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Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 01:28 AM
Does anyone here use eyeglasses specifically designed for computer usage? I have a desk job that puts me in front of two monitors for 9 hours a day, then I go home and use my personal computer.

In the last two weeks or so, my eyes have been getting pretty sore while I'm at work. They seem to feel better when I step away from the screen, but unfortunately the nature of my job requres that I cannot leave my desk as frequently as my eyes would like me to.

I have already setup and appointment to go see an eye doctor, in the hopes that my job has not destroyed my perfect 20/19 vision. I have tried lowering the brightness level of my monitors, and that has slightly helped, but not completely.

Does anyone here use computer glasses or have any other suggestions that would help my eyes?

chillicampari
October 30th, 2009, 01:55 AM
I get eyestrain easily. I don't have special computer glasses, but my normal ones have anti-reflective coating. Some other things that have helped for me have been:

Making sure the refresh rate is appropriate (not as much of a problem with LCD monitors now).

What you've already done by turning down the brightness. Not having the contrast too high also and making sure the tracking is right. Some sites have images to help calibrate the monitor like: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Always having a second source of ambient light (if you're in a dark cave-type environment). Something like a small subdued desk lamp and something that doesn't cause reflections.

Monitor placement, not too high, too low or too far. Some sites have ergonomic guidelines (I use as a starting point- but it's a personal thing).

As soon as my eyes start to feel scratchy or squinty I bump up the fonts before they get really tired (sometimes that helps).

Lubricating drops might help, the single usage kind without preservatives are better.

If you can't leave your desk, maybe you could close your eyes for a bit at least once an hour or read a magazine or book for a few minutes instead?

Hopefully the eye doctor can fix ya up (sore eyes are no fun).

LowSky
October 30th, 2009, 02:02 AM
dont use a computer in the dark, most likely its your home use which is effecting your vision. Also get some proper sleep.. most people wont admit it but staying up late in front of the Pc is the real problem.. find some hobbies away from the PC, like reading, or model trains or a sport.

and of course dont sit on top of the screen and if anything buy a monitor screen, normally they are for privacy, but they can cut donw the glare too.

Katalog
October 30th, 2009, 02:08 AM
Does anyone here use eyeglasses specifically designed for computer usage?

Yup, sure do. Have for the last three years or so. After my job moved me to working at a desk more, a couple of years later my eye doc recommended I get glasses just for computer work because I was getting headaches after staring at a screen too long, even though I was already wearing glasses. I was kind of surprised, but I guess it's not that unusual in this day and age according to him because the glasses I already had weren't set up for staring at things at that particular distance for long periods of time without having to strain my eyes. So now I have two pair - one set of normal glasses (bifocals for driving and reading), and another set just for computer work. Which reminds me, I need to go pick up my new pair, now that you mention it. I also get up and walk around for about 5 minutes once an hour at the very least, and it's helped a lot.

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 02:10 AM
Thanks for the reply.


Making sure the refresh rate is appropriate (not as much of a problem with LCD monitors now).

Currently trying to figure out how to do this on my work monitors. ACER AL1716 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009107)


What you've already done by turning down the brightness. Not having the contrast too high also and making sure the tracking is right. Some sites have images to help calibrate the monitor like: http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Just adjusted my Contrast slightly.


Always having a second source of ambient light (if you're in a dark cave-type environment). Something like a small subdued desk lamp and something that doesn't cause reflections.

It's actually quite bright in here. I work in an offive that does a lot of video conferencing 24/7 so it stays bright with fluorescent lights. Nothing I can do about this.


Monitor placement, not too high, too low or too far. Some sites have ergonomic guidelines (I use as a starting point- but it's a personal thing).

Havn't really had a need to move them in the last two years. This all just started really, nothing has changed.


As soon as my eyes start to feel scratchy or squinty I bump up the fonts before they get really tired (sometimes that helps).

I'll give this a shot.


Lubricating drops might help, the single usage kind without preservatives are better.

I don't know about this one. I REALLY hate the idea of things touching my eyes, including eye drops. My wife taunts me all the time with eye drops. She wears glasses and contacts.


If you can't leave your desk, maybe you could close your eyes for a bit at least once an hour or read a magazine or book for a few minutes instead?

I have actually been doing this a lot lately. I'll close my eyes and put my head down. The soreness will go away for about 45 minutes after that.


Hopefully the eye doctor can fix ya up (sore eyes are no fun).

Agreed.

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 02:13 AM
dont use a computer in the dark, most likely its your home use which is effecting your vision. Also get some proper sleep.. most people wont admit it but staying up late in front of the Pc is the real problem.. find some hobbies away from the PC, like reading, or model trains or a sport.

and of course dont sit on top of the screen and if anything buy a monitor screen, normally they are for privacy, but they can cut donw the glare too.

Actually i don't sit in front of the computre in the dark...when I do it's very rare. I do stay up late using the computer, but I also get 8 hours of sleep. I do play in a company softball league...3 of them actually...so I'm out and about a lot too.

I've been thinking about getting a couple of monitor screens for work. Thanks for the input.

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 02:16 AM
Yup, sure do. Have for the last three years or so. After my job moved me to working at a desk more, a couple of years later my eye doc recommended I get glasses just for computer work because I was getting headaches after staring at a screen too long, even though I was already wearing glasses. I was kind of surprised, but I guess it's not that unusual in this day and age according to him because the glasses I already had weren't set up for staring at things at that particular distance for long periods of time without having to strain my eyes. So now I have two pair - one set of normal glasses (bifocals for driving and reading), and another set just for computer work. Which reminds me, I need to go pick up my new pair, now that you mention it. I also get up and walk around for about 5 minutes once an hour at the very least, and it's helped a lot.

What kind of glasses do you use? I've looked online, but not being a user of glasses ever in my life...I really have not got a clue what to look for. Although I guess that's what the doctor is for. :-)

drawkcab
October 30th, 2009, 04:07 AM
I have fluorescent lights in my office and they drive my eyes nuts when I am working at the computer. One thing that helps is turning off the lights and just working with a nice halogen desk lamp. Luckily I don't have to be at my office very much so I just go home and work by a window.

chillicampari
October 30th, 2009, 05:05 AM
Thanks for the reply.



Currently trying to figure out how to do this on my work monitors. ACER AL1716 (http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16824009107)





No problem! I have an LG Flatron that will does up to 75hz @1280 x 1024 native. It might not actually *need* more than 60hz to be comfortable (it wants to default to 50) but in my xorg.conf I have it hard set to 75 (I have an old Gforce card so using nvidia-settings output copied over to the file). But I'm wondering if there is a better way of doing it since xorg.conf seems to be deprecated(?).




It's actually quite bright in here. I work in an offive that does a lot of video conferencing 24/7 so it stays bright with fluorescent lights. Nothing I can do about this.

Sunglasses! :p








I don't know about this one. I REALLY hate the idea of things touching my eyes, including eye drops. My wife taunts me all the time with eye drops. She wears glasses and contacts.

I hate nasal spray. Have no problem with eye drops though for some reason.

Actually- are allergies worse this time of year where you're at? That can make your eyes hurt and tire easily too.

Oh- and fluorescents, just bleh.

Wim Sturkenboom
October 30th, 2009, 05:20 AM
No problem! I have an LG Flatron that will does up to 75hz @1280 x 1024 native. It might not actually *need* more than 60hz to be comfortable (it wants to default to 50) but in my xorg.conf I have it hard set to 75 (I have an old Gforce card so using nvidia-settings output copied over to the file). But I'm wondering if there is a better way of doing it since xorg.conf seems to be deprecated(?).

It's not. Anything in xorg.conf will override the settings that automatic detection has figured out.

chillicampari
October 30th, 2009, 05:22 AM
It's not. Anything in xorg.conf will override the settings that automatic detection has figured out.

Good to know that will keep working. Thank you!

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 05:24 AM
Actually- are allergies worse this time of year where you're at? That can make your eyes hurt and tire easily too.

Luckily I don't have any allergies. My wife is the unlucky one...red head.

BoyOfDestiny
October 30th, 2009, 06:41 AM
This was a misleading post title. :(

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/26/head-mounted-computer/

Anyway, lots of good advice in the thread.

I'd like to throw in changing the color scheme to a darker one. The computer screen is a light source, and staring at it for 8 hours+ a day, you might as well look into the sun.

Lowering monitor brightness helps, but I've found a dark GTK theme "cure" my eyestrain. The painful white backgrounds just seem like a bad idea until one has a monitor that just reflects light, you know, like those old fashioned things called "paper"

One thing at may also help, make sure you have an easy to read font. Try a different font or version of the font you use with serif or sans serif, bold, etc... See which one is easier to make out.

Barring that, looking away from the monitor every 15 minutes or so, that should help as well...

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 06:54 AM
How was the title misleading? What were you expecting to see when you saw it? Genuinely curious...

I should mention that at work I use Windows XP. Not really able to darken the theme much.

Katalog
October 30th, 2009, 07:03 AM
What kind of glasses do you use? I've looked online, but not being a user of glasses ever in my life...I really have not got a clue what to look for. Although I guess that's what the doctor is for. :-)

I get whatever frames my insurance will let me afford. Frames can be surprisingly expensive, and since my wife is no longer employed I don't get too much latitude when it comes to being picky about fashion. I'm just grateful I still have medical coverage at all.

SeanBlader
October 30th, 2009, 07:26 AM
Everytime I've heard someone complain about eyestrain I look at their workspace and they have the middle of their monitor at eye level, when really the top of your monitor should be a little below eye level. There are two things that you can look at which should be at eye level, TV, and art. Your monitor and books are not eye level items, they should both be lower so you aren't wide-eyed when reading. With your eyes open that much it increases the exposed surface area, causing moisture to evaporate off your eyes faster, and you get dry eyes and eye strain. If your monitor is way up in the air, take out your monitor stands, see if that helps.

Katalog
October 30th, 2009, 07:41 AM
Everytime I've heard someone complain about eyestrain I look at their workspace and they have the middle of their monitor at eye level, when really the top of your monitor should be a little below eye level.

My eye doc said the same thing - just slightly below eye level. He surmised from my description of my work environment that part of my headache/eye problem may have been caused by the monitor sitting too low (I'd never even really paid attention to it until then), causing a little neck strain to also contribute to the problem. When I raised it to his recommended level it helped a little even before I got the new glasses.

3rdalbum
October 30th, 2009, 07:59 AM
Install Workrave. It is designed to stop your work every few minutes to give you a break. When a rest period starts, close your eyes until the end of the break.

+1 for having ambient light. When I had some blown lights above my desk, I got eye strain. I replaced the lights and no problems.

handy
October 30th, 2009, 08:09 AM
I didn't check out your monitor link; if it is a CRT, get the refresh rate up as high as it can handle. Many people are negatively affected by refresh rates that are moving faster than they can actually be consciously aware of, let alone the ones that are slow enough to notice.

& never wear sunglasses inside a building for any length of time, your eye doctor will explain that you can damage your eyes by so doing.

As far as the height of the monitor is concerned, I think that perhaps some people may be affected by that & others aren't. I know I'm not, & I spend usually at least 12-14 hours a day in front of mine & often 7 days a week.

BoyOfDestiny
October 30th, 2009, 08:14 AM
How was the title misleading? What were you expecting to see when you saw it? Genuinely curious...

I should mention that at work I use Windows XP. Not really able to darken the theme much.

I left a link in my post, just a little tongue-in-cheek humour (glasses equipped with a computer, computer glasses... ;) )

Anyway, doesn't XP offer different theme options, higher contrast and such? You could try playing with whatever color schemes are offered, and see if there is any improvement after you spend a day or two on it.

Good luck.

lisati
October 30th, 2009, 08:21 AM
I don't use glasses specifically for the computer, just the same ones I normally use for reading.

Because my laptop is situated near a window and has a slightly grubby screen (haven't come across a suitable cleaining solution that suits my budget yet) I normally keep the curtains closed during the day, to help minimize reflections.

My glasses have an unfortunate tendency to get grubby too, no matter how careful I am, so every now and then they end up under the tap/faucet with a little detergent, followed by drying with a soft cloth that isn't likely to scratch.

handy
October 30th, 2009, 08:30 AM
Because my laptop is situated near a window and has a slightly grubby screen (haven't come across a suitable cleaining solution that suits my budget yet)

I used to service photocopiers for Kodak, & something that I learned there, was that if you have nothing else, spit, is actually at least as good as anything you can spray at the glass out of a commercially dispensed container.

You just had to not let the customer see you spitting on their photocopier. :)

There is a more to the old saying "spit & polish" than most people appreciate I think.



I normally keep the curtains closed during the day, to help minimize reflections.

Absolutely. I always position my monitors in a fashion that reflection from any other light source is nil.

KiwiNZ
October 30th, 2009, 08:34 AM
I don't use glasses specifically for the computer, just the same ones I normally use for reading.

Because my laptop is situated near a window and has a slightly grubby screen (haven't come across a suitable cleaining solution that suits my budget yet) I normally keep the curtains closed during the day, to help minimize reflections.

My glasses have an unfortunate tendency to get grubby too, no matter how careful I am, so every now and then they end up under the tap/faucet with a little detergent, followed by drying with a soft cloth that isn't likely to scratch.

Black Gates Optometrists Hutt city have a great Lens cleaner that also works on Laptops and does not cost much

Elfy
October 30th, 2009, 08:34 AM
You just had to not let the customer see you spitting on their photocopier. Thanks - this made me spit tea at my screen , now where did I put my spit ... :p

HappinessNow
October 30th, 2009, 08:47 AM
...my perfect 20/19 vision.

Blink!

If you truly have 20/19 vision then there is no prescription for eyeglass lenses that can help you, just blink.

handy
October 30th, 2009, 11:14 AM
Thanks - this made me spit tea at my screen , now where did I put my spit ... :p

Does tea (as in the drink I hope?) add to the cleaning capability of spit?

By the way I should modify my statement in the previous post, as there are very likely commercial cleaners that evaporate much faster than spit. Unless of course you have just taken a mouthful of some alcoholic spirit I suppose...

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 06:10 PM
Blink!

If you truly have 20/19 vision then there is no prescription for eyeglass lenses that can help you, just blink.

I actually do try to consiously blink more than I normally would while working. However there is a fine line between blinking slightly more frequently and looking like a circus side show. ;-)

Old_Grey_Wolf
October 30th, 2009, 08:11 PM
OP, try to read this long post to the end. :)

I've had prescription computer glasses; however, my vision was 20/600. Almost blind with coke bottle lenses. Nothing like your vision. I tried bifocal and trifocal lenses before getting prescription computer glasses. The bifocal and trifocal lenses were a pain because of tilting the head back all day to see the computer screen. That is like having the top of the computer screen set above eye level as mentioned by other posters. The prescription computer glasses helped but, I kept leaving the glasses at the computer I worked on last. I would get home from work and realise I left the prescription computer glasses at work. I could have gotten more than 1 pair; but, at $300 each that was not a very good option.

I got cataracts when I was in my 50's. The surgeon replaced my natural lenses with artificial lenses. This corrected my vision from 20/600 to 20/40. What a marvelous improvement. After the surgery I could drive without glasses but need them to read. For several weeks after the surgery my eyes were swollen, so they couldn't prescribe reading glasses until the swelling was gone. The surgeon gave me a set of Drug Store Readers to use in the meantime.

To get to the point, during the weeks that I waited to get prescription glasses for reading, I bought several $10 to $15 Drug Store Readers. I left them by the computers I used. I didn't have to worry about where I left my glasses. I currently have my prescription glasses but, I still prefer the inexpensive Drug Store Readers for working on computers; because, they focus at twice the distance of the reading glasses. Drug Store Readers come in several strengths. You can try them out at the Drug Store before you buy them. They are not all equal, there are some very cheep, poor quality, ones that I wouldn't think about using. Just remember that a computer screen is usually twice as far away from your eyes as a book you are reading. Often at arms length. If it helps then buy them, if not go to the optometrist.

:D

Excedio
October 30th, 2009, 08:24 PM
OP, try to read this long post to the end. :)

I've had prescription computer glasses; however, my vision was 20/600. Almost blind with coke bottle lenses. Nothing like your vision. I tried bifocal and trifocal lenses before getting prescription computer glasses. The bifocal and trifocal lenses were a pain because of tilting the head back all day to see the computer screen. That is like having the top of the computer screen set above eye level as mentioned by other posters. The prescription computer glasses helped but, I kept leaving the glasses at the computer I worked on last. I would get home from work and realise I left the prescription computer glasses at work. I could have gotten more than 1 pair; but, at $300 each that was not a very good option.

I got cataracts when I was in my 50's. The surgeon replaced my natural lenses with artificial lenses. This corrected my vision from 20/600 to 20/40. What a marvelous improvement. After the surgery I could drive without glasses but need them to read. For several weeks after the surgery my eyes were swollen, so they couldn't prescribe reading glasses until the swelling was gone. The surgeon gave me a set of Drug Store Readers to use in the meantime.

To get to the point, during the weeks that I waited to get prescription glasses for reading, I bought several $10 to $15 Drug Store Readers. I left them by the computers I used. I didn't have to worry about where I left my glasses. I currently have my prescription glasses but, I still prefer the inexpensive Drug Store Readers for working on computers; because, they focus at twice the distance of the reading glasses. Drug Store Readers come in several strengths. You can try them out at the Drug Store before you buy them. They are not all equal, there are some very cheep, poor quality, ones that I wouldn't think about using. Just remember that a computer screen is usually twice as far away from your eyes as a book you are reading. Often at arms length. If it helps then buy them, if not go to the optometrist.

:D

Read the whole thing. :-)

Good to know about the drug store reading glasses. I will give them a try and see how they feel. My boss also recomended eye drops...dreaded the thought...

I'm not worried about leaving glasses anywhere, I'm very anal about how I pack up to go home after work...everything has it's place...and glasses would too. :-)

xpod
October 30th, 2009, 08:42 PM
This was a misleading post title. :(

http://hackaday.com/2009/10/26/head-mounted-computer/

Anyway, lots of good advice in the thread.

I'd like to throw in changing the color scheme to a darker one. The computer screen is a light source, and staring at it for 8 hours+ a day, you might as well look into the sun.

Lowering monitor brightness helps, but I've found a dark GTK theme "cure" my eyestrain. The painful white backgrounds just seem like a bad idea until one has a monitor that just reflects light, you know, like those old fashioned things called "paper"

One thing at may also help, make sure you have an easy to read font. Try a different font or version of the font you use with serif or sans serif, bold, etc... See which one is easier to make out.

Barring that, looking away from the monitor every 15 minutes or so, that should help as well...

+1
This helped my own eyes a lot.
I`ve had perfect vision all my life and although i only began using computers back in 2006(age 36) i started to get quite sore eyes after even short periods(1-2 hours) in front of the things.Just changing to darker themes and lowering the brightness did the job for me.

LeChuck
November 13th, 2009, 06:17 PM
I just wonder if there exist something like desktop sunglasses?

What I mean by this is a window (or whatever) on top of the desktop, which doesn't cover the functionality of the windows below, and is nothing but transparent with the desired opacity. Ideally this can be assigned to a key, and whenever it's hit the sunglass gets on/off.

In practice, when I read an ebook or have to write a text for example, I misuse an empty and transparent terminal window on top of the window I'm actually using, but somehow this is less then ideal.

So, instead of wearing sunglasses in front of the monitor (I don't do that), why not letting the desktop wear sunglasses? But I haven't invested much to solve this problem for me yet. Maybe you have an idea.

overdrank
November 14th, 2009, 01:32 AM
Thread closed at the request of the OP. :)