

Ask HN: Solution for eye strain? - aohtsab

A while back there was a post on wrist pain with some good advice on circumventing it—posture, etc.<p>Do any of you have problems with straining your eyes? I've been forced to wear sunglasses while I work at the computer, even though I've set the brightness and contrast settings to zero. I wear contacts, and for extenuating circumstances, don't have glasses, nor will I for another month or so.<p>I realize the most obvious solution would be to level down computer usage, but that's not a possibility for me right now.<p>What do you do for eye strain?
======
snprbob86
Billiards!

Everyone here will surely suggest frequent breaks, which is great advice. I'm
going one step further to suggest that you play billiards during those breaks.
However, you must play correctly. Be sure to line up shots with both eyes
open. Alternate your focus between the tip of the cue, the cue ball, the
object ball, and the target pocket until you are confident your shot is
aligned. Doing it this way will strengthen your game, as well as your eyes.

------
JimmyL
Try changing your ambient lighting - when I had an ergo exam at work, they
suggested that I make sure that the areas beside my monitor were of a similar
brightness to the monitor (the idea being that it's stressful for your eyes to
adjust brightness when you look to the side of your screen). I can't say I've
noticed a difference, but the logic makes sense to me.

Also see if you can have some surfaces around your monitor that are different
distances away from your seat, so you can periodically look to them for a few
seconds to allow your eyes to adjust and not get strained into one fixed
"focal length".

Lastly, don't underestimate the impact of some good eye drops. Many offices
are much drier than they should be, and this effects contact-users even
moreso. Throw some drops in now and then, and if you have an enclosed office,
run a humidifier in there to get some moisture in the air.

~~~
ptuzla
In my experience, it's not only for the times you look to the side of the
screen. Working in a dark environment with a relatively bright monitor is very
harsh on the eyes, even you stare at the monitor all the time.

So reducing the contrast between the ambient and the monitor is key to
reducing eye strain, at least for my eyes. You can even improve this, by
choosing a dark green or blue background, and some beige like pale color for
foreground in you IDE or text editor.

------
pmichaud
I have this problem because I have one eye. I do a few things.

1) Make sure my monitor has a high refresh or response rate. Either greater
than 75hz or less than 4ms (2 is better) respectively

2) You may be making things worse by setting the contrast down. Your have to
do extra work to discern what it's seeing when the contrast is too low.

3) Lighting /fundamentally/ important. Use good lighting, which first means
nothing that "flickers," like the average over head office lighting is
terrible. You need to use soft lights. I have a rope light strung up behind my
monitors so there's a nice soft, yellow glow coming from behind them at all
times, plus a larger lamp pointing straight at the back of my central one.
That back lighting helps a lot. For overhed, I generally use dilluted sunlight
from the windows, but failing that a brightish floor lamp with a nice blub
witll work fine.

4) Sit far enough away from the monitor. I sit between 2 and 3 feet back.

5) I use large fonts for everything. When I read web sites, I hit CTRL++ all
the time to make the font larger. In my IDE, I use 16 to 18pt font.

6) Whenever possible, /especially/ when programming, I use inverted colors, so
black background and light colors for the text. White text generally works,
but you might find a light gray to be easier on the eyes.

If you do all that, you'll be fine.

------
rudin
I was given some advice on this once:

Lie in bed at night (make sure it is dark so your eyes don't try to focus on
anything). Do some eye exercises (up-down, left-right, generally just moving
them around a bit) while your eyes are open. I think the rationale behind this
is that when you stare at a screen not only are your eyes focusing at the same
distance but they are not moving around as much as they should be. Don't know
if this is scientific so caveat emptor etc.

------
GeneralMaximus
Question: do you have a good quality LCD screen?

I have 2 laptops: a MacBook and a Dell Vostro. I can use the MacBook
comfortably for 5 to 6 hours at a stretch, whereas using the Dell for even 1
hour is a pain, even with brightness turned down to zero. Problem is, low-end
laptop makers use crappy screens that burn your eyes. Even the MacBook screen
is only okay-ish, not great. Buy a high-end LCD screen for your laptop. Your
eyes will thank you.

Besides that, try to use low-contrast color themes on your OS. Windows and
most Linux distros have too many bright colors in their default themes, which
make your eyes hurt after a while. Windows Classic is a great theme if you're
using Windows. On Linux, you might want to use vanilla ClearLooks.

Set your editor to use large, variable-width fonts. Also, ZenBurn and Wombat
are two color schemes that are incredibly easy on the eyes. These are
available for both Emacs and Vim.

Oh, and take frequent breaks. Wash your eyes. Spend more time in natural
light. Glasses are better than contacts, so get them as soon as you can manage
to.

------
colonelxc
Somewhat related (though not directly related to your problem): Flux (
<http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/> )

It changes the color temperature of your display. By reducing the amount of
blue in the evening, the idea is that you can fall asleep easier and not tire
your eyes out late at night. It's done purely by timezone/time of day (no
sensors taken into account), but it works well enough for me. I don't know if
I fall asleep any faster, but my eyes are certainly happier when browsing late
at night.

Note: The windows version is far more customizable than the mac version. I
also haven't tried the linux one.

------
kirubakaran
Look away often, preferably at distant objects.

Take breaks, go for a walk and look at natural things like trees, lakes etc.

Sit with your eyes closed for ten seconds.

[these are the things I do]

~~~
pierrebombay
I know it isn't possible for everyone, but I've always found it really good
for me to have a window close to my computer. I'll look out the window every
time I stop to think.

------
bugs
The most obvious solution is not to level down the computer usage (although
that should be a step). Rather than asking the community you most definitely
should go to an eye doctor as this is a _serious_ problem that you have to
wear sunglasses while working on a computer.

If you don't take that suggestion work in a brighter room (like near a window)
in order to counter the screens brightness... fluorescents probably will only
hurt this problem.

------
makecheck
Blink. :) It's silly, but it's really easy to stare at the screen for long
periods of time, especially when reading. Catch yourself doing this, and force
yourself to blink more often.

Instead of just turning away to adjust your eyes, do your whole body a favor:
stand up and walk away. Go find a drink, and in the process look around to
rest your eyes. If you drink a lot, you'll naturally want to walk away from
time to time. :)

------
suhail
Wow, you should be seriously concerned. First things first, stop wearing your
contacts...completely. You're drying out your corneas basically. Seriously,
even though it sucks, stop wearing your contacts and get eye drops and use
them every few hours. Rinse and repeat until your eyes get better else go to a
doctor.

Having to wear sunglasses is just insane, there's a serious problem here.

------
zacharydanger
I read a bout a neat "hack" so to speak here on HN some years ago that I've
used to some degree of success.

Tense up all the muscles in your body for about 20 or 30 seconds and then
relax them. It _should_ trick the muscles in your eye (the ones giving you the
eye strain) to relax, too. YMMV, but it's worked for me.

------
Myrth
I've made some notes from DVD I've watched recently. It was made by Dr.
Svetlana Troitskaia and is in russian. Just wanted to share with my English
speaking friends.

<http://dpaste.com/hold/120724/>

------
peterlai
Even though I'm young, I'll occasionally wear reading glasses with a 1.00
prescription. I most need my glasses when working with CSS and pixel perfect
layouts. For me, the use of reading glasses significantly reduces eye strain
by the end of the day.

------
xtho
Go, see a doctor. Read up on workplace ergonomics (make sure there is no
window behind the screen). Try another monitor. Don't wear contacts when
working. Don't work at night or in the early morning. Maybe use a dark
background.

------
vorobei
My eyes got much better after I started playing tennis. I think the act of
tracking the ball is basically the same as the eye exercises you're suppose to
be doing every 30 minutes (looking in the distance then up close, etc).

------
psyklic
My "eye strain" usually consists of me wearing contacts for too long.
Especially in front of a computer screen, they dry up a bit and irritate my
eyes. Wearing glasses when the eyes get irritated is the best solution here!

------
nihilis
You must realise that the eye is delicate, and long term stress can lead to
adverse effects; However, I frequently just wash my face/eyes whenever I feel
I'm strained, and do some other things for a couple of minutes.

------
hoelle
I recommend (in addition to the other tips here) that you try switching your
IDE to a variable width font.

Heresy, I know, but reading is about shape recognition, which is more
difficult in mono-spaced fonts.

------
uptown
I suggest you play with the color schemes for your editor. I've found white
backgrounds w/ text tend to tire my eyes more than a deep blue background w/
gray text.

~~~
hoelle
I made a similar shift a few years back. If you use Visual Studio (at least
older versions), it can be a bit stubborn about applying color changes.
Restarting it helps.

------
jrockway
I could not help but be amused by the fact that your blog post renders as grey
text on a yellowish-grey background. (Not your fault, I know...)

------
shubhamharnal
<http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=540078>

------
noodle
take breaks.

not necessarily standing up and walking around, but change your range of
focus. look out the window every once in a while, or something similar.

its simple, but it works wonders for me.

------
karlzt
get your eyes near water, humidity is important

------
Mz
For me, fever is one of the things that causes problems with screen
brightness. I have serious health problems. Getting generally healthier has
reduced the frequency with which such things are a problem for me. You might
try treating for fever and see if that makes any difference.

------
cgherb911
I'm planning on getting laser eye surgery in 10 years when I can't go higher
in my contact and glasses subscription. I think entrepreneurs can handle the
deadliness of eye strain in order to change the world.

