Do any of you suffer from eye strain at all? I’m thinking I might have recently picked up a case of it. A couple of months ago I noticed a sort of blurriness in my left eye…almost as though I had just woken up. I noticed when I spend less time on the computer it definitely goes away (doing outdoors activities). I think I’m not giving my eyes enough rest time sometimes.
I’ve always been nearsighted, thus worn contacts…but after turning 40, for the past few years I’ve preferred to wear glasses when working on the computer. I also prefer wearing glasses when flying at night, and contact lenses during the daytime (so I can wear sunglasses).
Anyway - I’ve read the trick where you should avert your eyes every 20 minutes and focus on something distant for 20 seconds to allow your ocular muscles to relax or change position. I’m definitely going to have to start doing that. Time to visit the eye doctor again too…
Yes. I get it pretty bad when I am travelling and very tired. Part of my problem is that, in the IT field, I tend to be looking at things about 2-3 feet away from most, if not all, of my day. The only time this changes is when I drive. Driving for hours, or travelling (say to the Netherlands) and not being able to sleep on the flight, can give me some serious eye fatigue.
It is because you are old.
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J/K , stuff like that happens. I have not encontered something like that (yet) but it certainly is not something out of the ordinary.
Just make some breaks now and then, look somewhere else, and or have light in your room. That helps immensely.
…no clue about VR though, that might make it happen more quickly.
dont know if to call it Eye strain but i had some strange thing with my eye like it was flickering, something with muscle fatigue i guess, which happened from lots of time infront of the computer and 3-4 hours of sleep for a long time (approx. 3months). it was gone though after i stopped working that much infront of the pc and if i had to work that much i would take more breaks of 10-15 mins and then go back working.
I think if you’re nearsighted then as you get older your prescription might change to actually need a tweak to make it less strong - something to do with the shape of the eye, as age does its thing.
Teenagers and the 40-50 crowd are the Optometrist’s easy money
I noticed when I was about 40-ish (I’m 48 now) that my eyes took more time to adjust between focusing near and far. Well, more precisely, it takes longer to get my distance vision to focus. My optometrist said that as we age the cornea (i think) becomes less pliable and the muscles have to work harder to change focus. I ended up getting laser vision correction and love it (especially while riding my dirt bike), but I still have to wear reading glasses to avoid the long transition to distance vision.
Seriously, can you still read small print with your contacts in or do you need reading glasses? If you need reading glasses then I suggest bifocal contact lenses … I’m 50 now and I really like them … never have to wear glasses.
BeachAV8R, as someone else has stated in this thread, you are old or getting old. If I were to bet, you are in need of bifocals with your glasses. I say this because at around 50, I was having trouble reading things like books right in front of me and the computer screen. I too wear contacts and have for some time. I went to my eye doctor and basically he described the issue of:
_Astigmatism is an imperfection in the curvature of your cornea — the clear, round dome covering the eye’s iris and pupil — or in the shape of the eye’s lens. Normally, the cornea and lens are smooth and curved equally in all directions, helping to focus light rays sharply onto the retina at the back of your eye.
My eye doctor said this was normal as people aged. So my answer to my problem was twofold. I got new glasses which were bifocals and allowed me to have the proper updated correction when reading and two, when wearing my contacts and I want to read, I wear “cheaters” which you can purchase at almost any drugstore cheaply as long as you get the strength level correct. You would get that number from your eye doctor.
So, again, I would guess you need bifocals. Go see your eye doctor and see what they say. Hope this helps.
Yeah - the dry eyes phenomenon is particularly bad for me in our Citations. They have an avionics fan that pulls heat out from behind the panel and blows it onto the windscreen…and it bounces off that and blows right into our heads. Sunglasses largely block it during the day, and I tend to wear glasses at night.
Definitely seeing the eye doctor next week - it has been a couple years (maybe even 3) since I updated my prescription, and I’m sure it’s changed.
I’m wondering if the one sidedness is due to my monitor setup. I have two monitors - one is directly in front of me, the other is to my left. I tend to fly sims on the center monitor and surf the web and read documents on the left monitor. So in a normal few hour session, I tend to be focusing on the front and glancing to the left a LOT, and almost never to the right. I wonder if I’m actually fatiguing that left side pull or pushing muscles by not equalizing the movement to the right. (?)
I spent no time in front of the computer today - went on a field trip to the zoo with my son, and the “pressure” feeling on the left side of my left eye is definitely subsided. I’m really starting to think it is my monitor configuration and just fatigue.
That is my understanding as well. My optometrist said the same thing, that my cornea would flatten out a bit as I age.
I had the scare a few years back (why doesn’t anyone tell us older people these things are coming??) where I was seeing some slight bits of “fog” moving across my eye. I went to the eye doctor thinking something major was happening…turns out that all of us, when we hit our 40s and 50s, start to have some sort of movement of the vitreous and that was what I was seeing. Over the course of a year, that debris settled and it only took a couple months for me to not even see it anymore.
Yeah…but it is getting more difficult by the year. I noticed my near vision struggling a couple years ago…particularly in dim light. It is worse when wearing contacts…and I did get some progressive lenses a few years ago and they definitely help. I think mostly I just need a tweak of my prescription and have some more healthy habits at the computer (taking breaks and maybe reconsidering my monitor setup).
Thanks for all the comments - I see I’m not the only one in the aging eyes club…
I find that too bright or too dark backgrounds are not good for my eyes. White backgrounds tend to hurt after some time, if the background is very dark, my eyes start losing focus when they get tired. There’s a middle ground that works very well for me, but it takes some experimenting, especially since monitors differ a lot.
Too many offices skimp on this. A good 4k monitor might look like a high cost to the bean counters, but it will help with eye strain and boost productivity. I was doing schematic design and PCB layout on two 34" 4k monitors and it helped immensely.
Whiskey and 4k seems to the options… but dont have that many bottles and dont have enough power in my laptop to push that many pixels (with decent Hz’s)
Still wondering if panel type ( IPS / TN / VA ) has some significant effect here.
Play with the monitor brightness. I like mine waaay down. Like 35/100. I turn it up when working with colour as low brightness ruins colouring a bit.
Some programs dark mode works, such as Dreamweaver. Others I find it does not - such as Microsoft’s online Windows documentation.
Overall, don’t get into a rut with anything settings wise. If you have to move stuff on the desk around and play with the settings a couple times a day to adjust to different programs and conditions - do it. One-size-fits-all does not work with such variance in programs, monitors and our eyes (which vary day to day as well).
Yep, monitor brightness. What a not clever idea - Display Power Saving on laptop! This changes brightness on the fly.
Finally found it and turned it off.
Also the dark (black) background behind the monitor could be issue in my case. I have laptop on the table and behind it is my gaming TV.
Tried sitting in another room in front of window and it was much better as I had the chance to look outside and change focus.
If I were to bet, you are in need of bifocals with your glasses. I say this because at around 50, I was having trouble reading things like books right in front of me and the computer screen. I too wear contacts and have for some time. I went to my eye doctor and basically he described the issue of:
