Live data from Hacker News

How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

rustle.ca

11–20 of 309 posts

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#11

For me the revolution was to get a rather expensive monitor [1] with a great reader mode that lessen the flicker considerably. When I game with it and I turn off reader mode my eyes really feel the difference even though I spend way less time gaming than working. I wonder if OLEDs will be even better since they shouldn't flicker during productivity (from what I read at least). [1] was one of the LG ultrawide 34" but…

It might be time for me to upgrade my monitors (they are very old). I never thought too much about flicker, etc. Does anyone have any good recommendations for just decent 24" monitors for coding?

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#13
post #8

Are there any communities of others online dealing with general eye strain? Or other blogs / videos that have helped others? I have had chronic eye pain for a while now and could really benefit from hearing what has helped others. I have not found doctors to be helpful I have a pretty normal Dell office monitor but not sure if I would benefit from an upgrade. I have relatively normal overhead lighting and try to take…

The standard 60Hz refresh rate of monitors is unlikely to produce any eyestrain. The refresh rate of the backlight could produce eyestrain and headaches.

Unfortunately, the exact frequency of the PWM used for backlight isn't often mentioned in the specs.

In general, anything above 500 Hz is better as some people get headaches even for 250 Hz.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#14
post #8

Are there any communities of others online dealing with general eye strain? Or other blogs / videos that have helped others? I have had chronic eye pain for a while now and could really benefit from hearing what has helped others. I have not found doctors to be helpful I have a pretty normal Dell office monitor but not sure if I would benefit from an upgrade. I have relatively normal overhead lighting and try to take…

The standard 60Hz refresh rate of monitors is unlikely to produce any eyestrain. The refresh rate of the backlight could produce eyestrain and headaches. Unfortunately, the exact frequency of the PWM used for backlight isn't often mentioned in the specs. In general, anything above 500 Hz is better as some people get headaches even for 250 Hz.

P. S. The linked website is poor on details and not worth reading.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#15
A big thing not often spoken about with eye strain is dry eye caused by the lack of blinking due to focusing on screens too close to our face. This is an evolutionary phenomenon--close dangers cause extreme focus without blinking. Extreme focus on close items reduces our blinks.

Our eye lids have glands in them that release oils on your eye with each blink. These oils help prevent the watery part of your tears from evaporating. When it evaporates your eyes dry out causing discomfort and potentially pain.

If you don't blink enough, the oil doesnt get on your eyes and eventually, in extreme cases, the glands can even die. A lack of oil in tears can cause extreme eye fatigue and even pain.

This is why dry eyes is on the rise. Remember to blink!

I actually built a little web app to count my blinks. See https://dryeyestuff.com/. Not perfect, just a prototype. 100% free.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#16
post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

that's probably a problem with your dimmer switch, not the bulbs.

Explain. Isn't a dimmer switch just a variable resistor? Do you need fancy dimmer switches if you want them to work with LED bulbs?

A dimmer switch for an LED light is different from a dimmer switch for a non-LED light. If you try to use an LED light with a “normal” dimmer, it won’t work well.

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#17

For me the revolution was to get a rather expensive monitor [1] with a great reader mode that lessen the flicker considerably. When I game with it and I turn off reader mode my eyes really feel the difference even though I spend way less time gaming than working. I wonder if OLEDs will be even better since they shouldn't flicker during productivity (from what I read at least). [1] was one of the LG ultrawide 34" but…

It might be time for me to upgrade my monitors (they are very old). I never thought too much about flicker, etc. Does anyone have any good recommendations for just decent 24" monitors for coding?

Not me, sorry. At the time I did watch a bunch of reviews on YouTube, but since the purchase I haven't kept up

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#18

For me the revolution was to get a rather expensive monitor [1] with a great reader mode that lessen the flicker considerably. When I game with it and I turn off reader mode my eyes really feel the difference even though I spend way less time gaming than working. I wonder if OLEDs will be even better since they shouldn't flicker during productivity (from what I read at least). [1] was one of the LG ultrawide 34" but…

It might be time for me to upgrade my monitors (they are very old). I never thought too much about flicker, etc. Does anyone have any good recommendations for just decent 24" monitors for coding?

I've been considering the "programmer" monitors from BenQ, but I don't know if they truly help.

[0]: https://www.benq.com/en-us/monitor/programming/rd280u.html

Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain

#19

For me the revolution was to get a rather expensive monitor [1] with a great reader mode that lessen the flicker considerably. When I game with it and I turn off reader mode my eyes really feel the difference even though I spend way less time gaming than working. I wonder if OLEDs will be even better since they shouldn't flicker during productivity (from what I read at least). [1] was one of the LG ultrawide 34" but…

It might be time for me to upgrade my monitors (they are very old). I never thought too much about flicker, etc. Does anyone have any good recommendations for just decent 24" monitors for coding?

If you've got the budget for it, e-ink monitors are becoming more available recently, and I've heard that they make a huge difference for eye strain. There are still only a few companies manufacturing panels that large, and I think the framerate can be pretty jarring for anything other than text, but I have been keeping an eye out for when the prices drop.
Post reply on HN