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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?

#71

Post by phoinix »

username90 wrote: post #63

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 ar…

That is all true. Sugar is very bad, but i consider every kind of animal product even worse. I am a vegan for years. The best plants to eat for best vision are those that have the compound carotenium. Many plants compose it including carrots, but in my personal experience the most carotenium of all the plants is in the bark of the pine tree. A food source so abundant, it is almost infinitely abundant. I eat the bark every day for years now, 10 or 20 hours a day straight. Once a day i eat some other plants. The best plant for keeping your eyesight healthy, and maybe even reverse any damage.

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

#72

Post by hrafn »

On a Mac, f.lux is not sufficiently strong, what has helped me a lot is to add a strong red color filter (System Preferences > Accessibility > Display > Color Filters > Filter Type: Color Tint, set to red, intensity to full). I do the same on my iPhone, it's quite comfortable during the night.

I also use the QuickShade app which makes the screen darker without reducing backligt brightness.

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

#73

Post by tubularhells »

phoinix wrote: post #71
username90 wrote: post #63

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 ar…

That is all true. Sugar is very bad, but i consider every kind of animal product even worse. I am a vegan for years. The best plants to eat for best vision are those that have the compound carotenium. Many plants compose it including carrots, but in my personal experience the most carotenium of all the plants is in the bark of the pine tree. A food source so abundant, it is almost infinitely abundant. I eat the bark…

Parody pearl.

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

#74

Post by phoinix »

tubularhells wrote: post #73
phoinix wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That is all true. Sugar is very bad, but i consider every kind of animal product even worse. I am a vegan for years. The best plants to eat for best vision are those that have the compound carotenium. Many plants compose it including carrots, but in my personal experience the most carotenium of all the plants is in the bark of the pine tree. A food source so abundant, it is almost infinitely abundant. I eat the bark…

Parody pearl.

Native American Indians ate the bark of the pine tree for tens of thousands of years. Their skin changed colour as a consequence of so much carotenium.

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

#75

Post by [deleted] »

karmakaze wrote: post #59
user5994461 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colors, brightness and angle of vision. Without going into specifics, the shortest way to get a good screen is probably to buy an IPS display (it's barely more expensive). Pretty sure all IPS display are at least okay. The cheapest displays are TN because it's cheaper to manufacture, sadly that technology has very bad angle of vision, move a feet to the left and another feet and you'll see the image looking different…

I don't know how true of a problem this still is. Are most LCDs now not typically TFT/CCFL? Quality still varies, but I haven't had trouble with even cheap displays if you can use the included controls or software to adjust the gamma or dark/light response. I used to use the Norman Koren test patterns[0] before using a Mac with included wizard. It's likely much more common for people not to know or try to see how muc…

[deleted]

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

#76

Post by bluedino »

karmakaze wrote: post #59
user5994461 wrote: post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Colors, brightness and angle of vision. Without going into specifics, the shortest way to get a good screen is probably to buy an IPS display (it's barely more expensive). Pretty sure all IPS display are at least okay. The cheapest displays are TN because it's cheaper to manufacture, sadly that technology has very bad angle of vision, move a feet to the left and another feet and you'll see the image looking different…

I don't know how true of a problem this still is. Are most LCDs now not typically TFT/CCFL? Quality still varies, but I haven't had trouble with even cheap displays if you can use the included controls or software to adjust the gamma or dark/light response. I used to use the Norman Koren test patterns[0] before using a Mac with included wizard. It's likely much more common for people not to know or try to see how muc…

IPS, TN, now you have this pentile shit

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

#77

Post by mxxx »

burkemw3 wrote: post #19

I got glasses that were focused at approximately the distance my monitor is from my face (~1 arm length). I'm near sighted and the monitor starts getting blurry at just the right distance. I have glasses for nearsightedness that are focused very far out (the common case). Wearing them for constant work at arms length really tired my eyes out. So, I'd frequently work without my glasses, but hunch forward a little to m…

I started using reading glasses (non prescription) a while ago when I was getting a lot of migraines. My vision was fine but I had difficulty switching focal lengths. The glasses just made it a little easier and my eyes felt a lot better at the end of the day. Migraines reduced too.

The other simple one is to just increase font size when you’re feeling strain. I’ll often change my font size when I’m in poorly lit conditions or if it’s the end of a long day.

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

#79

Post by jml7c5 »

burkemw3 wrote: post #19

I got glasses that were focused at approximately the distance my monitor is from my face (~1 arm length). I'm near sighted and the monitor starts getting blurry at just the right distance. I have glasses for nearsightedness that are focused very far out (the common case). Wearing them for constant work at arms length really tired my eyes out. So, I'd frequently work without my glasses, but hunch forward a little to m…

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 very noticeable difference: on the occasions that I forgot to put the task glasses on and wear my normal glasses by mistake, my eyes almost always end up feeling sore after a few hours.

I'm tempted to get another pair at 50 cm for laptop and phone use.

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

#80

Post by kazinator »

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 without even blinking for minutes at a time, and still read the text. So I persisted in marathon hacking sessions without taking appropriate breaks.

I promptly went the opposite way and used the smallest font I could comfortably read with rested, relaxed eyes. Problem went away. This established a corrective feedback loop. Firstly, I had to blink in order to continue to read. That font size was not possible to read without blinking for a minute. Secondly, straining to read when tired didn't work; I just had to take a break.

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