lights at night? It's good for you, and...well, see my last paragraph regarding halogen lighting.

    • Well put, though incomplete.
      It is rare that productivity actually benefits from a long wide-eyed zombie session. I mean... it does happen, when a large solution comes through and you are so excited to do it that you can't think of anything else anyway. Most of the time, you can keep working productively without your fingers on the keyboard and your eyes on the screen more than maybe 10% of the time.
      Note: If your typing sucks, you'll get less rest time. One day, a friend came by my cube and looked over

      • Ripping (Score:3, Insightful)

        by Glonoinha ( 587375 )
        >One day, a friend came by my cube and looked over my shoulder. He apologied, explaining that he was annoyed by my "playing" with the keyboard, thinking that I was just drumming my fingers on the keys, but was surprised to see that it was all accurate text. He said I'd be dead silent for a couple of minutes, then maybe 20 seconds of a sort of "ripping" sound.

        I have very acute hearing, and am unfortunately very aware of my surroundings ... I have found that I can generally tell the difference between my

        • In dry climates, go into the bathroom and let the hot water run as hot as you can stand it, soak your hands, then rinse your face a few times with very hot water - not sure why this helps but I have found it very helpful.

          Washing your hands--actually, massaging them--in warm water does wonders for RSI problems in your hands/wrists too. This is especially true if you're in an office with insanely cold air conditioning.

  • treating monitor-related eye strain... (Score:5, Funny)

    by pb ( 1020 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @06:23PM (#6110025)
    Lay off the porn!

    No, really; we told you you'd go blind!
  • most people run their monitors at the normal refresh of 60hz
    but it isnt always the best for your eyes

    try upping your refresh rate on your monitors to 65, 70, or higher
    when you switch over it may hurt, but that doesnt last very long
    a higher refresh rate is better on your eyes
  • You're just spending too much time looking at your screen doing work and not enough near the coffee machine. Also increase your lunch break so that you can spend more time outside. :)

  • Ergonomics (Score:5, Informative)

    by KurdtX ( 207196 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @06:32PM (#6110114)
    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 [pricewatch.com] 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.
    • I agree 100% but want to tweak it just a little bit : replace your excellent CRT with an LCD.

      Go to Best Buy or somewhere they have monitors and LCDs in the same row. Step back a little bit. Look at the CRT, and chomp your teeth. See how it bounces around? Get closer and dart your eyes left and right and watch how the screen bounces around. Repeat with the LCD : the image stays rock solid.

      If you wait for End of Quarter Sales at Dell etc ... you can get a great deal on an 18" LCD, I paid $383 plus tax
    • great signature
  • The solution is simple... Start smoking, or mimick the smokers. I'm assuming since you're having eye strain, you don't take regular breaks. At one of my old jobs, smoke breaks were taken as a team. All team members went outside to allow for communication through the group. More often than not, one of us was having an issue we couldn't resolve. The little breaks allowed everyone to put their heads on it and we'd usually come up with a solution that lead them down the right path. No eye strain or carpal
  • My eyes were *very* strained.. I began having problems seeing, they were always hurting. It got to the point that it became difficult to work.

    I changed from contacts to glasses and later bought an LCD monitor. Those two changes drastically improved my life.

    Unfortunately, I don't think I look too good in glasses due to the very high power that my eyes require.
  • My girlfriend and I got operated on recently. We found that we had way more problems than before with dry eyes and tried a few things. Here are tips to keep your eyes healthy :
    • use a white board to write temporary stuff down so your eyes aren't in front of your monitor all day
    • when you take time to think of your code look out a window or at the farthest possible distance you can in your office. Do this often. I mean very often.
    • avoid greasy foods, alcohol and smocking. Any food that clogs up your li
    • FYI, the haloing from LASIK will slowly go away over time. I still have a little bit from surgery 2 years ago, but it decreased a lot in the first few months and has been decreasing slowly since then.

      Artificial tears are a LASIK patient's best friend. I used to need them all the time, now I'm down to one dose in the morning with rare exceptions. Note: Not all artificial tears are created equal. Most of the generics are the same formula, but Allergan's Refresh Tears drops and one of Ciba's products (I
  • I've heard great things about negative-ionizing Salt Lamps [google.com].

    Supposedly these things are great for offsetting the positive ionization especially created by CRT displays. The more expensive option would be to just get a good LCD... almost no ion/radiation being emitted. Yes, those CRTs emit lots of radiation... so get a salt lamp from Poland or sell your first child for a LCD display. [apple.com]
  • you could try some software [softpile.com] .

  • Your daily requirement for vitamin A more than doubles when you use your eyes for close work every day. Eye strain is a symptom of vitamin A deficiency. Munch on a few carrots and cashews during the day. Get some sunlight for the vitamin D. Cashews have calcium, which improves the absorption of other vitamins. Have a glass of V8. Canteloupe for breakfast. Plenty of fresh, raw fruits and vegetables, and drink water! 8-10 glasses a day. A balanced mineral and vitamin combination regime will take over

  • Tube intensity and eye excercise (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Halvard ( 102061 ) on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @10:10PM (#6111401)

    I was worried about my eyesite for years. I stared at CRT's in crappy light and sometimes in blue light for hours on end. Let me tell you, staring at O'scope traces is hard on your eyes. On a submarine, most people wear glasses. I didn't and I think I know why: I turned the intensity down on the tube quite a ways but it was still bright enough to see easily. I also would focus on objects that were close and then immediately shift to ones that were far away (30-50' is a long way inside a welded shut sewer pipe).

    Today, working sometimes 16 hours in front of a CRT, I do the same thing. I'm nearly 40 and have used computers and electronic devices now for 26 years solidly. My vision is still 20-20. Maybe I'm lucky but I think that it's do to good habits.

  • I have the same problem, and after a good long day staring at the screen the coreners of my eyes will turn bloodshot. NOTHING works to help it, except for taking some time away from the screen.

  • See a good Optometrist/Opthamologist (Score:4, Informative)

    by vitroth ( 554381 ) <vitroth@cmu.edu> on Tuesday June 03, 2003 @11:38PM (#6111934)
    Four years ago I was having significant amounts of eye strain. I went to see an opthamologist who was highly recommended to me by someone who had previously experienced the same thing.

    I told the opthamologist what I do for a living, and the problems I had been having. She gave me a very thorough exam, including some types of tests I'd never been given before.

    She determined that I needed a little bit more power in my mid-range vision, i.e. the range at which a typical computer monitor will be from your eyes. She recommended a prescription with progressive lenses. (Thats the prescription terminology for lenses with invisible tri-focal features. The brand name for most such lenses is 'Varilux'). She prescribed lenses with a very slight amount of additional power in the mid-range focal area.

    She also highly recommended anti-reflective coating on the lenses. (The brand name for the AR coating they use is 'Crizal', from the same company)

    The bad news: It was the most expensive pair of glasses I had ever purchased. $400+ lenses (hefty prescription, "thin" progressive lenses, anti-reflective coating), plus $200 for Titanium frames that lasted four years.

    The good news: No eye strain for the last four years. Despite the price, I was so happy with those glasses, that when they finally broke a few weeks ago, I went back to the same place and spent roughly the same amount for a new pair. But since the new glasses take about a week to arrive and my existing pair was dead, I also went to LensCrafters and got a "cheap" pair that same day. ($150) In the one week I wore those I had such bad headaches at work that I felt like I couldn't get much work done. (Plus, being LensCrafters frames & lenses, they basically feel like toy glasses. But at least I've got a spare pair to wear while playing racquetball.)

  • My wife has found Bilberry [thursdayplantation.com] herbal extract to be quite good for her eyes.

    Certainly beats using artificial stuff.

  • Move your monitor (Score:3, Insightful)

    by Ratbert42 ( 452340 ) on Wednesday June 04, 2003 @12:19AM (#6112134)
    Move your monitor so that there's something else in your line of sight that's at least 5 feet away. I have one of mine set so that anyone walking down the hall is in view. As a result, I lift my eyes and shift focus every few minutes. Helps a lot.
  • I had the plugs put in 6 months ago. One of the best decisions I ever made. I actually can't believe how well they work.

  • This might help: (Score:2, Interesting)

    by SpiritHex ( 443323 )
    I've had the same problems and found some decent solutions, over the years. This has helped immensely:

    1) Cut.caffeine.cold. This is the worst offender by far, this nice psychotropic drug we geeks commonly overuse. It does a nice job of severely restricting blood to your arms (worsening and/or creating RSI/CTS whichever) and drying up eyes to an insane degree. It also makes you bitter, but that's another story. #1 problem.

    2) Minimizing screen reflections, getting a nice anti-screen artifact, helps with vie
    • 3) EyeBright. Mighty powerful herb, can clear up to alcoholic level red eye syndrome in 20-30 mns. Your eyes will go bloodshot red to pure white. Guaranteed, plus 100% natural. Take 2-4 pills as needed, 2-3 times a week. Helps improve vision slightly as well. This heals your eyes, not a quick fix solution only.

      I prefer Hemlock tea. It's also 100% natural, and endorsed by Socrates. (You never hear about him having eye strain do you? its cause of the tea). Of course, you have to find a hemlock tree yourse

    • Artificial tears (Score:3, Informative)

      by Andy Dodd ( 701 )
      Agreed that Visine is evil.

      The "generic" brands of artificial tears also suck.

      Allergan's Refresh Tears, on the other hand, are amazing. Most of the generics have the same formula, but Refresh and Ciba's artificial tears (forget the exact name) each have unique formulas that are superior. I found that generics would cure dryness but blur my vision, Refresh doesn't.

      FYI, if you have LASIK surgery, you will NOT be able to say no to eye drops for a few months. Refresh will be your best friend. (For the fi
  • the standard monitor settings and the standard desktop settings cause a lot of stress for the eyes.
    - reduce contrast and brightness
    - enhance refresh rate (>80)
    - use large fonts with AA
    - use softer colors e.g. white -> light yellow black -> dark brown
    - no glares
    - align your monitor so that the screen has a 90 degree angle to your line of sight
    if you can't do some of it:
    - get a better monitor
    - use window shades + lights to get the right light
    I used to have problems

  • Saving Your Eyes (Score:3, Informative)

    by bjb ( 3050 ) * on Wednesday June 04, 2003 @09:31AM (#6114244) Homepage Journal
    I wrote an everything node [everything2.com] a while ago about this, but here is the text reproduced.

    This is really targetted at Computer Users who complain about how their eyes hurt, especially after a long day of staring at the computer monitor.

    I have had 15/20 vision all my life, and I've also been a heavy user of computers since 1979. People ask how the heck I have maintained my eyesight. It is really simple: turn the brightness down!

    Here are my tips for adjusting your computer monitor:

    • Display an image that contains a lot of BLACK, not grey, but black image. A perfect example is your boot loader, like lilo, if it doesn't have graphics. The black background should be black, not a shade of grey. If it is, turn down the brightness on your monitor. That is the dial that usually has a picture of a sun (or a circle with lines coming out from it).
    • Now turn down the contrast all the way. That is the dial with the half-filled circle. Turn it up until you can read the text without straining.
    • Now, if your monitor supports color temperature, adjust it to the 6000 or 6500 setting. This has a bit of a yellowish hue to the white, but you'll appreciate it later.

    That's it. Note that if you are working on computer graphics, this will NOT make the colors bright and pretty, so you'll probably have to go back to the eye-killing settings. But if you're a coder who is just doing text and web browsing all day, USE THIS. Your eyes will thank you for it.

    Even better: do the same thing I mentioned above, but with an LCD screen. CRT monitors are worse for your eyes than LCD.

    If you're playing first person shooters like Quake, you will probably have to crank up the brightness dial. Just remember to turn it back down later!


    • I have CRT monitors with my desktops and LCD with my laptop and spend every hour I can coding so eye strain is a big issue for me. Your suggestions about low brightness and lots of black are really effective (works within 15 seconds to reduce strain). Thanks for the advice.
    • The above steps were very helpful. I switched the background color to black in my IDE and there was an instant relief in eye strain. Also, once the above steps are followed head on over to Maximum PC and check out their article [maximumpc.com] on tuning up your monitor. They also have a Windows util called DisplayMate that will help, but is not required for the advise in the article.

      Anyway, thanks bjb!

      JOhn
      • Yeah, I read the Maximum PC article a few months ago when my subscription of that magazine came in. Pretty good, though I think the tuning advice was more for "this is how you can perfectly reproduce what you're supposed to see". My tips are for comfort and usability; not "monitor performance".

        The only other thing that I could recommend is to change the color scheme you might use on your computer. If you're a windows person, I've found 'Plum (high color)' to be soothing.

        Your mileage may vary.

  • I think you ment to post this on WebMD. We're geeks, not Dr.'s.
  • The military has spent a lot of money in reducing eye strain... and they suggest pausing to look at something green. Apparently that is relaxing to the eye. At NSW sniper school they teach the shoots to look away from their sites and relax their eyes by focusing on something green nearby, bush, leaves, etc. Also, notice how NVG's are green?
    • Correction, shooters...

      I have had great personal success going back to the "old school" setup of green text on a black background. It has really helped my eyes. (I had laser eye surgery several years ago.) As other posters have mentioned, any time you can use a black background do it. Also, add some plants to your workspace. The green helps the eyes and they help break up all the geometric computer shapes. :)
  • Hey, how about wearing sunglasses while you work at your PC? Not only will you protect your eyes from glare and strain, you will look and feel way cooler than your peers.
  • Two things:

    Get rid of the flourescent lights. They're the worst thing (short of mercury vapor) that you can use. Get some good old fashioned incandescent lamps or halogens. Indirect bright light is best (don't introduce glair...)

    Insist your employer provide you with a good quality monitor. Remind them that if you have problems caused by the bad hardware, it will reduce your productivity and may result in lost time. If they still won't comply, as a last resort, ask if you can provide your own monito

  • ...are constantly bloodshot around the edges, especially the outside edge. I too stare at a CRT for 2/3 of my day whether working or gaming. It's always annoyed me. I never really realized how bad it was until a few months ago. I wrecked my motorcycle going about 70-75 mph out on Hwy 400 on February 1. Many said I was lucky to walk away; I agree. About a week later I stopped by the sheriff's office to pick up the police report. The woman that brought it out to me asked about the wreck. I described t
  • maybe try blinking more or even walking away from your computer every once and a while. I stare at monitors virtually all day and my eyes always seem to be fine...

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