Computers, Eyes and the Wall Street Journal
Our population is spending more time staring at computers, cell phones, I-pads and the like. This in turn makes computer eye strain or CVS ( No not the drug store but Computer Vision Syndrome) more of a problem.
Recently the Wall Street Journal published a very good article on computer vision syndrome entitled Becoming a Squinter Nation. You can follow the link to read the article!
Now, I had published a for a few hints on overcoming eye strain associated to computer use previously, but as a reminder here are a few tips:
Generally, laptops have us looking downward. This allows those of us that wears bifocals to see the screen through the bifocal. Because the screen is directly in front of the keyboard, it is close enough so that the bifocal distance is usually comfortable and in focus. With desktops the placement and location of the monitor becomes impotant. Most new monitors have adjustable tilting which makes it much easier to place them in a position that allows for easy, comfortable viewing. The ideal monitor position should be 18-20 inches or more away and sufficiently low that when you are looking straight ahead, your eyes are looking over the top edge of the frame.
If the monitor is too high you have to tilt your chin up to focus with the intermediate portion of your progressive lens. If you are only at the computer for a few minutes this will probably have no effect, but if you sit at the computer for a prolonged period of time, a neck ache is sure to appear. This spells an eminent appointment with my dear friend Dr Glenn Silver at Silver Chiropractic in Richardson! If you don’t tilt your chin up to use your bifocal to focus the monitor you are looking though the top part of your glasses instead of the intermediate zone and thus straining your eyes. Neither option is acceptable for any reasonable length of time as they are both uncomfortable.
Computer glasses are a great problem solver! Progressive or bifocal computer glasses are generally not really necessary for most people, now if you spend more than a couple hours a day staring at the computer monitor, you could benefit from computer glasses. Computer glasses could be single vision focused to the computer distance or progressive lenses where the top part is focus at computer distance, and the bottom focused for reading. A good anti-reflective coating will eliminate reflections and make it more comfortable.
Setting up your workstation ergonomics will also help. In the old days, we would not suggest you set up our workstation on the desk and the monitor sitting on top of the CPU. With new and smaller CPU units you could place the CPU on the desk and the monitor directly above thus lifting the monior. Now, do not place your monitor where there is a bright light behind it such as a window and having a window directly behind you may cause bothersome glare and reflections. One way to help with that is to have a filter with an antireflective screen on your monitor.
Lastly, a good, comfortable adjustable chair is great! Having a chair that adjusts vertically will allow you to further improve your eye gaze position.
This is an earlier post on the same subject: http://odphysician.com/computer-strain/