Five ways to be nice to your eyes
February 28th, 2007 (1:37pm) Mike Gunderloy 20 CommentsTweet This (1)
Your eyes are the products of millions of years of evolution. Unfortunately, this means that they’re optimized for spotting prey across the savanna, not for peering at letters built up of little dots on tiny screens. In recent years, optometrists have come to recognize a complex of eye and vision problems they call Computer Vision Syndrome, or CVS for short.
When you spend your day looking at computer screens (especially poorly-maintained screens, or the tiny ones on mobile devices), your eyes strain, you blink less, and your body gets generally unhappy. The result? Fatigue, headaches, blurry vision, dry eyes, neck and backaches, and even double vision.
The good news is that you don’t have to just tolerate CVS. There are some simple things you can do that can help make your eyes happier with all this close-up work. Here are some suggestions from the American Optometric Association and elsewhere:
1. Take breaks. The 20-20-20 rule is a good guideline here: stop every 20 minutes, pause for 20 seconds, and look at something 20 feet away. An onscreen reminder application can nag you to do this if you tend to get overabsorbed in your work.
2. Look down. Keeping your eyes wide open (as you naturally tend to do when you’re looking at something above you contributes to drying them out, especially when your blink rate is lowered anyhow. Your workspace should be arranged so that your monitor is below eye level, not above.
3. Eliminate glare. Now that we’re mostly using LCD screens instead of CRTs, this isn’s as much of a problem as it used to be, but you should still watch out for bright lights directly behind you that reflect off of your screen. If you’re sitting with your back to the window, demand that the boss buy curtains – or move your desk.
4. Sit back from the screen. The closer you get to the monitor, the more you’re going to be straining to focus. Increase the font size if necessary to sit back at a comfortable distance.
5. Talk to your eye doctor. Don’t neglect those annual vision checkups, and make sure that your optometrist knows you’re working at a computer. It makes a difference (for example, traditional bifocals aren’t good for computer work). You wouldn’t expect your doctor to design web sites, so don’t try to treat your own vision problems if they get serious!
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This is a superb article, specially for me that use glasses and i’m many hours in front of a computer.
Re: #4
Most readers here probably know this, but just in case. When at a website with small font, in Firefox (of course) hold down Crtl and use the scroll wheel to make the font larger and smaller.
Thanks, great article for someone who stares at the screen all day long churning out code. A tinny winny bit of correction though, the eyes didn’t evolve over millions of years. That’s unproven and in any case impossible. Eyes were created as is. My two pence :)
This is really a great article and should really be read by everyone, like me, who uses the computer 24/7 in this new internet-crazed culture.
How about the importance of back light? You should have as much light flooding your eyes as is reasonably possible. The source of that light should be the monitor itself (white backgrounds) or a light source from behind the monitor, but within you field of view. The reason for this can be understood by anybody who has done basic photography. Small pupil = small aperture which makes focus very easy.
The utility from MS will help sharpen text displayed on your LCD, hopefully making you squint less.
Look for the “ClearType Tuner PowerToy” on the right side of the page.
Helpful article. I have very weak eyesight, and I tend to spend hours staring at an LCD screen. I suffer from persistent headaches and eye strain. I will definitely try and follow the advice given from here onwards.
Awesome I will keep that in mind. I stare at computer screens 12+ hours a day. I started noticing eye problems early last year. No I wear glasses most of the time. Which kind of sucks. The upside is the opposite sex likes it ands I look like Michael Douglas in Falling Down.
-Vadim
I always have a TV lamp on and a computer lamp as well…however, I don’t watch TV any more…I think I would rather just eat some carrots!
~Sharon~
http://www.BabyBoomerAdvisorClub.com
Very good information for taking care of one’s eyes in our technology filled lives.
Blessings
Mama Kelly
Truely helpful – lately my eyes feel as though they are going to explode – this can’t be right. When will legislation intervene to force the eye breaks we all so desperately need but ignore?
thanks! i talked to my eye doctor!!!
What about those UV computer screens. They greatly eased the strain for my eyes.