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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?

#61

Post by karmakaze »

WillYouFinish wrote: post #55

Water! This might sound a little weird, but I use a nose spray (any atomizer will do) filled with water and spray on my closed eyes when I feel like it. I started doing this this year and it helped me tremendously. No more eye strain! Before that I tried EVERYTHING! * Dark Mode * Night mode (Flux etc.) * Changing Brightness * Changing ambient light * a few different eyedrops * Looking away more often * Sitting farthe…

It's probably related to lower blinking rates. There are software utilities to remind you to blink at least every couple minutes.

I got an Oculus Rift2 to play Beat Saber for mini-fitness breaks and end up with a sweaty face so frequently wash/rinse during my workday. Eyes do seem less tired these days though I didn't think about it just until now.

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

#62

Post by karmakaze »

jhallenworld wrote: post #25

You have some degree of presbyopia and need weak reading glasses. As you age the auto-focus capability of your eyes (called accommodation) degrades. Look for the depressing graph in this article: https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004269899... This is incredibly annoying.

I do have weak reading glasses and notice that changing focus between near and far is anything but instant.

I have noticed another thing though. Sometimes the text/images are sharp but doubled-imaged a small fraction of a character apart. Part of this is likely due to extra muscle effort to maintain focus. Another part is that the degree of this effect is variable. I have drastically cut down my caffeine intake as it was getting out of hand during WFH. Since reduction in consumption and sometimes choosing tea or decaf, I've noticed much less of the double-imaging and don't reach for the low-magnification (1.0) reading glasses as often.

Btw, does anyone use very weak reading glasses? I was thinking about getting something lower than 1.0 (say 0.75). Drugstores only seem to stock 1.25+ and I can find 1.0 at dollar stores, online I could probably order 0.75 to try.

Edit: a completely different theory is that taking Beat Saber fitness breaks made my weak eye less lazy since depth perception is a good part of the game.

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

#63

Post by username90 »

I think it has more to do with diet and such than anything else. Healthy people can look at monitors every hour every day without experiencing any eye strain.

For example spiking your blood sugar causes inflammations around your body, and when that happens in your eyes it hurts and they get blurry so it feels like you are strained. To avoid that eat better and exercise regularly. If you already do those things and are in good shape you can start searching for other fixes.

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

#64

Post by geocrasher »

balfirevic wrote: post #31
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?

For an ultrawide monitor, pretend it's not ultra-wide. Based on how tall it is, what would it's non-ultra wide size be? 24" Then use that.

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

#66

Post by hnick »

auganov wrote: post #17

Screen time itself shouldn't cause eyestrain. Reading is the most likely culprit. Pay attention to when you're actually exerting your eyes. For example, when trying to read a very small font you should feel your eyes working harder. See if reading a larger font feels easier. But sometimes it could be something more subtle like reading technique. Perhaps you're fixating on words or some details for too long. I hardly…

> Screen time itself shouldn't cause eyestrain. Reading is the most likely culprit.

I think this is true, because for me when I'm having a bad eye day I can play games for hours but struggle to read through a paragraph.

I had laser eye surgery and almost regret it, my eyes get dry easily now (I seem to get recurring blepharitis which I lessen with a heat pack) and one eye in particular almost always feels like it has grit in it. But I can play games or watch videos and it's engaging enough that I forget all that, while reading is a completely different story.

Dark mode and larger fonts definitely help, as does a downward eye angle. My work laptop screen does not help, I don't know what it is but I just feel worse at the end of a day that I use it. I think the text is probably too small but I don't realise because in proportion to the smaller screen size it looks large.

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

#67

Post by aviditas »

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'm happy to see that I'm not the only one who does this. I also enable the find the cursor feature because with multiple monitors I tend to squint to hunt for it otherwise.

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

#68

Post by verall »

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.…

If you work in GUIs a lot, your menus and stuff are at the top of the screen, and you can keep the top of the monitor eye level.

If you're a programmer and you use a fullscreen terminal, with the line you type on the bottom, your monitor needs to be higher.

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

#69

Post by trilinearnz »

As others have said, increase the size of your text / OS DPI scaling value.

If you're reading a web page or coding, use the CTRL+mouse wheel shortcut to quickly zoom in and out to suit your viewing preference at any given time. I also frequently adjust the font size of the many notepad.exe instances I usually have floating about. The important thing is making the computer work for your needs, rather than trying adapt to the computer.

Alternatively, I've had good results by reducing the screen resolution, as counter-intuitive as that may seem. I always used to deride my Father for doing this, but now, in my mid-30's, I see his point.

Apart from that, try moving the screen away from your eyes a bit more, and try having your f.lux equivalent enabled throughout the day.

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