makes my eyes hurt… towards the back of them.
my work, like most people’s (i reckon) involved hours infront of the computer. i look out the window plenty (the alps are pretty…), but i am pulling long hours at the moment – 10-12 hours/day work, plus a bit of skype to the gf, facebook, stw etc…

I have a decent sized screen about 2 and a bit foot from where i sit, plenty of light in the room (esp during the day). my eyesight has always been perfect (and still seems fine btw!)

any ideas what i can do?

Take breaks every hour. 5mins after 1st hour, 10mins after 2nd. That means walking away from the PC not surfing the net!
There are guidelines I think about what sort of breaks you have to avoid strain.

get some reading glasses.

some +1 lenses

£5 from boots.

don’t be scared, they absolutely won’t harm your eyes.

take plenty of breaks – chats to colleagues, cups of tea, loo, lunch etc…

unfortunately nowhere near a boots – i may see what the local shops here have though…

Someone I know says that £1 shops are great for reading glasses – he just buys 10 pairs at once and leaves them all over the house/office so he doesn’t need to carry them around with him.

Could be the lights in the room? I also work a *lot* at computers. Get a nice bright desk lamp, try having that on (just pointing at the desk, or maybe behind the monitor). This can help a lot.

Also breaks.

I don’t tend to have problems though, years of computer abuse means I think I’m adapted well to staring at screens…

Also are you sure it’s the screen? Rather than maybe just long office hours in (possibly) dry air (aircon). I.e. are you staying plenty hydrated?

your eyes focus on close objects by tensing tiny little muscles that distort the lens.

your eyes focus on distant objects by relaxing the same muscles.

close = tensed

distant = relaxed

do too much close work and your eyes will hurt.

as you get older the lenses in your eyes become stiffer – the lens muscles have to work harder to achieve the same focus.

as you get older the muscles that distort the lens become weaker.

how old are you monkey? – your eye muscles are working very hard for 10 hours a day, of course your eyes will hurt. just get some +1 reading glasses.

all this modern life (reading, looking at porn on tinternet, etc.) is very hard work for our eyes which evolved for a bit of tree climbing, spear chucking, and scanning the horizon for mammoths.

you’ll do enough close work in a normal day (counting your change, making a sandwich, reading a map) to stop your eyes becoming ‘weak’ and long-sighted, but asking your poor old peepers to cope with 10 hours screen-work is a bit much.

you can do it when you’re young, but it’s increasingly hard as you get older.

feel free to ignore me, but don’t ask me for sympathy when you get migraines, or your eyes ‘adjust’ to all this close work by becoming short-sighted.

I’ll look at lighting…

ahwiles – definitely appreciate the advice, and it makes sense… i live in a big village in the alps, and so i’m not sure whats available glasses wise… but i’ll have a look. i’m only 23 🙁

Get a good screen. (not a £100 TN film one, but a decent IPS one).
Use digital connections (DVI) to avoid screen blur.
Adjust the screen properly – most are waaaay too bright.
Set it at a comfortable height – I like mine high enough that when I look straight ahead I am looking two-thirds of the way up the screen.
Check the ambient lighting. Strip lights can be awful with screens as they flicker at a different frequency to the screen.

The blink response slows when using a screen, which doesn’t help along with air-con. Lots of rest breaks and move your focus point regularly when using the screen.

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