Ask HN: Tricks to Avoid Eye Problems?

As a software engineer, I have the need to stay many hours in front of a screen.

I work 8 hours a day in an office with a computer. At home I usually spend about 3 hours a day at the computer (social network, programming, side projects, HN, ...).

I usually have slightly red eyes. Lately the problem has gotten worse. I began to have some pains in the right eye and difficulty focusing on the computer screen.

Because of that, I'm currently at home on vacation. I have a scheduled appointment with a vision specialist next week.

This is the first time I have complications with vision. I'm 26 years old, so far I've never had any problems or need glasses.

Someone has some tips to avoid eye problems?

> I have a scheduled appointment with a vision specialist next week.

I was having eye strain towards the end of the day, and getting some "occupational lenses" pretty much fixed the issue. I think visiting an Optometrist is the way to go.

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You might check if the lights in your home office flicker with the slow-motion camera mode on your phone. I haven't researched whether it actually causes eye strain, but it's so easy to fix I went ahead and purchased some Phillips LED bulbs like the ones talked about here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19098678

Some random things I do:

- Lower brightness on your monitor (mine is at 75% currently, I think most people go lower)

- Use night shift/flux to make the monitor colors warmer at night

FYI getting used to the lower brightness and glasses will take a day or two. My glasses made my eyes hurt at first.

thijsvandien · 7 years ago

For reference, the brightness of my screen is somewhere between 1% and 7%, depending on the time of the day (switching between three modes). People always wonder how I can see anything, but I’m so used to it that I get tired looking at brighter screens very quickly.

HNLurker2 · 7 years ago

Also recommend flux and twilight (Android, the app the is gold when you put it at max at night and get used to it)

geocrasher · 7 years ago

Look away. Frequently. I work from home, spend 10-12 hours a day looking at screens. My office is set up so I can glance out a window easily. In fact it's in my peripheral vision, that's how close it is. I look out it frequently. I'm 42, just had glasses in the last 2-3 years. The trick is to let your eye focus on something far away on a regular basis. It's like getting up and walking around, but for your eyes. It makes a huuuge difference.

asdf333 · 7 years ago

looking far is important. i recently switched to a large monitor and a small office and it has been disastrous for my eyes.

altsyset · 7 years ago

Dosn't that distract you?

cyberjunkie · 7 years ago

Been using PC screens since 92 and excessively since 95. I'm now 36 and my wife urged me to take an eye test with her because I've ignored my eyesight for so long.

She had a 25 minute session to get her glasses corrected. My time, 20 seconds into mine.

"Ermmm.. there's nothing wrong with his eyes"

My wife was visibly annoyed.

I have this 'terrible' habit of watching people walk by, sometimes stare out in the distance, looking at objects close and far all the time!

demuch · 7 years ago

Try avoiding displays using PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) for dimming. Unfortunately most monitors and high-end phones made by Samsung, Apple and Google make use of PWM.

For monitors you can check here: http://www.tftcentral.co.uk/articles/flicker_free_database.h...

For phones you can check the reviews on notebookcheck.net, they also test whether the display is PWM-free in the reviews. https://www.notebookcheck.net/?&hide_youtube=1&typeArray[]=1

shamas · 7 years ago

Eye stretching exercises. Focus on something as close as possible (in good light) then slowly track out to something at infinite distance, one eye then the other then both.

Additionally, make sure the contrast on the screen matches your surriundings! There's no reason to have your brightness very high at all, and brightness is different from contrast.

biols · 7 years ago

There's the 20/20/20 rule (every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds) that's cited often.

I started to have similar issues, and my optometrist set me up with some reading glasses optimized for how far away I usually sit from my monitor. They have eliminated a lot of the eyestrain issues I'd been dealing with.

rudedogg · 7 years ago

alanfranz · 7 years ago

I had similar issues for a while. Some recommendations:

- pick a LARGE, high-quality monitor, both at work and at home, and use retina/hidpi modes. I use a 43" LG 4K monitor, and it was one of the best investments of my life. Sometimes my co-workers laugh about the size of the fonts on my screen, but that usually means I have ZERO STRAIN on my eyes, since everything is extra large (basically, FullHD on a 43" monitor)

- Tune your colors towards red. Blue imposes more strain to your eyes. That's especially true when working indoors and/or by night.

- Tune down your brightness, and use "dark mode" whenever possible.

- Pick a pair of blue-filtering glasses with LARGE lenses, to use while at your PC.

julianlam · 7 years ago

While I'm not normally one to espouse buying gear to fix problems, when it comes to problems with the body, I think it could be worth it.

If you are unfortunate enough to need glasses, consider getting a pair that has blue-light filtering (in addition to the regular AR coating).

I also use a monitor that comes with blue light reduction built-in (The Lenovo p24h, if anyone's wondering), and there's a definite difference when I work in the office (with the monitor) and at home (without).

Before I got my glasses, I was getting headaches after a couple hours in front of the computer as well. Not anymore, but taking breaks (as others suggest) is important too!!