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Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#121

Post by Asraelite »

m00x wrote: post #22
oblib wrote: post #16

I bought a monitor with a "Low Blue Light" button (it's a "BENQ" brand). I didn't buy it because of that feature and had never even heard of it before. My first reaction was thinking it was kind of ugly so initially I didn't leave it on but after a month or so I noticed my eyes were getting strained so I tried it. It is ugly, but it makes a big difference. Now, when I turn off the Low Blue Light mode I can instantly…

Blue light has no effect on eye strain[1]. The sky has about 100x the blue light emissions than your screen. It might be a great placebo effect, or maybe it just decreases brightness of the screen. [1] https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/blue-light-di...

I think this is something people commonly conflate.

These two things are true: 1. screens cause eye strain, 2. screens make it harder to sleep because of blue light. People then mistakenly interpret this as "screens cause eye strain because of blue light".

It's a bit frustrating how many blue light filters advertise themselves as reducing eye strain, exploiting this misconception.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#122

Post by [deleted] »

tpoacher wrote: post #99
kazinator wrote: post #80

Use a small font that becomes hard to read if your eyes are tired or dry and you start to strain. I discovered this decades ago at university. For a time, I switched to a large font, thinking naively that it would help with eye strain. But the problem became worse; my eyes became crazy tired, and it became obvious to me why: I could read the text no matter how tired my eyes were. Heck, I could stare at the screen wit…

Hah. You remind me of almost every other intervention in medicine. I remember e.g. when heart failure was treated with beta-agonists (every doctor at lectures: "It makes sense! The heart is struggling, so we give it a boost!"). Then they did some studies and found that while the heart output increased, people were dying faster. So they decided to do the exact opposite and switch to beta-blockers (every doctor at lect…

[deleted]

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#124

Post by kazinator »

tpoacher wrote: post #99
kazinator wrote: post #80

Use a small font that becomes hard to read if your eyes are tired or dry and you start to strain. I discovered this decades ago at university. For a time, I switched to a large font, thinking naively that it would help with eye strain. But the problem became worse; my eyes became crazy tired, and it became obvious to me why: I could read the text no matter how tired my eyes were. Heck, I could stare at the screen wit…

Hah. You remind me of almost every other intervention in medicine. I remember e.g. when heart failure was treated with beta-agonists (every doctor at lectures: "It makes sense! The heart is struggling, so we give it a boost!"). Then they did some studies and found that while the heart output increased, people were dying faster. So they decided to do the exact opposite and switch to beta-blockers (every doctor at lect…

No rationalization or failed hypotheses here; I'm describing what I tried and what actually happened.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#125

Post by ivank »

bzbz wrote: post #116
jml7c5 wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Seconding the recommendation for getting "task glasses". It is probably the single most impactful change one can make. I ordered a pair (via Zenni, just some regular polycarbonate lenses) that are at just the right optical power such that if I fully relax my eyes, objects 1 metre away are in focus. When my monitor is that far away, it's at optical infinity and very comfortable to look at for long stretches. It's a ve…

How do you calculate this? Is it based on your previous prescription somehow, or does it require another optometrist appointment?

Just add diopters to the SPH (sphere) portion of your prescription, there is a formula 1/diopters to get your desired focal plane: +1 for 1 meter away, +1.25 for 0.8 meters, etc

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#126

Post by accountofme »

Someone1234 wrote: post #6

Simply make text bigger . 125% DPI or 125% "zoom" depending on the OS/application help with eye strain massively, and it surprises me how few colleagues are willing to try it (e.g. "I can see perfectly, why would I increase text size?!"). Between that and lowering a monitor's brightness to below 50% (often around 35% depending on brand), are my biggest tips. Windows now has a blue light filter built right in (Setting…

I did it the other way... Bought a cheap 4k@60Hz 50 inch TV ... cost me around AUD$400. I was doing multi screen before, but I like this better I have effectively 4x 1080p screens in a 2x2 array. The only downside is the tv forgets my backlight preferences on any source change or power cycle.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#127

Post by tpoacher »

kazinator wrote: post #124
tpoacher wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hah. You remind me of almost every other intervention in medicine. I remember e.g. when heart failure was treated with beta-agonists (every doctor at lectures: "It makes sense! The heart is struggling, so we give it a boost!"). Then they did some studies and found that while the heart output increased, people were dying faster. So they decided to do the exact opposite and switch to beta-blockers (every doctor at lect…

No rationalization or failed hypotheses here; I'm describing what I tried and what actually happened.

Yes, absolutely! Sorry I didn't mean to imply there was rationalization at play in your case. I just made the mental link with doctors supporting one hypothesis thinking it all makes perfect sense, and then you find out actually the exact opposite is the actual solution, and it typically also makes perfect sense.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#128

Post by m00x »

oblib wrote: post #54
m00x wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Blue light has no effect on eye strain[1]. The sky has about 100x the blue light emissions than your screen. It might be a great placebo effect, or maybe it just decreases brightness of the screen. [1] https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/blue-light-di...

Had you really considered what I wrote you wouldn't have missed this important bit: "when I turn off the Low Blue Light mode I can instantly feel the strain on my eyes. The picture is gorgeous but it's too bright and intense for work." So, the feature also dims the brightness, and I did this with my other monitors too so they matched the BENQ monitor I said has this feature. But it's more fun to be dismissive, right?

Why not just lower the brightness? Why mention blue light at all? It seems like you're just backtracking your comment.

Re: Ask HN: How do you prevent eyestrain with daily computer use?

#130

Post by grae_euler »

General advice:

-Get a decent monitor (not necessary, but I prefer the wide curved ones like this[0]) and increase the font size. I never went back to my 12" laptop screen after I discovered larger monitors with big font.

Specific to day time use:

-Try and avoid glare. You can place your screen in front of a large source of light and turn up the screens brightness.

Specific to night time use:

-Use applications like Redshift or f.lux to reduce blue light as much as you can.

-Reduce the brightness of your screen.

-Try and get ambiant light, such as a difuse lamp or something, behind your screen to illuminate the area surrounding your work space.

These usually work for me. Best of luck!

[0] https://www.youtube.com/embed/Z18siG3rrBg

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