Do your eyes also feel very dry? If you already have dry eyes, starring at computer will make it worse. I had similar problem for a while, until I started to force myself to drink lot of water at the office, and humidifier at home.
Of course, this is just one of the possible causes.
"From the American Academy of Ophthalmology[1]: "Staring at your computer screen, smartphone or other digital devices for long periods won’t cause permanent eye damage, but your eyes may feel dry and tired.""
I always believed this myself but I wonder what kind of research has been done to back it up. Intuitively, staring at a computer screen for 8+ hours a day for year after year would not seem to be a good thing.
Indeed this article seems to claim different:
"As you sit in front of the screen, your eyes dry out, and you stop blinking. Over time this leads to damage of the eye muscle that is used to focus on far away objects and damage to the tear ducts."
Sometimes I get some pretty bad headaches from staring so intently at the screen. I've found that taking breaks every few hours or so, going outside, taking a breath of fresh air, and then staring at something in the distance helps. Not only do I feel rejuvenated from being outside, but it also helps to relieve the eye strain.
Our eyes are constantly moving and refocusing (microsaccades), you never literally stare at the one spot. The problem with too much screen time is you blink less resulting in dry eyes.
I’m 51 and have been staring at screens for 40 years, on average rather close to the amount of time I’m awake, and I can’t really connect that to headaches.
Same, never got any headaches from any screens. Regardless of the type of the screen, lighting or viewing position. Have been using computers for almost 25 years, with many 10h days and occasionally 15+ hours.
As I got older I started getting neck pain though, if I sit too awkward. But still no headaches ;)
Everytime i sit down at a computer and stare at a screen I wear blue light blocking glasses. I experimented with different intensities of the yellow and found a subtle one to fit me the best. This reduced eye strain by a lot.
What could also be a factor is bad posture, sitting down allday could tighten up the area around through your neck which could cause headaches. I suggest stretching out everyday for 20 minutes to ease that.
Start using lubricating eye drops. Also try to make a habit of blinking eyes while working on a computer as one of the cause of dry eye is not blinking enough while looking at a screen. Weather also plays role in how you feel, I feel more discomfort in extremely dry or extremely humid conditions. Don't worry, it is a manageable problem.
I'm not sure if it's just me getting old, but I find that if I look at a screen while laying down (especially mobile, because typically that's the only type of screen I can use while laying down) for more than a few minutes, I start getting a headache/migraine. As I got older, I have to follow a general rule of sitting in a proper desk and chair to use screens. Anything else doesn't really work for me.
I didn't have late afternoon tiredness or headaches, but I noticed that sometimes after staring at a computer screen or TV for a long time my eyes would get entirely bloodshot. It would last about 2 days before it finally cleared. I would also get a pain, but it felt like it was my eyes rather than a headache.
It turns out my one eye has a slight astigmatism (I think that's the term) but it's just enough to need glasses for driving and TV watching. With my computer I've made adjustments so I'm not overly concentrating with my other eye. It had been about 5-7 years between my last eye exam because I thought I had 20/20 vision so sometime in between there I developed problems.
So even if you think you have 20/20 vision you still might want to go get an eye exam periodically.
I look at a computer screen 8 hours a day at work, drive an hour home, and look at a screen another four to five hours.
This past week, I had a weird experience where there was a white spot in my vision that prevented me from being able to read. Any particular letter or number I focused on couldn't been seen. It only lasted for about fifteen minutes but left me with a headache that lasted a couple of hours. According to my eye-doctor, it was probably an ocular migraine.
Insert shrug here. I definitely get headaches after staring at iPad screens all day, and definitely have to squint to see them outside. Don't really care if that subjective suffering doesn't reflect some medically recognizable consequence, I still choose to avoid it.
The simple thing he didn't mention as the cause of his headaches -- other than alluding to it -- is eyestrain. As programmers we are consistently straining our eyes. I'm always in the doghouse with my optometrist because I am always breaking her rules. She understands programmers and what they do to their bodies (fingers, wrists, eyes, posture), but obviously her bias is the eyes so she has a few rules that I should live by:
- don't strain the eyes reading small text. Smartphones are especially bad at this.
- don't always look at the same distance. It strains the muscles. We were meant to look at short and far distances, but monitors are always 2-3 ft from our face.
- Take A LOT of eye breaks. Every 10-15 minutes just look somewhere else. That's all.
- Blink. When people read screens, they blink less. If you don't blink, your eyes don't lubricate themselevs and you can develop sores under your eyelids (especially so with contact lenses).
- Get more sleep.
- Wash around your eyes every night. This is good advice for women as well as men. If you mistreat your eyes, you can get protein build-up around the eyelids and follicles. Make sure you gently clean all of it away with a warm compress.
Basically, treat your eyes like precious little jewels. Pamper them and they'll last a long time.
"Although some of these problems may not result in symptoms under less visually demanding conditions, the high demands of computer work cause them to
become manifest. "
THIS. After about 7 years of staring at a screen all day at work, then coming home and staring at a screen all night (gaming, programing, etc), plus marijuana = dry squinty eyes-- the cumulative effect was that my eyes began to always focus slowly and unevenly, especially on things far away.
I got glasses and they helped, but it felt like more of a bandaid than a solution.
I have since reduced my close-up computer screen usage dramatically. I also do the occasional eye exercises (youtube has a lot of these and they really help).
I stopped wearing glasses and spend more time outside and away from the screen so my eyes actually have more things to do than look at bright pixels 3 feet away.
If I could give any advice to my younger self it would be to minimize long stretches of staring at the screen. Take plenty of breaks to give your eyes a break.
I used to get sore eyes from looking at a computer all day. I went to an optician and they said it's cause by focussing on things that are really close all the time. You must focus on far away every so often (every 10/20 mins) to relax your eye muscles
It depends a bit on what type of eye strain you’re experiencing.
Dry eye typically comes from not blinking enough. It can also be worsened by blepharaitis (inflammation of the eyelids).
If you feel like you’re straining to focus (and you haven’t already), you should see an optometrist and get computer glasses.
I have a pair that I wear occasionally, and I find them especially helpful with low-res (e.g. medium to large 1080p) displays. On that note consider getting a 4K or better display, especially if it’s larger than 20” or so.
Finally there’s the so-called 20-20-20 rule, which is to focus on something at least 20 feet (6m) away for at least 20 seconds at least once every 20 minutes.
I think my eyeballs dry out faster when looking at a tv, there is more movement compared to a monitor setup. this is with flux, those gamer glasses that reduce strain(blue tinted) and the lights being diffused above me instead of behind or in front of me
switched to using one of those ultrawides and that reduced my dry eyeball strain significantly
My eyesight is pretty bad too. I don't believe the computers are a direct culprit, but they might be indirectly and partially responsible. Staring to the screen usually causes nothing more than eye strain, which may indeed result in vision problems, but those are reversible - sufficient rest, frequent brakes, some exercises, and it should be back to normal. However, as it turns out, I have a rare genetic condition which makes my eyes unusually weak and incapable of repairing damage. The combination of staring at the screen combined with horrible air conditioners in the office caused my eyes to dry out and burn like hell, which in turn caused massive death of cells that couldn't repair themselves due to the above deficiency, damaging my eyesight. Hope that clarifies things a bit.
There are so many problems with staring at screens in addition to this. eg.
1. Eye strain and headaches: Staring at screens for extended periods of time can cause eye strain, headaches, and other physical symptoms.
2. Sleep disruption: The blue light emitted by screens can interfere with the production of melatonin, a hormone that regulates sleep, leading to sleep problems.
3. Decreased physical activity: Spending too much time staring at screens can result in decreased physical activity and contribute to sedentary behavior.
4. Social and psychological effects: Spending excessive time on screens can have social and psychological effects, such as reducing face-to-face interaction, increasing feelings of isolation, and affecting mental well-being.
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