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…
How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
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Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#52> When it comes to light brightness, too much is just as problematic as too little Recently moved into a house with on/off light switches. Having the ceiling lights on full brightness was downright oppressive. I installed dimmer switches, and it's so much nicer it's hard to really convey.
How do you source lightbulbs? I have yet to find a reliable LED bulb that doesn't hum or flicker on a dimmer despite being advertised as "dimmable" . . .
I actually "solved" the problem by using remote controlled light bulbs.
I can still use the switch to turn them on and off, but I have to use the remote for dimming. Not the most elegant solution, but the dimming works flawlessly, and on my model I can also change the color temperature, which is nice, and it was actually cheaper than most "dimmable" light bulbs.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#53The natural light and diffuse light are good tips. Next is to get a big screen eg. 85" 4K and put it 1.5m away. That should be your main display. I don't have that all the time, but then I get some variety, 85" @ 1.5m a lot of the time, laptop some of the time, driving/walking etc. for longer range. 1.5m is the midpoint of focus for the muscles in your eyes. I built augmented reality displays and this was the focal p…
85" @ 1.5m is insanely big for me, do you not get sore having to dart your eyes about to read the corners?
> do you not get sore having to dart your eyes about to read the corners?
I wouldn't be surprised if this is what makes it healthier. Not only are you exercising your eyes, you're also giving them a chance to let you know when they need a break.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#54Are 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…
I know of such a community: https://ledstrain.org/
While it's informative, I would proceed with caution. Many users there indulge in a level of obsession that is not helpful. The basics of reducing eye strain are actually simple:
1. Don't use a display at unnecessarily high brightness. 2. Make sure there's plenty of natural light around you (avoid LEDs if possible). 3. Take frequent breaks and look off in the distance. (If you're in a social setting, assume an air of mystery with your ponderous gaze.) 4. Reduce your level of stress. Stress makes nothing better and everything worse. Enjoy life! Stretch regularly to reduce muscle tension in the body. 5. Probably diet helps, but that's a whole can of worms. Don't obsess over it, but try to reduce inflammatory foods.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#55Having worked from home for many years, I was surprised that I had never come across the acronym “WFH” before. It took me a moment to decipher its meaning, especially since the article introduced another acronym, “PWM” (pulse-width modulation), right at the start.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#56A lot of the guidelines that are used to light a scene for a camera are also quite useful for lighting a room for yourself, just with less light needed as the human eye has a much higher dynamic range than a camera sensor: * Use diffuse light. This usually means multiple light sources bouncing and diffusing light off surfaces (ceilings, walls, etc) or diffusers. * Minimize shadows. Shadows lead to contrast which can…
In the history of LED lighting, it took quite a bit of work (hybrid phosphor technology, etc) to get them to emit warm color temperatures. The exact color temp can be a personal preference, but I think a lot of people aren't privy to the difference the color temperature of "white" light can make! I want to go on a guerrilla campaign around my neighborhood and replace porch light bulbs with warm equivalents.
While the color temperature situation has improved, the actual spectral quality of most consumer LED lighting still leaves a lot to be desired. CRI makes an effort to measure this, although it's a low-granularity measurement.
I personally buy surplus cinema lighting equipment and use it to light my house. I have a bunch of fancy cinematic LEDs with high CRIs that produce decent light, although they still can't fully compete with tungsten bulbs (e.g. Arrilite series)
Ideally you want to be looking for something with a color temperature in the 3500K (mid-morning) to 6500K (clear blue noon day) range and a CRI of 95+. Also bug manufacturers to start using better color quality metrics like TM-30.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#57The natural light and diffuse light are good tips. Next is to get a big screen eg. 85" 4K and put it 1.5m away. That should be your main display. I don't have that all the time, but then I get some variety, 85" @ 1.5m a lot of the time, laptop some of the time, driving/walking etc. for longer range. 1.5m is the midpoint of focus for the muscles in your eyes. I built augmented reality displays and this was the focal p…
I made a glasses with the focus optimized for 1.5m. A lot easier on my eyes for working than my progressive lenses.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#58This is another +1 for WFH. Many office environments have terrible lighting, and there's very little you can do about it.
Amen. I wear a ballcap at the office.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#59The natural light and diffuse light are good tips. Next is to get a big screen eg. 85" 4K and put it 1.5m away. That should be your main display. I don't have that all the time, but then I get some variety, 85" @ 1.5m a lot of the time, laptop some of the time, driving/walking etc. for longer range. 1.5m is the midpoint of focus for the muscles in your eyes. I built augmented reality displays and this was the focal p…
85" @ 1.5m is insanely big for me, do you not get sore having to dart your eyes about to read the corners?
I do almost exactly this, but instead use a cheapish 65" 4k/60hz TV instead. I can see bits of my surroundings with my peripheral vision, but only with the parts of my vision that are already blurry.
I suspect that 85" was chosen to maximize immersion for gamers (cover the entire field of view), rather than to minimize eyestrain. For me doing development work on a 65" from about 1.5m is close to ideal.
Re: How to improve your WFH lighting to reduce eye strain
#60The environment and the screen should have similar brightness. In the pictures in the article, the screen seems much too bright in comparison.
You are spot on! - was a limitation of my 3d rendering abilities but great point.