
Are you a programmer with chronic headaches? If so please read - ColinWright
http://jacquesmattheij.com/Programmers+with+chronic+headaches+please+read
======
mechanical_fish
_Until I was 30 the word 'headache' didn't even exist for me. I never really
understood what other people were going on about._

There are two phenomena that never cease to amaze me. One is this one: You go
through life hearing about Problem X ("migraine headaches are really
debilitating!") but you never quite know what the fuss is about. Then you
_get_ your first migraine headache and as you're sitting there in the dark
feeling nauseous and miserable you suddenly think to yourself "oh, _this_ is
what my friends were talking about! Hey, they weren't kidding!"

Every time this happens it somehow takes me by surprise. I guess that, however
much you try, you can't easily imagine the actual experience of pain. You have
to be shown.

The other phenomenon is that you get _used_ to your own pains, and then find
yourself unreasonably surprised that other people don't intuitively understand
them. I've worn glasses since I was eight years old, contacts for a couple of
decades off and on, and I've been a professional laser scientist (i.e.
"someone whose eyes are in chronic danger") so Jacques' story surprises me:
You mean other people _don't_ go to the ophthalmologist every year? Oh, right,
they probably don't. I only know that intellectually; I don't really remember
that from day to day until I read a story like this one.

Human communication, empathy, and imagination are astonishing abilities, but
you do discover their limits.

~~~
FilterJoe
Great comment. And it's even worse with less common ailments like Asthma or
Chronic Fatigue Symptom. My wife has Asthma that is triggered by a number of
different things including perfume and smoke. People often dismiss concerns
she raises about perfume or smoke as her just being picky when it's really a
health issue. But you can't see it and most people never experience it so that
makes it harder to take seriously.

~~~
chugger
1) eat a healthy breakfast

2) sleep at least 7-8 hours a day

3) exercise

~~~
wazoox
These are great advices, good for everyone, but it won't cure asthma. I eat
healthy breakfasts, sleep generally enough and exercise at least 1 hour a day,
and I don't suffer from asthma thanks to inhaled corticosteroids I take every
single day.

------
fhars
Ah, the "I don't need glasses, it is only that my arm is too short" effect.
That's a well known ageing process. The lens of the eye is an elastic body
that bounces back to a more spherical form if you focus on something in the
near, but over the years the material becomes less and less elastic, so the
nearest point you can focus on moves further and further away. (That is on
reason why small children trying to show you something hold it right in front
of your nose: for them it is the distance where they can see small things
best.)

~~~
mturmon
Thanks for that note about kids holding things close up. I had never thought
that better flexibility of their lens might be the reason.

------
shin_lao
That's spot on. Also known to cause headaches:

* Lack of sleep

* Lack of magnesium or iron

* Too much sugar/fat

* Caffeine withdrawal symptom (and the cure isn't more caffeine ;) )

* Bad position (especially in the neck)

* Flu, cold, etc.

~~~
derefr
> Caffeine withdrawal symptom (and the cure isn't more caffeine ;) )

I don't know about that, actually. Caffeine is the active ingredient in (low-
power, over-the-counter) migraine medication, because it has anti-inflammatory
properties. People who have chronic headaches may be unintentionally self-
medicating with caffeine; for them, the caffeine withdrawal period becomes
concurrent with their _regular_ headaches returning.

More anecdotally, when I don't drink caffeine (and I do go off it for months
at a time), I get headaches on and off, about once per week or so. When I _do_
drink caffeine, though, I literally never get headaches.

~~~
shin_lao
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_caffeine#With...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Health_effects_of_caffeine#Withdrawal)

If I remember correctly, caffeine's purpose in migraine medication is to
accelerate the delivery of the payload.

~~~
sneak
It was my understanding that it is included because many people taking
headache pills don't actually realize that they are caffeine addicts and don't
recognize the withdrawal symptoms for what they are. This makes the pills more
effective in making that class of headaches go away by eliminating the
withdrawal symptoms, sort of how heroin is an effective cure for heroin
withdrawal.

~~~
ordinary
> It was my understanding that it is included because many people taking
> headache pills don't actually realize that they are caffeine addicts and
> don't recognize the withdrawal symptoms for what they are.

If true, I would find that rather disturbing.

~~~
sneak
Many things about the OTC drug market in America are rather disturbing. 26k
people per year are hospitalized from acetaminophen poisoning, and about two
die every day. It's the scumminess of the pharma industry, with less adult
supervision.

------
easy_rider
I have a -18,50 D in my right eye, and -18D in my left, with a small non-
progressive cataract in both pupils (it's in the genes, mother has them also).
Not to mention the spherical abberation and the PVD I've had in both eyes, due
to a combination of kickboxing and my eyes being so bad, It triggered the
condition at young age.

I can't look at white screens for too long, the floaters in front of my eyes
will start to give me headaches because they distract me from my focus point.
I've been getting chronic headaches for a year and a half now, but even though
I'm pretty handicapped in my eyesight, here are some tips:

\- Make sure you're not staring into bright daylight/ not sitting right next
to a window, which will make it harder for you to focus. \- Use as much black
as possible, a black theme is a must for your editor! I hated Zend studio when
they stopped being easily to configure in the theme department. When I found
Apatana Studio I fell in love with the default dark themes.

\- Make sure your monitors are up to date. Your resolution and sharpness of
Fonts must be adequate. And if you feel yourself leaning over to read
something on your screens. We have a problem... I'm sporting two 27" monitors
right now at EYE HEIGHT. Which leads me to...

POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE POSTURE. \- Leaning forward is NOT good.
Better, angle backwards a little bit if your chair allows it. If you start
leaning forward, your back muscles will tense up, which will tense up your
shoulders, which will tense up your neck...which will tense up your scalp, and
there we go, chronic tension headache. Relax your shoulders, make sure they're
not shrugged up when you're using your keyboard and mouse. Otherwise fix your
chair/desk height.

\- Ok so we can also get the migraines out a little bit, they are more often
caused by eye strain, or poor circulation. Quit smoking, leave your work area
for a short stroll from time to time. I get the sharp migraines a little bit
less.

\- Tension headaches might also result from a misconfiguration in the bedroom
area. Wrong mattress, wrong cushions: headache.

~~~
jarek
-18D is well in the legally blind territory, correct? I'm around -5D in my worse eye and I can't imagine something three times worse.

------
hopeless
I've always had headaches but some months are worse than others. I wear
glasses for driving but generally not for every day wear (it's a psychological
thing) and I've generally put it down to that.

After 3-4 days of a constant splitting headache which felt like I'd been hit
with a cleaver, I noticed a lump at the back of my head/neck. This was finally
enough to make me go to the doctor (obviously fearing brain cancer or some
other deathly disease). The doctor diagnosed "Occipital Neuralgia" [1] which
is basically the compression of one of the scalp nerves as it exits the spinal
column. As I often end up slumped forward in my chair, head angled up, this
was compressing those nerves and causing the pain. It had never occurred to me
that the pain could have a physical cause. Since then, better posture control
has meant very few headaches.

The lump it turns out is just a swollen glad, possibly from an unrelated minor
infection or from the swollen nerve itself.

[1] <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occipital_neuralgia>

~~~
ErrantX
This.

My osteopath calls it "programmers bump" :)

Pains in the back of the head, or down the side of the face it is almost
certainly neck/back related. After suffering a couple of years with on/off
head pain I finally figured this out & it literally took a couple of sessions
to work the tightness out.

(I had a scare too because the trapped nerves in my neck caused lumps to
appear all up and down the length of it :S not fun!)

So, yeh, I second the recommendation to get a medical professional to look at
posture.

------
lutorm
I have frequent headaches that were made a lot worse by a motorcycle accident
a decade ago, and I've spent a lot of time experimenting with different
things.

 _In my case_ , the biggest factor seems to be muscular, and doing trigger
point massage has _almost_ eliminated the problem. There are an _amazing_
number of muscles that can cause some kind of headache (not just including
neck muscles but also a bunch of jaw muscles reachable from the inside of your
mouth...) It's now gotten to the point that depending on which type of
headache (temple, top of head, stabbing in the eye, etc.) I get, I pretty much
know which muscle to massage.

So, my obligatory reference for people who have chronic back pain or
headaches: The Trigger Point Therapy Workbook ww.amazon.com/Trigger-Point-
Therapy-Workbook-Self-Treatment/dp/1572243759

------
Flow
Every time I get more headaches than "normal" I go check my eyes.

For the last year I've had neck pain and terrible headaches many times a week
and often the whole weekends.

Turns out it's not my eyes, it's how I sit, stand and walk. I've tried
swimming(with glasses so I don't bend the neck further). Not much luck with
swimming, gonna try going to the gym and exercise shoulders and my back.

The doctor applied some "body tape" to my back, shoulders and neck so I could
feel in my skin if my posture was outside a normal posture. If you have
headaches, try that.

Next step is to try to be aware of my posture when working, surfing and
playing games. That's really hard, and I keep forgetting how I sit. :-( If you
have any tips for me I'd be glad.

~~~
jodoherty
Have you tried rowing? It exercises your whole body and helps reinforce good
posture when you make an effort to maintain good form. I plan on buying my own
indoor rowing machine next month.

~~~
Flow
I have tried it occasionally, it's nice exercise. Since you mentioned it and
I've happened to read about it on reddit I think rowing might be a the
exercise for me. I'm going to try it a few times and see how it feels. Thanks
for the tip!

------
Luyt
With my left eye, I can't focus on objects closer than 12 inch.

With my right eye, I can't focus on objects further than 26 inch.

I have glasses to correct this, but without glasses I can comfortably use a
computer at a 'sweet spot' distance of 18 inch ;-)

Any closer and my left eye image begins to become blurred. Lately I've done a
lot of fine soldering work, and then it becomes really obvious. I think I need
reading glasses, too.

~~~
narag
My left eye is "lazy" (sorry, I don't know what's the equivalent term in
English) that means that most of the work is done by the right one. If you
have the same condition, it would explain the acute difference.

When it was diagnosed, they told me that it was too late to correct. For
children "pirate patches" are used to blind the good eye and train the lazy
one.

~~~
Silhouette
I'm the same.

If everyone reading this discussion takes only one thing away from it, I hope
it is to watch out for their kids in case they develop a bias towards one eye.
You can do something about it, but only until they are about 7 years old.
After that, the problem is to do with the development of the brain rather than
of the eye, and today's medical science has no way to correct it.

BTW, there is definitely an English term "lazy eye", but I don't know whether
it has the same meaning or refers to another specific condition.

~~~
gojomo
My guess is that like lots of other medical wisdom/folklore about the adult
brain, we'll eventually find workable exceptions to the idea that favoring one
eye is irreversible after a certain age. Physical qualities of the eye that
contributed to the initial imbalance can now be surgically corrected;
neuroscience has found that creation of new brain cells continues far later in
life than previously thought; some drugs (including SSRIs) have been found to
trigger neurogenesis in adults, as does exercise.

------
fiblye
I was getting terrible headaches for a few months before I tried turning my
screen brightness down around 20%. Daily headaches instantly became monthly
headaches.

Getting new glasses might be the solution for some people, but for others, it
could easily be something like having your screen brightness just a little too
bright or dim.

------
ck2
Here's the thing about headaches though - what triggers it for one person is
not always the same for another.

The motivation to share advice is admirable but it's just as mistaken as
similar "this is the path to my success, you should do it too because it
should work for everyone".

~~~
lutorm
What you say is true, but it's better to try and see if it helps than not to.

------
kellishaver
As someone who deals with eye strain daily due to vision problems that can't
be corrected, some days, it just wear me out and leave my physically
exhausted. It's unbelievable how physically tiring it can be.

To combat this, I do a few things:

\- Try to take frequent breaks, even if it's just closing my eyes for a couple
of minutes

\- Keep the room lighting at the right level - not too bright, not too dark

\- Use larger fonts and good contrast - a black background on my text editor,
where I spend the majority of my time and light grey, almost white, but not
quite as stark, text seems to be the best balance.

\- Try and get plenty of sleep - If I start the day tired, then my ability to
focus on what I'm looking at and my visual stamina are both going to be shot
by noon.

------
DanBC
Eye testing can pick up a bunch of stuff early, so regular eye tests
(especially when you get older) are important.

Don't forget that in England your employer makes a contribution to the cost of
eye-tests and glasses if you're a monitor user.

([http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork...](http://www.direct.gov.uk/en/Employment/HealthAndSafetyAtWork/DG_10026668))

Plenty of pages that get linked to from HN are pretty bad for readability -
awful contrast or weird font choices. User side CSS is nice, but it's a shame
to have to fix so many sites.

------
malbs
I had the same problem - late afternoon headaches, tiredness. It was a
colleague who took one look at how close I sat to the monitor to tell me to
get my eyesight checked. Diagnosis: long-sighted in one eye, short-sighted in
the other, which caused quite significant muscle strain while my eyes
constantly fought eachother for focus, causing headaches and tiredness.
Prescription goggles and the problems vanished.

Get your eyes checked, at best you get told you have 20/20 vision and you're
mad, and to drink more coffee. At worst you're in line for glasses

~~~
roel_v
"Get your eyes checked, at best you get told you have 20/20 vision and you're
mad, and to drink more coffee. At worst you're in line for glasses"

I'd turn that best/worst around. Glasses are easy to get, cheap, and work
deterministically and measurably. If you have 20/20 vision and still have
headaches, you probably have bigger problems than the relatively minor
nuisance of wearing reading glasses.

~~~
malbs
I struggled when deciding how to place that best/worst haha, I think you're
right :)

------
typicalrunt
The simple thing he didn't mention as the cause of his headaches -- other than
alluding to it -- is eyestrain. As programmers we are consistently straining
our eyes. I'm always in the doghouse with my optometrist because I am always
breaking her rules. She understands programmers and what they do to their
bodies (fingers, wrists, eyes, posture), but obviously her bias is the eyes so
she has a few rules that I should live by:

\- don't strain the eyes reading small text. Smartphones are especially bad at
this.

\- don't always look at the same distance. It strains the muscles. We were
meant to look at short and far distances, but monitors are always 2-3 ft from
our face.

\- Take A LOT of eye breaks. Every 10-15 minutes just look somewhere else.
That's all.

\- Blink. When people read screens, they blink less. If you don't blink, your
eyes don't lubricate themselevs and you can develop sores under your eyelids
(especially so with contact lenses).

\- Get more sleep.

\- Wash around your eyes every night. This is good advice for women as well as
men. If you mistreat your eyes, you can get protein build-up around the
eyelids and follicles. Make sure you gently clean all of it away with a warm
compress.

Basically, treat your eyes like precious little jewels. Pamper them and
they'll last a long time.

~~~
nazar
My laptops resolution is 1920x1080 which makes HN text look almost
microscopical, and I spend reading HN 1/3 of my day. I think from this day on
I will ctrl++ :) Thanks for advice!

------
andrewljohnson
Make your font bigger. Most people I see stare at tiny text.

~~~
roel_v
Eh, no - just get glasses. Even big letters are still blurry when your eyes
start deteriorating. You can still turn up the font size, but first make sure
that everything you see, you see it sharp.

------
pasbesoin
I'm at the point of needing to replace a pair of glasses. Has anyone had
useful experience with online purchases of glasses (in the U.S.)? There are a
number of options; perhaps I need to find some recent issues of _Consumer
Reports_ , if they've included online retailers in their reviews.

I'm fussy about comfort and appearance, but the prices that are charged
especially for the frames nonetheless seem ridiculous.

~~~
nkurz
Don't think, just do it. I've had much better experiences online than I have
with local and chain eyeglass shops. The prices charged by most shops are an
insult. Do your part to disrupt this monopoly, while saving yourself a lot of
money.

If you're cheap (I am) I'd recommend Goggles4u. If you search for coupons, and
you can get a basic CR39 backup pair for $10 ($5 if you're willing to 'Like'
them on Facebook first), a decent polycarbonate AR pair for $25, and a great
pair for $40. Interface is awful, communication is awkward, shipping is slow,
but prices are great and product quality is generally high.

If you want less hassle, try EyeGlassDirect. They are US based, respond to
email, and are a fraction of the cost of your local shop. You can get two
pairs of AR polycarbonate for about $100, no coupon searching necessary.

Both of these places will put new lenses in your existing frames for about the
same price. I've even gone so far as to order designer frames from Ebay, and
have them shipped directly to Eyeglassdirect to have lenses put in.

If you want more info, www.eyeglassretailerreviews.com and
glassyeyes.blogspot.com are good starting points. But don't get bogged down.
Skip the research and do it!

ps. As another poster points out, Costco isn't bad, but once you start buying
online even their prices will seem extreme. But they (and Walmart Optical) are
good places to get a prescription and exam.

~~~
pasbesoin
Thank you for the informative response. Currently, I have a rather nice (and
pricey, but I received superb follow-up service from the local, non-chain shop
over a period of several years) Italian frame with polycarbonate lenses. One
thing that has slowed their replacement is that this model is no longer
offered, as of some years ago. But both the frame and the lenses are reaching
an unavoidable end of life.

The shop has changed hands, it appears, and also, extrapolating prices forward
to today, they would simply be more than I'd be comfortable paying right now.
But I'd still pay relatively more for something similar -- just without the
final round or two of high markup.

This pair has lasted well over a decade. So I don't view the past expenditure
as a waste -- both for the resulting durability and for the consultation that
led me to this model. But, again extrapolating in my imagination, looking at
upwards of a grand for a pair of glasses just seems extreme.

I'll have a thorough look at your recommendations. Thanks again.

------
mcantor
Also, everyone should install F.lux

<http://stereopsis.com/flux/>

This is another migraine-stopper.

~~~
rdouble
I found that f.lux actually makes my eyes hurt when used with LED backlit
screens.

~~~
mcantor
Do you use the "gradual shift" setting? I've noticed that a lot of people
don't realize it's there, and they use the "sudden drastic change" setting,
which is very jarring. Also, make sure it has the correct coordinates/zip code
for your location!

~~~
rdouble
I get the same issues when I dim my screen manually. I read somewhere that
certain people are affected by the power cycling used to "dim" the LEDs. Not
sure if I believe it but nothing else has changed in my setup, and I never had
any problems before. Otherwise, maybe I'm just getting old.

------
gst
There are lots of things that can result from bad eye sight.

I didn't get headache from my bad eyesight (around 1/2 dioptrin), but easily
got completely tired during work (no matter how much I've sleeped during the
night). Since I've got lenses this issue disappeared, no more tiredness at all
during the day.

~~~
berntb
If you are tired and your eyes are ok, you might want to check for allergies
(at least mine didn't have any effects on throat/nose, so it might not be
obvious). Or bacteria infection (teeth, etc).

------
smoyer
I'm in the same boat and just got a set of progressive tri-focals. But I've
found that there are other things that help.

1) I got a bigger monitor (for times I'm not using the laptop's screen.

2) I sit about four feet away from the monitor now ... that's classified as
intermediate distance and doesn't require your tired eye-muscles to work
nearly as hard to focus.

3) Eye exercises ... the rule-of-thumb is to look at something 20 feet (or
more) away for 20 seconds every 20 minutes.

Ergonomics can help too ... because the same guideline that helps you avoid
neck strain will put the monitor in the sweet-spot of your eye-glasses (ignore
this for contact wearers). Level vision should put your gaze one-third from
the top of your monitor. Most people have their monitors too low!

I hope this helps someone!

------
liquidcool
Here's a counter point (sort of). At some point I began to suffer from eye
strain - they were really hurting. I went to an optometrist and got a checkup,
explained the symptoms. Since I was staring at a computer all day (and all
evening - this was during my special time with WOW) she prescribed computer
glasses.

Turns out, I didn't need them (and still don't). What happened was that the
refresh rate on my CRT monitor was reset to 60Hz (probably due to a driver
update). Once I returned it to the highest setting, my eye strain/pain went
away. Of course, with LCDs it's not really a problem anymore, but keep this in
mind if you're still on a CRT.

------
vivekjishtu
Even I was suffering from headaches for a few months and then I went to the
optician and was prescribed to wear glasses.

Am still trying to get used to wearing them. And the first time I wore my
glasses everything seemed so much clearer.

~~~
gst
I suggest to try out lenses. At the beginning it's a little bit difficult to
put them in or to remove them, but (at least for me) they work much better
than glasses.

If you are lucky and the lenses work well for you, you won't even notice that
you have them inside (except for the fact that your vision is much better).

~~~
vivekjishtu
The only problem I see with lenses is the constant cleaning and the extra care
that they require.

~~~
ChrisAnn
They also don't play well with air conditioning, which tends to be prevalent
in offices.

I went back to glasses anyway, because I missed the way they look on my face.

------
iaskwhy
Last week I bought a Macbook Air with 13" and I haven't been able to sit in
front of it for that long, the resolution makes everything too tiny specially
because I work on a lower resolution laptop the whole day and only use the MBA
at night. I have no idea if I will get used to it or if I just have to return
it. I've been thinking about how wrong the future is going to be to our eyes
if we keep improving the resolution of screens when operating systems don't
deal that well with it. (I use Windows 7 on the MBA and I can't just go for a
smaller resolution because type gets blurred.)

~~~
duncans
You can change the text scaling in Windows whilst keeping the screen
resolution native: Control Panel\Appearance and Personalization\Display - try
setting it to Medium.

~~~
iaskwhy
I know about this but as a web developer/designer I would prefer not to mess
with anything other than the resolution. I too am thinking the possibility of
using an external screen and use the Macbook Air as a desktop because it's
really fast. But I'm very sad about this outcome.

You know when I tried setting it to Medium or Large it almost looked like
Metro!

------
cagey
I just got progressive lens glasses for the first time a few months ago. And
made the mistake of using them while working on my PC. Result: BAD recurring
headaches for the first time in my life. I switched back to my old single-
vision glasses til now, but all the providers I deal with are pushing
"computer progressives" as the default solution; they look at me like I'm
crazy when I ask for a single-vision prescription for use with the computer.

Any experiences with "computer progressives" out there in HN-land?

------
bryanlarsen
Kicking the caffeine habit was what did it for me. Don't go cold turkey: I
titrated slowly off the caffeine over the course of a month, and still had
some withdrawal symptons (ie, headaches).

I still get headaches, but they're much less frequent, much less severe and
it's usually much easier to track down the cause. (It's usually lack of sleep
combined with too much screen time).

As a bonus, if I avoid computer & TV screens for the 2 hours before bed, I
fall asleep within 30 seconds of my head hitting the pillow.

~~~
dekz
Sometimes when I'm focused I forget to eat, not sure if this is common among
others but the concept of hunger doesn't always strike me if im in the zone.
Remembering to eat and to eat healthy reduced the amount of headaches greatly.

------
click170
Protip from personal experience: If your method of identifying someone at
distance relies on recognizing the gait of a blurry outline of a person, you
may need glasses.

------
MichaelApproved
TLDR Just scroll to the bottom:

 _"If you have headaches, especially chronic ones do yourself a favor and have
your eyes checked, you might need glasses without realizing it."_

~~~
biot
It's under 450 words which, for an average native English speaker, will take
about a minute and a half to read without skimming to find the important bits.
It's rather disappointing if something so short needs to be summarized.

~~~
pbhjpbhj
His summary is under 25 words; you can read a lot more such summaries in 1½
minutes.

This is why Google SERPs return a snippet and not the whole page of text for
every page. Summarising is a very useful thing. What is it about saving time
that disappoints you?

~~~
biot
TLDR... can you summarize?

~~~
pbhjpbhj
TL;DR

His summary is short.

Brevity is useful.

------
ntmartin
I've had similar symptoms, and finally got around to getting an eye test.
Bottom line I need glasses too. I started getting very bad headaches in my
late 20's, I'm early 30's now.

Glasses make a World of difference, esp as I am usually looking at more than
one screen and switching between them. I went for a very light frame, like
Lindberg for example as these were most comfortable.

------
nazar
For me it's usually intensive focus on something, be it complicated problem or
just routine work. I don't feel headache while being within the activity, but
after I stop and try to take some rest, my head nearly exploding, and the only
way out is vomiting.

------
pipedream
I never understood how glasses are supposed to help. Glasses only help you see
better while wearing them, but don't actually help you see better after you
take them off, right?

I have mild hypermetropia, but it hasn't bothered me so far, so I'm not
wearing glasses.

------
gommm
I used to have very bad headaches when working and found out that it was due
to a bad position of my neck. I've since changed my office chair, made sure
that the screen is positioned so that I don't look down and the headaches have
disappeared...

~~~
johnyzee
> made sure that the screen is positioned so that I don't look down

Guys working on laptops should pay attention to this. Looking down (tilting
the head forward, even slightly) means the muscles in the back of the neck now
have to hold up the weight of your head (3 kilos?), instead of merely
balancing it, as when the head is upright. This can cause serious neck
tension.

------
powertower
My headache solutions:

1\. Don't forget to breath. When I'm coding sometime I'll concentrate on the
problem so much that my breathing slows down and becomes extremely shallow.

2\. Don't let the code/problem take you away. Practice self-awareness.

This will prevent the tension for building up.

------
kolektiv
What timing, I went through this process over the last two months. My new
glasses will be ready on Thursday. I can read anything, even the smallest type
without them. But after 8 hours, it hurts. Hopefully it won't soon.

Heed this advice - just be aware!

------
bond
In my case I get headaches due to lack of sleep. Normally when I get small(2
secs) but powerful bursts of pain on the back of my head with an interval of
6-20secs, I know it's time to sleep...

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crazydiamond
| "If you have headaches, especially chronic ones do yourself a favor and have
your eyes checked, you might need glasses without realizing it."

Glasses are a good way of weakening the eyes even further. Eye exercises are a
better way of keeping you vision in good shape. Keep your arm extended, focus
on thumb, slowly bring it as close as possible. Extend again.

When reading a page on the computer, avoid scrolling line by line with a mouse
as you read. Better for the eyes to use the space bar to do page scrolling.

If you find reading a book is out of focus, you might wait for 10 seconds or
so, for the eyes to focus. Happens if you are not used to focusing on near
objects.

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scott_s
_Glasses are a good way of weakening the eyes even further. Eye exercises are
a better way of keeping you vision in good shape._

Source?

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alaithea
Not sure about the scholarly literature on it, but my eye doctors (several
different ones over the years) have almost always mentioned how it's better to
slightly undercorrect the vision, so that the eyes still have to work a bit at
focusing. They implied that to do otherwise could speed the degradation of
your vision.

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extension
Conversely, I strongly suspect that wearing my new myopia glasses in front of
the computer was giving me headaches. They never told me about that.

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alexwolfe
Ha, knew you were gonna say glasses, same problem. The eyes slowly get weaker,
glasses helped.

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stephen789
Is this just general "getting old" advice?

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eru
Getting old while staring at a screen.

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marcovena
not that I don't second what you say...but is this really popular on HN?

