Sorry... but don't we need solutions to this eye-strain problem I'm sure you've all experienced from time to time?

I need to work very hard over the next months to get a project completed. It may involve up to twelve hours a day looking at a screen. But my eyes are already twitching and aching. My forehead is starting to twitch now also.

I don't think there is anything wrong with my eyesight, I just think eyes didn't evolve to look at tiny symbols against a glowing background for 12 hours a day. I've even started putting cucumber and tea bags on my eyes like a wag, and it seems to help a little with the twitching.

Not only do I need to work with music software, but I need to spend quite some time reading, mainly on the internet and ebooks I have on my hard-drive.

I've got into the habit of looking away from my screen whenever possible into a mirror reflecting the room behind me, so that there's some distance for my eyes to focus on. It's a nice relief.

If I use microsoft word, I use the blue background option (in the options menu). That's really good. Is there anything to do this with other programs? Sometimes I also make the text larger, but this is a pain to scroll around. I often turn the 'gamma' brightness down on the monitor and have considered getting some green tinted specs.

Now I'm wondering if these new LED projectors might be OK for reading books projected on a back wall (like a Bond villain).

Has anyone had any experience with these projectors?

Has anyone got any other ideas for avoiding close screens or reducing strain?

Thanks



P.S Perhaps this forum could offer the option for a blue or green background?

Quote JimAl:

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I don't think there is anything wrong with my eyesight...

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Fine, but it might be an idea to get it checked. I was experiencing some problems that I thought were eye-strain from 6+ hours at the screen over several consecutive days. Went to the place I "should've gone to..." and they've prescribed some extra specs just for using at the computer. Crucially they suggested an anti-glare coating. Does the trick for me... £65 all up - including the eye-test.

I've heard that the eye-twitching thing can be caused by a lack of potassium. Trying eating some bananas and see if that helps — but not too many, mind, or you'll overdose and collapse, like Peter Andre did.

Cheers!

Chris

I've been writing software since I was about 12, so I appreciate the improvements in screens since I used to use a portable TV.

LED projectors suck. As a way for an entire conference room to see a blurred, skewed, slightly-out-of-focus PowerPoint presentation, they're great. They're utterly unsuitable for anything else.

Have you got an LCD monitor? If not, get one. Old CRT monitors are the pits for eyestrain.

Next question, how big is it? I find that a 17" monitor (4:3 format) is about the perfect size for me. Sat at the right distance, I can see the entire screen in my peripheral vision, and tracking to any point on the screen takes only eyeball movement. I used a 19" monitor for a while, but I found that with the larger monitor I was having to move my eyes further each way to see the edges and was actually also having to move my head slightly too, resulting in persistent low-grade eye- and neck-strain after a while. Down-grading back to a 17" monitor solved the problem. If space permits you could simply move the monitor further away, but this isn't always possible on a computer desk.

Next question, how close are you to it? If you're too close to the screen, your eye muscles need to work harder to focus. The further away you sit, the more your eye muscles will be in their "resting" position. When I'm coding I don't need an ultra-sharp visual image, so I've developed the habit of letting my eyes defocus slightly, and that really helps. The same trick would also work if you're primarily doing word processing.

Then there's the glasses thing - you don't always spot your eyes getting older.

And finally, bear in mind that employers are required by law to let VDU operators take a few minutes' break every hour. It's worth remembering that there's good health reasons for that when you're using a computer on your own time.

Get some artificial tears from the chemist and apply regularly and liberally. They work wonders for unhappy eyes. Some of the symptoms you describe can be alleviated at least in part by ensuring your eyes don't become too dry.

You would also probably benefit from using a screen zooming application to enlarge the area you are working on - make it nice and chunky! Most graphics cards have this functionality in the drivers somewhere.

Changing to a lower resolution is also possible, although with LCD screens this doesn't always look very good you'll get less strain as a result.

Other things that spring to mind would be to try some slightly tinted driving glasses to reduce glare, and/or perhaps one of those mesh monitor overlays which have a similar effect.


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Twas with respect and disbelief,
That I surveyed my new Motif ...

While doing music, I find having a midi controller helps (like a mackie control/something with faders).. it means you can look at that instead of the screen, even just for a few seconds while adjusting a fader or something.

also, make sure you look away from the screen every now and then.. have a coffee break.. go for a walk. etc. you just have to get in the habit of taking regular breaks from the screen.

try using paper and pen sometimes!!.. If you have a lot of reading to do, print it out and read it from paper. if you have a lot of typing to do, look at the the keyboard instead of the screen.

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www.Lozjackson.com

* Get a better monitor. A S-IPS or S-PVA LCD with a RGB or White LED backlight. The Apple LED Cinema Display may fit the bill.

* Get your doctor to prescribe artifical tear fluid

* Blink more often

* Get new glasses. Even if you eyesight is perfect, glasses that magnify just a little bit will help you focus to that screen that is probably just a little bit too close to your eyes for easy focusing.

These tips have enabled me to continue working with sore eyes.

Oh, and forget about projectors ;-)

/t

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* wossname * ...if .sig's were fish, this would stink *

Another +1 on the glasses. I don't 'need' glasses either, but after an eye check up I was told that while I could read the small letters fine, my eyes were straining.

Before I got my glasses, my eyes would be tired by lunchtime, and by the end of the day I could barely keep them open. Now with glasses I'm fine all day.

Get your eyes checked! Oh and check out glassesdirect.com as they are seriously cheap - most high street specs are an absurd rip off. My glasses cost £25 including lenses, and I still look impossibly sexy.

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http://www.jeremycorbett.co.uk

another tip... switch your VDU(s) off for several minutes at a time — e.g. when listening to your track. Helps to stop you diving in on every micro detail, but also makes you look elsewhere, which helps your eyes.

Quote Mixedup:

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another tip... switch your VDU(s) off for several minutes at a time — e.g. when listening to your track. Helps to stop you diving in on every micro detail, but also makes you look elsewhere, which helps your eyes.

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I also find that this method enables me to "listen" to the track in a different way than i do while watching the sequencer prog play it.

Quote JimAl:

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I've got into the habit of looking away from my screen whenever possible into a mirror reflecting the room behind me, so that there's some distance for my eyes to focus on. It's a nice relief.

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Possibly the worst thing you could do. You are forcing your eyes to refocus and, more importantly, your pupils to dilate.

You look into the room and your pupils open up to let in more light. Then you look back at your screen and your pupils take a few seconds to adjust down again. In these few seconds your retinas are getting hammered with light.

Also no-one has mentioned refresh rate. Run your screens as high as they'll go.

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Visit my band's website

Re refresh rate, that's only an issue on CRTs where the phosphors are being lit up 70 times a second (or whatever rate), and you need that to happen fast enough that you don't see the gaps. On an LCD monitor, pixels stay on until they're told to turn off, so refresh rate is never an issue.

Thanks, I've booked an appointment at the opticians. I'm wondering about this anti-glare thing too, or tinted glasses. Reading black on white is pretty taxing. Oh by the way, you can turn the background to a different colour on Adobe for PDF docs! Dark green or blue background is probably best, with maybe a lighter green or blue text.

Yeah, the old CRTs used to make me ill, like I had flu or something.

Anti-glare is good to get.

Once you've had an eye test, do shop around though. You'll be shocked at how much some opticians want to charge you for 'extras' like scratch resistance or anti-glare cough Boots cough.

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http://www.jeremycorbett.co.uk

Oh well, I had an eye test and there's nothing wrong with them, no eye-pressure problems or anything either. I should be glad but it means there's no solution.

I don't understand how some people can look at screens all day, or like those 'bookworm' types who read all the time and seem OK. Is anybody here able to read all day without any problems?

Yet my eye-lids are twitching and I'm having to force myself to read with annoying little pains. I wonder if it might be the glare of the screen rather than the focusing aspect.

Another thing I've considered is that, I've always hated reading (the process), so maybe there's a different eye-problem that also causes slight dyslexia. I do often find that my eyes lose the sentence place or line. I saw someone reading in the library with green filtered glasses. Maybe I need them.

Thanks everyone.

Like I said, I've been using computers since I was a kiddy, so I'm pretty well used to it. I also do a lot of reading (and have done since I was very small indeed), which might help too. As a speed-reader, I tend to see the shape of words as a whole, rather than reading individual letters - it's a bit like looking at three notes on a stave and saying "C chord" instead of going "C.. and E... and G...". What is it particularly about the process of reading that doesn't work for you?

One thing which hasn't been mentioned is blinking. Don't try and force your eyes to stay open. You *will* blink more when doing PC work - let it happen, and if anything you want to consciously blink more. As well as lubricating your eyes, it also give them a brief respite from the screen. The trick then is to keep your eyes pointing front-and-centre where they were before you blinked, so that you don't lose track of what you were doing.

And "front-and-centre". Whatever you're working on, try to make sure it's happening in the middle of the monitor, in the middle of your field of vision. You don't want to be constantly doing the Action Man eagle-eyes thing.

Re the monitor setup, it's certainly a good plan to set things up for your own taste in colours, brightness, font type and font size. As monitors have got better, pixels have inevitably become smaller, so it's quite possible to put text on the screen at a size which is sod all use for the Mark I eyeball. And colour-wise, bright white backgrounds (100%) are particularly wearing on the eyes. I know a few people who use off-white on blue for text - the "classic" Windows blue background is actually a nice relaxing shade, and a slight off-white (95%, say) goes well with that for a foreground colour.

Of course, if you're writing a Word document then you'd need to change colours back before you print! But for a DAW or suchlike, there's no reason to leave the colours on their defaults unless you really like those colours.

Thanks for the advice, I think I do have a mild condition that tires my eyes. I always hated white boards in college. My eyes may be sensitive to contrasts, at least for long periods.

>"Of course, if you're writing a Word document then you'd need to change colours back before you print!"

No, there's a special setting in word that doesn't affect printing: Options>General>Blue background,white text.

There is an option for Adobe reader too, bit you can have all the colours of the rainbow.

Well, I'll try coloured plastic paper and lenses. There's quite a bit about it on the net. I reckon it might help people in general to read with less contrasting colours. None of this is exactly natural anyway. I suppose humans always sat making and refining tools and weapons for hours, but not with such contrast... like this!

... by the way, for those with the same problem, I've just found that on Firefox you can change the colours:

Tools>Options>Colours...

I chose: Background Colour: Blue
Text: Cream
Unvisited Links: Lime Green
Visited Links: violet

Uncheck all necessary boxes.

You can make the default font larger too. It all looks a bit retro, but it's definitely helping me.

Cheers.