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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?

#31

Post by balfirevic »

geocrasher wrote: post #27

1) Don't sit too close to your monitor(s). They should be as far away as they are big, so if it's a 23" monitor, at least 23" away from your eyes. 2) Place the top of the monitor at eye level 3) THE BIGGEST: The 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at an object 20 feet (6m) for 20 seconds. These three changed my computing life forever, and for the better, especially since I'm on a computer 10 hours a day most days.…

> Don't sit too close to your monitor(s). They should be as far away as they are big, so if it's a 23" monitor, at least 23" away from your eyes.

So if I have two monitors side by side I can have them a lot closer than if I had one ultrawide monitor?

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

#32

Post by KerrickStaley »

geocrasher wrote: post #27

1) Don't sit too close to your monitor(s). They should be as far away as they are big, so if it's a 23" monitor, at least 23" away from your eyes. 2) Place the top of the monitor at eye level 3) THE BIGGEST: The 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at an object 20 feet (6m) for 20 seconds. These three changed my computing life forever, and for the better, especially since I'm on a computer 10 hours a day most days.…

Echoing this: periodically focusing on a distant object seems to help my eyestrain substantially.

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

#33

Post by daneel_w »

Wear terminal eyeglasses and keep the screen at least 1.5 meters away.

This type of eyeglasses are not for helping with poor eyesight. They're specifically for reducing strain on the eyes when focusing at short distances for longer periods of time, which is the core of the problem.

Before I got a prescription for such - which has completely solved the problems I suffered for a long time - I had to resort to tricks like taking frequent breaks just to focus my eyes on things at longer distances, which is only a band-aid rather than an actual solution to the problem.

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

#34

Post by daneel_w »

user5994461 wrote: post #11

* Buy a good screen. * If you work on a laptop all day, buy an external screen. (Laptop always have small and often a shitty screen) * Adjust the brightness and the contrast. Do a google search to find some colored images with instructions how to calibrate. * Quick rules of thumb, you can always reduce brightness to 50% right away. Modern displays are extremely bright and the out of factory settings are insane, somet…

"Buy a good screen" - so what defines a bad screen in the context of being good or bad for the eyes? LCD screens have neither the clarity problem nor the flicker problem that CRTs have.

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

#35

Post by manaskarekar »

Buy a monitor that offers flicker free backlight brightness control.

Read up on PWM flicker in displays and their effects.

It’s one of the biggest factors yet ignored by most folks.

This is different from the refresh rate of your monitor.

This and the other tips mentioned in this thread.

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

#36

Post by petercooper »

URfejk wrote: post #3

Use f.lux, redshift or some other alternative. You can thank me latter.

I use these or equivalents (e.g. 'Night Shift' on macOS) on every device I can permanently (not just at night). It has been a big help and my eyes have acclimatized to the color shift even for graphics work. Also zero problems going straight from a device to sleep at all.

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

#37

Post by dartdartdart »

geocrasher wrote: post #27

1) Don't sit too close to your monitor(s). They should be as far away as they are big, so if it's a 23" monitor, at least 23" away from your eyes. 2) Place the top of the monitor at eye level 3) THE BIGGEST: The 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at an object 20 feet (6m) for 20 seconds. These three changed my computing life forever, and for the better, especially since I'm on a computer 10 hours a day most days.…

Put a mirror on top of your monitor so you can easily focus 20 feet away, and to see what's going on behind you

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

#38

Post by jakub_g »

Many good advice in this thread already. Personally I'm doing ok with good warm lighting in the room, low brightness/contrast (~60/30 during the day, ~50/25 in the evening), and I activate "night light" mode of Windows once it gets dark; window on the side, take breaks from time to time and use cold water to refresh your face. I wear glasses and as other say, I zoom in the text a lot. Big text makes things quick to read and hence less eyestrain.

Whether to use dark mode or light mode in text editors/websites depends on the lighting condition around you. I mostly used dark mode now (except GitHub), but I make sure the contrast of the theme is not too big, not too small. But in my prev job we had white room with white everything and lots of light, and I was much more comfy with light themed terminal (although not white; soft bgcolor like HN has).

On top of that I will add that for some reason for me, mobile usage contributes way more to eyestrain/headache/fatigue than computer use (order of magnitude diff). I can work all day long on a laptop without much issue. But checking mobile, especially as first thing in the morning or in late evening (even in blue light reduction mode), makes me much more tired nearly immediately for some reason.

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

#39

Post by unnouinceput »

Get a gaming monitor. One with plenty of Hz (>100) and low GTG (<=2ms). And also don't do compromise at all in this aspect. I remember at Siemens in 2005 I exasperated both my group leader and the IT support staff because in the span of a week I changed like 10 monitors. They said I was the pickiest they ever saw - I told them that's my eyes we talk about and I don't get another pair for the rest of my life.

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

#40

Post by KineticLensman »

geocrasher wrote: post #27

1) Don't sit too close to your monitor(s). They should be as far away as they are big, so if it's a 23" monitor, at least 23" away from your eyes. 2) Place the top of the monitor at eye level 3) THE BIGGEST: The 20/20/20 rule. Every 20 minutes, look at an object 20 feet (6m) for 20 seconds. These three changed my computing life forever, and for the better, especially since I'm on a computer 10 hours a day most days.…

All of the above.

Also, if you wear glasses, check your prescription. A while ago, I switched to what in the UK are called Occupational lenses. The bottom of the frame is for close-up (less than 30cm) and the upper half is objects that are about an arms length away - my screen position. This helped me sit further back from my monitor but still have good visibility. Before changing, the position where I could see the screen the best wasn't ergonomically good and if I sat with good posture I couldn't see fine detail so well. It only took a few days to get used to the vari-focus.

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