Ask HN: How are you taking care of you eyes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How are you taking care of you eyes?

153 pointszuj184 comments

Like anyone else these days, I am spending 8 hours for work, couple of hours for entertainment and social in front of the monitor. As I age I can see the stress and strain on my eyes. No issues as of now but I want to take care of them before anything happens.

Couple of things I am doing right now. During the day, moved to single monitor and immediately noticed less strain on the eyes and neck. During night started spending at least couple of minutes in a room(not bedroom) with out any major light source either meditating or chatting with partner, it provides major relief.

What tactics are you following and any resources which talks about practical eye health.

View on HN

Women say they love mens eyes. So you have to work those out at the gym as well.

I do eyelid lifts and eye rolls. 3 sets of 20 6 days a week with a rest day on Sunday.

You can do these while on the treadmill and doing other excercise to increase efficiency.

You can also mix in some beta carotene into your protein shake to really maximize the eye pump.

You get downvotes, but I laughed.

Beta carotene is useless. Eyelid lifts, eye rolls, «snipping» corners of your monitor, frequent focus shifting (e.g. following of every tick on a ruler attached to your nose), are good for muscles, so they are recommended.

So you're saying hold off on the beta carotene supplementation and stick with classic steroids that we know for a fact work. Good call.

> 3 sets of 20 6 days a week

Why on earth would you do hypertrophy sets for a body part that clearly benefits more from pure max strength training? Lower those numbers to 5 sets of 3-5 reps at max intensity, and recover for at least 48 hours. At 6 days a week, you're pretty much begging for an injury.

> You can also mix in some beta carotene

Holy cow you're crazy. Stay natty my friends.

I'm working on slow twitch eye muscles for endurance romantic stare sessions.

Going to work on getting the eyes swole after some good endurance training first so there's a good balance between fast twitch and slow twitch so there's some definition but also function.

Supplements may have an effect, so for example taking beta carotene while being a smoker may be counterproductive:

> Among current smokers, beta-carotene supplementation was found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of lung cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.24; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.10-1.39).

[Beta-carotene in multivitamins and the possible risk of lung cancer among smokers versus former smokers: a meta-analysis and evaluation of national brands](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18429004/)

Why would anyone smoke? Smoking hurts your gains.

It's not a proper lifting supplement if it isn't dodgy as hell and probably going to kill you.

Like people are for real supplementing with arthropod moulting hormones. Seems legit. "Ecdysteroid" has "steroid" in the name. If that doesn't make you swol, I don't know what does.

By the time I'm a couple hours into my day, I'm sure I've hit a couple sets of wide eyes and eye rolls.

I do those in daily stand-ups and other meetings. Does wonders!

This is a great read, I'll definitely follow this and come up with a plan

I was having huge problems with eyesight strain. Just after an hour of computer use I would see blurry, shadows, double, light sensitivity, etc. I was even thinking about changing my profession. I tried many things like blue light filters, eye drops, improved refresh rates, max-hardware-brightness with reduced software-brightness, different light bulbs, eInk, orange glasses, red light therapy, larger monitor farther away, etc.

NOW I AM FINE. The magic solution for me was to ask for intermediate-distance computer glasses. These were supposed to be for short/intermediate distance only. However, after a single day of usage, my eyes adapted to this depowered version of my formula and I never again used the regular glasses. I see 20/20 far with the intermediate distance eyeglasses. This strongly suggest that I was over-prescribed for years and now I feel so much better.

Summary: Tell your optometrist that you want intermediate distance eye glasses because you spend many hours in front of the computer. It _could_ make a great difference for your life as it did for mine.

Just to echo, I experienced the same symptoms and it was largely relieved by getting mild prescription "computer glasses".

Over the next two years, I was able to better correlate these symptoms with sleep deprivation, as well. Lack of glasses exaggerates fatigue, but fatigue onset is much more aggressive when I don't sleep enough.

Another vote for cumputer-distance prescription.

Also, I have two monitors so naturally switch my gaze between the two through the day as I work, which helps.

One monitor is very large, and I set the resolution low so fonts and such are uncommonly large. Why strain?

Remember to look up and into the distance every few minutes.

I had the same. All the opticians I was visiting were giving me prescriptions so I could see while driving (which I didn't realise). I went to an eye hospital with more sensitive equipment as I thought something was wrong with my eyes. They said no problems, I just needed a weaker prescription for computer use - they gave me one that was 0.5 dipole less. It might not sound like much, but made a big difference. I think that ordinarily your eyes would be able to adapt (and mine probably did when I was younger), but as I'm getting older my eyes don't adjust as easily as before.

Since march of this year I stopped following my eye doctor's advice ("wear your glasses as much as possible otherwise your brain gets lazy", which is proven BS) and looked into endmyopia (i think i even read about it on HN), as I was getting into the risk zone for retinal detachment (6 diopters), which can lead to blindness.

To sum it up: reduce the amount of near-work you do (looking at your monitor, smartphone, books, etc) and, if you already have glasses, use glasses with a reduced prescription or no glasses for near-work.

With these rules I've managed to go from -5.5/-6 to -3.5/-3.75 in just these 9 months. And that's with me still spending 12h a day on my computer.

Pro tip: you can get very cheap (as little as $3) myopia glasses from aliexpress or a bit more expensive zenni optical. So there's really no big barrier to entry.

Side note: Lasik only cures the symptom of bad vision (just like glasses), but not the cause (elongated eyeball, which is what increases the likelihood of retinal detachment). If you don't change your habits after lasik, chances are you will need glasses again a couple years later as your eyeball further elongates, see: 35% are above 0.5 diopters again just 3 years after lasik https://bjo.bmj.com/content/103/4/565.abstract 58% are above 1 diopter again after 7 to 8 years. https://www.proquest.com/openview/722546068e4b0c9c1d3acba7e3...

I recommend you read more on endmyopia.org to learn about the scientific background and the eye biology behind it. But what I summed up above should easily get you started though and in just a couple of months you should notice improvements in your eyesight (you can test it at home by printing a Snellen eye chart).

Finally going to the eye doctor is no longer frustrating because my eyes are improving instead of getting worse year by year :)

> Pro tip: you can get very cheap (as little as $3) myopia glasses from aliexpress or a bit more expensive zenni optical. So there's really no big barrier to entry.

Pro tip: with 6 diopters, make damn sure you get your PD correct. Otherwise the headaches you get from the induced prism just won't make it worth it.

I had no issues with that luckily, but if you order a custom prescription, many aliexpress sellers also ask for your pupillary distance. With zenni you always give your PD I think (I haven't tried it, but zenni is very popular in the endmyopia community).

Could be working in your favor. Most off the rack glasses are made with a 60mm PD because that's a good average. So if you have, say, a 62 mm PD and you're wearing them to use a laptop, your eyes will be converging a bit anyway.

It is much worse if you have a narrow PD, say 56. Before convergence, you already have over 2 diopters of prism wanting to spread your eyes outward.

Oh interesting, thanks for letting me know. I'll have to look into that topic a bit more :) My PD is around 64mm and I'll be receiving glasses with that PD soon. It will be interesting to see if I notice any difference to my other glasses.

You're welcome. And just to clarify, I don't have anything against your process (I've used Zenni myself), I just wanted to make the point about being careful with the PD.

Oh no worries, I didn't understand it in a negative way. I'm always happy to learn new things - especially in this case as it does sound important and I haven't really been paying attention to PD.

Most (all?) of the cheap online retailers allow to (some require to!) enter a PD value and also provide instructions on how to measure it. I personally use https://www.goggles4u.com/, they are cheap but not quick since they probably order from China.

Can you give a summary of what the "endmyopia" process is?

The website claims the idea is based on peer reviewed research, but all the links and guides lead to what appears to be clickbait styled videos and testemonials. Overall it isn't clear and doesn't really sell the idea to me

Yea, that's sort of the founder's style. He has a very ironic and not very serious way of writing that drives a lot of people away. He does it intentionally though, as he wants people to really look into the topic and understand it, instead of just listening to "5 easy steps to fix your eyes in 1 week!" and then encountering problems.

You can find the research linked in these posts: https://endmyopia.org/category/science/

The summary is basically this: You increased your eyeball length from too much near work and lens usage. This further increases your myopia. To reverse it, use lenses appropriate to your task (reduced lenses for near work) and reduce near work in general. I can recommend the free 7 day email guide, it's probably the closest to a coherent overview about the whole topic.

i earlier dismissed endmyopia as a pseudoscience given doctors are against it. But it does make sense that eyeballs that have elongated beyond their size and hence caused myopia can also come back to their nature size improving vision as well. Gotta try it for myself though.

Best of luck! I first heard about it 3 years or so ago, but also dismissed it until I found out I could just try it out at almost no cost with glasses from Aliexpress. One of my best decisions of the past few years :)

> With these rules I've managed to go from -5.5/-6 to -3.5/-3.75 in just these 9 months. And that's with me still spending 12h a day on my computer.

Do you mean you've gotten used to a weaker pair of glasses? Can you actually see just as well, and how have you tested that? Are you around 40 (far vision improves around that age)?

I always use weaker glasses on my computer now (around 1.5 diopters less than my full correction). I just reduce that reduced correction step by step (recommended is .25 diopter reductions, .5 worked for me too though) when it feels right (aka when I can see the screen decently well even with the new weaker glasses). So I started by using -4 glasses at the computer and now I use -2.

To check my current eyesight, I use a printed Snellen chart and the focal calculator https://endmyopia.org/focal-calculator/calc.html

The focal calculator is less accurate, but over mutliple measurements it averages out and adds up to a similar result as the Snellen chart for me.

No, I'm in my early twenties.

Yes, fully corrected, I can even see better than before to be honest. My eye doctor told me last time (before I started endmyopia) that I only have around 80% vision, even with glasses. I noticed that when playing tennis, I had trouble telling if balls were still in the opponents field because I couldn't see the back line properly. Last time I played I noticed how much better I could see it :)

I couldn't believe what I just read...

What you said is basically what I read 7~8 years ago when I was in my early twenties

I searched and read about this method in a Chinese forum website, zhihu, IIRC. As lazy as I was, I just couldn't be serious with any methods to cure my eyesight

Now that I read your comment on HN, it is actually legit lmao

Yea, there's many similar strategies out there :)

Try it out, I'm sure you can change your habits and make it work!

When you go to the ophthalmologist and they do their thing, do they end up giving you weaker prescriptions? The skeptic in me wonders if you've simple gotten used to poor eyesight? I'm curious though and really want to hear more.

Also, seeing an ophthalmologist is still important, they check your eyes for potential problems, more than just issuing prescriptions. You say you worry about retinal detachment, they can see early warning signs of that and fix it sometimes.

Well I can see 20/20 with my new weaker glasses on the Snellen eye chart, so I don't think I just got used to worse vision.

I will be going to the eye doctor soon again and will hopefully get a similar prescription from her as from my own measurements :)

You're right about retinal detachment. I worry less about it now that my eyes are improving and it doesn't feel like I'm on an unstoppable trajectory towards worse eyes and higher risk for retinal detachment anymore. I heard it can appear quite rapidly, which worried me even when going to routine checkups.

For what its worth, I've known about endmyopia for some time as well. Snellen chart is how you can verify things for yourself, you can only lie to yourself so much. I've improved my eyesight as well but nowhere near as much as Aulig has (roughly an improvement of 1.5 diopters over 3 years). I'm also much older, mid 30's, so that might be a factor in rate of improvement. I can't even see out of the glasses that I had before I started, so I know its definitely improved.

Congrats on the improvement! Progress will most likely slow down for me too, from what I heard it's common to have quick gains in the beginning. After that it's supposed to be .75 diopters per year, so roughly what you're getting :)

What if you can't even see a screen with out glasses? I'm -8 both eyes and I have to be like 6 inches from a 27" monitor to see words clearly.

Seriously considering lens implants since my eyes are too bad for lasik.

That's very common, you use weaker glasses for near work then, so around -6 or -6.5 depending on your distance from your screen.

You can find more information on that on the endmyopia page or wiki by looking for "differential glasses"

Thanks. I'll give this a try. I don't like the feeling that if I lose my glasses or contacts I'm helpless.

You're welcome! I get that feeling too, makes me uneasy. Best of luck on your eyesight improvement journey!

Where do you buy "differential" lenses? Do you just get a lower prescription from your optometrist?

I get them from AliExpress, because it's super cheap there. Some sellers only offer very standard prescriptions (same diopters on both eyes, standard pupillary distance, no astigmatism correction). Others also offer to create glasses with custom prescriptions, just like you'd get the glasses from the optician.

Zenni Optical also offers custom prescriptions, but is more expensive (likely still a lot cheaper than your local optician).

But you can totally also get glasses with a lower prescription from your regular optician, but as you will relatively frequently need new glasses, that can get expensive (at least here in Germany it would, and I heard in the USA glasses cost up to $1000).

I buy all my glasses online so I usually end up only paying like $250 but that's still a lot to just test this stuff out. I'll give aliexpress a go since it's so cheap.

Yea, that's definitely quite a bit of money. You could also try it out by wearing one of your older glasses for near work. If you still have a pair of older glasses that are around 1.5 diopters weaker that is.

Great to see another reader out in the wild. Mainstream optometry just making the problem worse to keep you as a customer instead of curing you is the same sort of issue that happens in so many industries from orthodontics to nutrition.

Understanding exactly how much of modern health systems/guidelines are based off of capitalism incentivized research which then get some form of regulatory stamps of approval is appalling.

Not griping about capitalism, I think its the best thing out there for the economy, its just that we haven't figured out a way to prevent it from creating authoritative science backed research that somehow always promotes the funding party's product.

That's exactly my thoughts. This is crazy. It is basically the wrong alignment of incentives. Wonder how we are going to protect ourselves from it right now and fix the system.

Well, in this case part of the issue is that people want a quick fix to see well again (put on the glasses and done). Changing your habits is more work, but simple education like (take off your glasses for near work) would go anlong way, yea.

I've been eating pineapple in the last few weeks to see if it gets rid of my eye floaters: https://www.benjamineye.com/blog/eye-floaters/

> Three months later, out of 120 subjects in the first group (1 slice), only 35 still experienced eye floaters, an improvement of 70.8%. In the second group, only 19 participants still saw floaters, an improvement of 72.8%

> How does it work? Scientists believe that enzymes in the pineapple can decompose extracellular substances that cause the formation of microscopic fibers. Apparently, these same enzymes can absorb free radicals leading to the degradation of hyaluronic acid.

Does it work with only fresh, canned, dried or all forms of pineapple? I'm pretty eager to reduce my eye floaters.

http://www.jofamericanscience.org/journals/am-sci/jas150419/...

Has it been working for you?

I've read the paper and am very curious.

I think I've noticed a mild improvement, but still a bit early to tell! :)

When I told my optometrist that I was a software developer he took me into this office and showed me his computer setup. Basically, he was a huge proponent of using massive TV screens in place of smaller computer monitors as it was so much easier on the eye.

I'm typing this on my machine connected to a 55" 4k TV that's about 33" away from my face. Given how inexpensive 4k TVs are compared to monitors and how well they work now it's an easy investment.

Have you noticed any difference with your 55" 4k TV setup compared to what you used before? I've often wondered about this, and considered the possibilities of high quality VR that could allow us to set up a virtual screen at any size and distance.

That works and I like to watch some stuff that way but it is highly capped by the resolution of your VR. It will always be a subset of the available pixels of your headsets max resolution.

I don't particularly felt that VR is easy on the eyes since while the illusion says otherwise, you have 2 very small monitors directly in front of your eyes, directly the opposite of what was suggested before. This is probably more relevant than the perception of distance.

There is a lens inbetween, it is usually optically equivalent of being 6ft back or so (sometimes infinity).

> I don't particularly felt that VR is easy on the eyes since while the illusion says otherwise, you have 2 very small monitors directly in front of your eyes

Think of it as having glasses. Your focal point isn't in front of your eyes where the glasses are, you're looking "through" them. It's the focal point that matters.

It's definitely easier on my eyes than trying to focus on a laptop screen and I feel pretty strongly that it's a big productivity boost to not have to flip around between a terminal, documentation, editor and output webpage constantly.

That being said standard window management really falls down with the larger screen real estate and I use a 3rd party window manager mapped to keyboard shortcuts to split the screen up into smaller chunks.

I've been doing this for YEARS and can confirm it's an amazing setup. I'm on my second 43" display. The first was a 4K TV and the new one is an Aorus 4K Gaming Monitor. It's high refresh rate and has a built in KVM switch. Not being a TV it turns on and off as you would expect a monitor to. I love it.

I plan to use this until OLED or equivalent new tech is burn-in proof.

I just peeked into those monitors and the built in KVM really sells it.

I'm still rocking a 32" Samsung 1080p HDTV from about 2010 at home.

I'd take the leap to 4K. It's time. :)

I have my work Macbook Pro connected over USB-C and my gaming PC over Displayport. I just turn on whichever system and the monitor turns on and my keyboard, mouse, wireless headset etc come to life. For a work-from-home setup it's really ideal.

Yeah, it's on my radar now. Maybe after my December bills have all cleared.

I basically do the same, except I use a VR headset. I personally use a Valve Index headset with prescription lenses that are adapted to the VR headset, via a German company called VR Optician (no prescription required). I use Retinopsy VR Look usually for working. Retinopsy VR Look is not directly available in the Steam store (see: https://store.steampowered.com/app/750120/Retinopsy_VR__Look...) but you can get it in Viveport ( https://www.viveport.com/5445b338-0944-49a8-80ce-7c0f4ea7709...) and then import it into Steam. After that, you can delete Viveport.

I do this for another reason: severe convergence insufficiency. People in their 40s basically get convergence insufficiency and require prism lenses. But, mine is due to a rare neurological disease affecting my peripheral nervous system, which I have lived with since I was too young to read.

> 55" 4k TV that's about 33" away from my face

This is so obvious now that I think about it. Name the number animals in our evolutionary lineage whose survival depended on staring at a tiny object closer than an arms length away. Besides us, I can't think of a single one. Even most humans were able to get by with mostly distance vision until very recently.

I'm glad that large screens are becoming so much more economical, because this just makes a whole lot of sense.

I was under the assumption that bigger the monitor more the light and more strain on the eye. Am I thinking wrong ?

As someone who suffers from recurrent corneal erosion (scratches on cornea, that are painful as hell) I incorporated a set of steps to manage this condition.

1. Daily eyelid hygiene - using special wipes to get the leftover from your eyelashes, to unblock Meibomian glands. It can dramatically improve how your eye is moistened. People who suffer from dry eye syndrome should at least try it.

2. Using eye drops daily - whenever I see them or I need them.

3. (Something that is specific to recurrent corneal erosion). I put some ointment/gel when I go to bed. As most of recurrent corneal erosion events happen during the night, it is crucial to be protected when you sleep.

What type of wipes?

I live in Poland so there are different brands of these lid wipes, but "Systane lid wipes" look about right.

I had phototherapeutic keratectomy in both eyes (about a year apart) that basically cured my recurrent corneal erosion. I sleep in extended wear contact lenses most nights which help protect the cornea. I also have quite severe myopia so this is also convenient for when I wake up, using the toilet, wanting to know the time, reading the message that just arrived, etc. Then I just need some eye drops in the morning. I use eye ointment at night when I'm not wearing them.

I had phototherapeutic keratectomy which indeed helped me stabilize the situation, but didn't clear the symptoms 100%. I still have occasional erosions, which are much less severe and last way shorter than previous ones (minutes and not days). But I'm not sure if it is because of PTK itself or because of extra care that I give to my eyes daily.

I had similar problems.

Eye drops in my case didn't help, it mostly was caused due to producing to little tears at night when I sleep, I can't put eye drops in when I sleep.

But there where some things which did help:

- eating/drinking healthy, while unclear it seems my tear under production was partially linked to a unhealthy diet

- eye hygiene helped a bit not much

- Making sure air humidity is at a good level during winter times helped too.

- And while it sounds ridiculous: Getting used to carefully open the eyes when waking up, like very very carefully. That probably helped better then all the other effects combined as most damage seems to have happened when opening the eyes when waking up.

The last one is indeed the golden one. When I feel that my eyes are sealed or I feel a lot of friction I use my fingers to help open my eyes. After that I put some eye drops in.

What is very interesting that there is a certain set of actions that you can take and the ones that helped you, didn't help me (diet - I've been eating healthy for a long time, air humidity - we use air humidifier for a long time too), but the ones that were great for me (eye hygiene) didn't help you.

I can recommend medical grade silicone sleep masks (e.g. Eyeseals 4.0). These keep 100% humidity around your eyes over night, so that they can't dry out.

Counter anecdata. I'm 39, right eye slightly myopic since I was a kid. Never needed glasses. Always prefered using the computer in the dark since when I was a teen and had an NEC MultiSync CRT monitor. My eyes are still OK as far as I can tell.

40s are pretty rough when it comes to vision. At 39 my vision was perfect. At 47 I still have 20/20 father away than arms reach but closer than that it’s crap. When it started to change it was quick.

Is it common for people around 50 to get Lasik or a similar procedure to counteract this?

What they are describing is presbyopia. It's caused by the hardening of your lens as you age that makes it less able to change shape to focus on close-up things.

No fix that I'm aware of but there are work-arounds:

1) For people that already wear glasses, use bifocal/trifocal/progressive lenses

2) For people that don't wear corrective lenses, use "reading glasses" and constantly put them on and take them off as you switch between looking at close/distant things.

For contact lens wearers, there are some options:

1) Bifocal contact lenses. These gave me a constant headache.

2) Monovision. Essentially one eye tuned to distance and one tuned to close-up. I could not get used to this.

There are some surgery options but really only to give you something like monovision through surgery instead of contacts. Unfortunately there's no fix for the root problem that I am aware of.

> 2) For people that don't wear corrective lenses, use "reading glasses" and constantly put them on and take them off as you switch between looking at close/distant things.

This is my situation. It sucks. I only have one really good pair of reading glasses; I am starting to think the strategy of having a dozen pairs all over the house might be a better option. What's worse, for me personally, is that I get motion sick really quickly with the glasses on. I have to work quickly when I need them to see something.

Presbyopia sneaks up on you. A few years ago I was teasing my older brother (in his early 50s) about the reading glasses he was wearing. He told me to try them out and when I did I felt like a gained a super-power - I hadn't realized my closeup vision had become "fuzzy" until then (I've had perfect vision all my life).

Fast forward to today, my wife and I, both 50, have many sets of dollar store 1.25x reading glasses strewn around the house. I try to only use them when absolutely needed. I imagine an optometrist visit is in my future within the next few years but I'm trying to hold out.

My wife, who is three years younger than me, used to tease me when she caught me squinting at something, or doing the old 'look through your fingertips' trick to see read some fine print.

Now she doesn't laugh anymore.

Everyone I've talked to says basically the same thing as you. It sneaks up. You don't realize at first the compensations you are using, unless someone says something. Or when the first thing you do on a new computer is crank up the font size. LOL.

You already figured out the solution. The optometrist isn't going to do much else for you unless you need a distance prescription.

Lasik will not correct presbyopia unless you intentionally make yourself near-sighted. In that case you would need glasses for distance

Anecdote: My eyesight is still pretty good for small print (I'm nearsighted, that apparently helps), but my partner (who recently passed the 40s milestone) started having trouble reading small font sizes in a matter of months.

I'm about a decade older than you, was on a computer 12+ hours per day since I was 10.

I started wearing glasses at 16 for 20/40 vision and then switched to contacts at about 25 years old. My vision has remained stable since then except for presbyopia. That is really the only effect of age that I've experienced yet and it is a pain to deal with.

If I don't have glasses on/contacts in I can read something right up against my nose with no problem but obviously have trouble seeing further away.

If I have glasses on/contacts in seeing things close up becomes far more difficult.

So if anyone has a fix for presbyopia, hit me up!

There's no solution. The options you outlined above: Multifocal vs progressives vs readers vs mono vision are all we've got right now. There's some work on true accommodating prosthetics though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1utP_UV3A

Whenever I see a mountain lately, I run to the top of it so I can sing the praises of my 31.5-inch Dell UP3218K 7680 x 4320 8K computer monitor.

I'm a software engineer by trade, so I am looking at code all day long, plus lots of web searching and other text-heavy computer use.

I thought the LG UltraFine 5K and Apple XDR Pro Display were "good enough for my eyes" since I couldn't see the pixels.

Compared to the XDR (same size) the text on the 8K screen is WAY WAY sharper. Even though I thought the 218ppi XDR (basically same as 27" 5K monitor) was crisp before I saw the 280ppi Dell, I immediately realized it totally wasn't.

I can feel the eye strain difference, too. The lower res monitor is just fuzzy. I can't see the pixels individually, but when I slide my chair from the Linux box with the 8K to my Mac with the lower-PPI 5K display (sold the pricy XDR immediately after seeing the 8K panel next to it), I can see the fuzziness at the edges of text.

So I am kicking myself for not getting this much earlier. The Dell is ancient, came out years ago and requires 2 DisplayPort cables.

I am not an ophthalmologist so I can't speak to what this will mean for my long-term eye health, but I can say that my eyes are significantly less tired at the end of the day, and I never have to use the computer glasses I bought a couple years ago (the kind that are like reading glasses but for a little farther distance). I was using those a lot before, since my middle-aged eyes are indeed deteriorating.

BTW, for a few weeks I had the 8K Dell and the 6K Apple displays side by side. They are the same physical size, and the text was just about exactly the same size. Most of the people I asked to come look at them agreed the 8K display "looked better" or "looked sharper".

There is also the factor of Linux vs Mac font rendering. I am using Pop OS with 200% UI scaling on the Linux. I kinda wanted to compare them side by side in macOS, but I don't have any Macs that can drive the weird 2-cable Dell. So that could also be part of the difference, but I think it is basically just that 280ppi is way, way better than 208ppi.

My optometrist suggested that about every 20-30 minutes or so I should try and pick out something on the horizon or at least several yards away and focus my eyes on it.

Sitting so close to the screen it makes sense, and the “stretch” you feel when focusing on something close and then far away has really decreased my eye strain.

Yup, very good advice! An optometrist friend of mine recommended the same. I notice it helps relieve my eyes all the time

Yes I've always tried to have a long view (out the window or down the room) beyond my monitor.

A question to the other comments and advice put here: Is the surge in blinding LED car headlamps going to accelerate any existing issues, or result in issues further down the road? I have no problem seeing at night, or around well-lit areas of town, but these new headlights? They are too bright and I have difficulty seeing in some cases. I've asked other people (younger, older) and they have all noticed it as well. It's given me concern for my, rather our, eyesight in the future if this persists.

Your comment caused my eyes to roll so severely I think I pulled a muscle.

I have felt this. I also think the increase in SUVs and SUV-like cars is raising the average height of these headlamps, causing more light to hit me in my lowered sedan.

Does anyone have any first hand experience with the blue light filtering glasses? Is it snake oil or does it actually work?

My eyes aren’t great anyways, and I fear for the beating they are taking due to my proclivity to stare at a monitor hours on end.

Just use something like f.lux instead (also get the equivalent on your phone). Absolutely indispensable when browsing at night. Also, use something like Dark Reader (FF plugin that turns webpages into a dark theme). Been using all these for years, I've never had problems going from a monitor straight to sleep.

This is just anecdotal, so it could be placebo, but they work great for me. Reduces eye strain, and also helps me focus. I would say the biggest advantage is anti glare. If you can control external light (you return from home, have a dimmer, etc) then they probably aren't as useful.

Same here, I love mine. I've been using them for about 6 years now I think, and my eyes are noticeably more fatigued at the end of a day when I don't wear them for some reason. Could be completely placebo, but I'll absolutely take a cheap placebo that works.

I have some and haven't noticed much of a difference. I think f.lux is preferrable, as you should be getting blue light during the day, just not at night.

I've been listening to the Huberman Lab podcast, and he seems to think that blue light filtering during the day is a terrible idea in terms of your body's natural rhythms.

I have a blue light filter on my glasses since ~3-4 years now, because an optician suggested it last time I fixed my glasses. I can affirm it has absolutely no effect on eye strain.

What actually works for me:

- be sure to have correct lenses for your glasses, sometime checking with an optician isn't enough and an ophthalmologist (i.e: a doctor) is required

- setup good lighting in your office/work area

- reduce display backlight during the day, when the daylight reduces

- do not set your display in front of a window, try to have it perpendicular instead. The contre-jour effect can be really tiring over time (i.e: when you're facing both the light source of your display and daylight)

It's not helpful. The filter doesn't allow your eyes to relax; the prescription that lets your eyes be relaxed while focusing at computer distance does. You can get computer glasses made without the blue light filtering and they will be just as effective.

Ever have those times when at the end of the day your eyes start so feel dry/ tired from staring at the screen?

As soon as I put on blue light filtering glasses, that feeling goes away. So I'd recommend it if you're in a dark setting or starting to feel the strain of screen light against your eyes.

Depends on the blue light filtering glasses you use. I have a -0.75 prescription D and my historical average screen-time over the last 10 years is around 8-10 hours per day (including weekends).

I've been prescribed regular glasses for my myopia with blue light filter and the doctor insisted I use them while I am in front of the screen. These don't work. I started off as a biomedical engineer, so I know that myopia correcting glasses actually make your eye muscles work more i.e. not-relaxed. If anything I argue that you need to use a lower prescription or an opposite prescription to keep your eyes relaxed (not medical advice).

I was struggling with headaches and tiredness due to my excessive screen use even with my prescription glasses. Then I found Gunnar Intercept glasses with 65 Amber tint. Completely different experience. If I get up from the screen, it's not because of tiredness. As a matter of fact, I have been institutionalized - I cannot work in front of the screen without these glasses.

It takes an entire day to get used to the amber tint, but once you get over it, you can't go back. My opinion but I would recommend trying them out if you can afford a $50 experiment.

When working from home, using a projector on a wall rather than a monitor. Farther focusing distance, and reflected light rather than a direct light source.

I did that for years in my 20s, not for eye-health but because it was awesome. I still have that 800x600 projector on a shelf...

I suggest you exploit your reality as a cybernetic entity:

-- frequently check if your reading (etc.) is comfortable. If it is not, adjust your position, fix your environment etc.

(As opposed to those who strain themselves intensively or prolongedly out of inattention. You check your posture, your inner states, your state in general: you also keep a watchdog that your eye comfort is given.)

Edit: like for the rest, memory of the triggers for awareness of the indirect causes. Some factors have effects only after time, and they are of course more dangerous. Local attention is the base ("comfortable now" is the first requirement); practices that strain you with effect hours later can still be identified; the less evident factors could be a concern but they will probably gain relevance only if the former basics (avoiding causes for immediate and recent impact) are observed.

I don't. I just upgrade my prescription as my eyes worsen. You're supposed to take eyesight breaks to rest and refocus your eyes. You're also supposed to sleep 8 hours a day, eat three balanced meals, and pee standing up. I don't give a shit what the man says. I make my own rules.

I'm pretty sure peeing standing up isn't one of those things you are supposed to do. In fact, I'm happy about it since I am pretty sure I'd simply have pee down my leg. (I'm female). And I*m not sure who cares if a penis-having human stands or sits so long as they aren't peeing on my leg.

Seems the opposite no?

https://www.menshealth.com.au/peeing-sitting-down-is-good-fo...

If I'm going to use the monitor and there is not enough light in the room, I switch on a desk lamp and brighten the general area of the monitor. That way my eyes don't get strained that much.

This technique helped me a lot.

I also use a 32" 4K display at 125-150% scale so, fonts are nice and big.

I do that, I never really thought of it as 'taking care of my eyes', it's just more comfortable. I have a desk lamp, and my desk backs onto a wall - I just point the lamp at the wall behind the monitor. (late 20s, better than 20/20, touch wood etc.)

Disagree on the latter though - I hate stuff big! Browser default set to 80% and a lot of things I use at 67%.

In the morning if my face is a little puffy I'll put on an ice pack while doing stomach crunches. I can do 1000 now. After I remove the ice pack I use a deep pore cleanser lotion. In the shower I use a water activated gel cleanser, then a honey almond body scrub, and on the face an exfoliating gel scrub. Then I apply an herb-mint facial mask which I leave on for 10 minutes while I prepare the rest of my routine. I always use an after shave lotion with little or no alcohol, because alcohol dries your face out and makes you look older. Then moisturizer, then an anti-aging eye balm followed by a final moisturizing protective lotion

My knee-jerk reaction is “Wow, that’s a lot of work. Where does this person find the time??” But then I realize that I now work from home without the hour-long morning routine (plus commute) and could easily make the time if I’d just limit my pre-standup content-binge.

Going to give a similar self-care routine a try! Thanks for sharing this.

The previous comment is an internet meme that originated from the film American Psycho. Nonetheless you made a good point, however I think that most people don't need an extensive skincare routine like that :)

Is that from American Psycho?

I'm about 2 feet from a 34" 2K monitor from about 6:30 AM until 8:00 PM every day, with brief breaks for meals and bio.

I got Lasik a little over two months ago. Prior to that, I had severe myopia - 20/400 or so in both eyes. Corrected with glasses, my eyesight was 20/15.

I'm still in the blurry phase of healing, so anything past about 20 feet is about the same level of blurry. Making out license plates from the car ahead is possible if I squint just a little if they're over two car lengths away.

Even before Lasik, once that 8:00 PM time hits, I depart from all digital screens entirely. I try to remember to do the 20/20/20 rule, but I mostly forget.

As a teenager, nothing, and I ended up short sighted as a consequence of squinting at flickering CRT displays for hours.. oops.

As an adult, a lot! I go each year for a test that includes a extended 3D scan of my retinas. I always have glasses that match my prescription. I have "night shift"/reduced-blue mode turned on my computer and phone almost permanently to reduce eye strain and reduce the chemical effects later in the day. I wear sunglasses whenever I feel eye strain outdoors, even if it's winter. I increase font sizes on sites where it now, post 40, feels necessary (such as HN). This all seems to be working well so far.

I am skeptical that staying in front of the PC will cause you to be myopic. I am also skeptical that there is anything that needs doing so as to not break your eyesight besides not staring into the sun or laser beams. I mean, i may be right but it seems wrong to me that just using your eyes would somehow break them.

I really like when people say this about screens and never mention books at all.

Can someone with some strong contextual knowledge provide ANY references actually linking myopia/astigmatism to reading?

I would argue actually being on the street in quickly changing weather (very dry air, very humid air, extreme cold/heat) probably has a larger effect on what happens to your eyes, but even that is arguably very weak.

All near-work affects eyes, so books too. You can look up "near induced transient myopia" on google scholar. I'm on a slow connection, so I can't right now, sorry.

Ok, that's a thing, but it's right in the name, it's transient. I mean, we don't _know_ for sure what causes myopia, and it does seem there is something with our lifestyle, I am just not convinced that the obvious answer "staring at close things" is the correct one. In my experience as someone with myopia, staring at close things is a side effect of myopia, in that you need to get closed to see, and, I presume, not the thing that causes it, but a really fun confounding factor.

And to @heavenlyblue - don't worry, people have been saying the same things about books as well. I remember reading "Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent" and his parents wouldn't let him read because he was short sighted, y'know, for his health. The belief that stairing at close things is causing myopia is common, but, as far as I can tell, not based on any conclusive science. It's just that recently it's more in vogue to be concerned by technology than by books, and, beside, these days, most people stare at screens and phones rather than books.

I just Googled that, "The literature on nearwork-induced transient myopia (NITM) is reviewed, with NITM being defined as the short-term myopic far point shift immediately following a sustained near visual task."

"Immediately following a sustained near visual task". How is that related to having consistent myopia?

> it seems wrong to me that just using your eyes would somehow break them

Using, no; straining, yes.

It will before your eyes stop growing at age 25 or so.

I bought some cheap prescription[1] glasses ($20) just for computer use. They put optical infinity at around the distance to my monitor (~60 cm)[2], which keeps my ciliary muscles fully relaxed. It's completely fixed the soreness I'd feel in my eyes at the end of the day. I highly recommend it.

[1]: For those wondering, the calculation for required SPH is your_prescribed_SPH + (1/desired_distance). If you don't already wear glasses, then it's just (1/desired_distance).

Desired distance in cm here I'm assuming?

In metres. (The unit for SPH on a prescription is the diopter; 1 dpt = 1 m^-1.)

You can also just wander over to a pharmacy's glasses rack and hold some reading glasses in front of your normal ones to test how much SPH you need to add. (Optical power is approximately additive.)

I should have noted: if you don't wear glasses already, or if that the formula gives you a SPH > 0.0 and you don't have astigmatism, then there's no need to order prescription ones. You can just go to the reading glasses rack in any store and buy ones with that SPH.

It cannot hurt to take more breaks from desk work. Go for a walk. I do not know if that will help your eyes, but it will certainly help other parts of your body and your mind. It's important to unplug, de-stress, and be active.

If you cannot justify a true break, think about work problems while walking. Plan out what you will do when you get back to the desk. When you return, do it without disruption. Don't check email or messages. I find this to be an effective way of working.

One of the main points would be to reduce eye strain during the time you use the monitor:

- most important make sure the light conditions in your room are good, no light source directly shining on the monitor, no light source directly shining from behind the monitor. That can be hard or even outright impossible to setup in some rooms, most smaller companies I had been in get this wrong. Worst the perfect desk positioning might change depending on the time of the year you are in, due to changing angles of the sun (at least in more northern countries). For me as a slightly more then usual light sensitive person this is probably the biggest point).

- then proper monitor setup

- choose readable font sizes

- make sure your font/UI is rendered clear (which in case of wayland + non scarlar scaling is often not given, it's an health issue and completely ridiculous)

- blink, from time to time move your eys focus thinks far away and then think close away

- drink enough and eat healthy, it can affect tear production, which can affect the health of your eyes

- make sure the air is not too dry (in winter) if you have issues with tear production

What do you mean by wayland + non-scalar scaling? Fractional scaling will indeed not map to each pixel properly, but that has nothing to do with wayland.

As far as I know, only Windows try to align font rendering to the pixel grid, Macs decided on skipping the 1-2x range and providing higher density displays and only doing integer scaling — which you can easily do with Wayland as well.

You only can't do it if:

- the compositor insists of doing (with interpolation, depending on the compositor you use the results do hugely differ in quality)

- scale to "exactly" that fraction.

But if I "as a normal user" ask for a scale factor of 1.33 I do in general not mean "scale exactly to 1.33", neither "scale exactly to 4/3" but what I mean is "make it roughly 4/3 larger as 3/3 is to small and 6/3 to large".

And a lot of program can do that just fine, especially wrt. fonts.

Like e.g. a terminal which is set to font size 12 on 3/3 would just scale the font size by 4/3 and then round. Result is a crisp font roughly 4/3 larger which fulfills all requirements. Only drawback is that:

- it needs to be handled by the application, but so does any HiDPI support

- due to rounding the ratio of font sizes might be of by 1 pixel, irrelevant on a HiDPI screen

- this doesn't help with pictures or other layout, but even they can be handled better by the application then the compositor(1).

Wayland should just give applications the choice to to handle fractional scaling themself, like it does for HiDPI scaling. Any mainly text based program can support that reasonable well (terminal, editor, etc.), so can many games. Also due to HiDPI screens becoming increasingly more common (e.g. 1440p on gaming laptops) it also becomes more common that programs come with a layout/style/prictures for that, in the same way they have one for 4k.

Just to be clear a program should be able to opt-into "fractional scaling hidpi" mode based on the specific scaling. And I think it also would be fine if wayland or DEs doesn't support arbitrary fractional scaling but just a set of common scaling factors like 11/10, 5/4 (for 4k), 4/3 (for 1440p) maybe 3/2, 7/8.

(1): The compositor is in generally the place least well equipt for doing any scaling. As it only knows the final result "as image". But UI/Layout scaling is not the same as scaling an image. Which yes, doesn't work well for fractions.

I am not too familiar with this part of the wayland protocol, but I do think that the scale is available to a given window and it can make use of that — and my experience is that it does so with qt and gtk apps. Maybe you are using xwayland applications? Because in that case wayland has to fallback to rendering it at some integer multiply and scaling it down.

My previous comment was more on the lack of non-linearly scaling fonts used on e.g. windows that will stick to the pixel grid at all price (so half the requested size will likely be much larger than expected). I think it is called ClearType.

20/20/20 when ever I particularly need to be corrective.

Get up and go for a walk helps too.

Keep monitor brightness around a white paper in whatever ambient light. Sometimes this requires dropping brightness to 0 and then decreasing contrast/sharpness.

Wear sunglasses after several hours of monitor use. Sometimes I’ll put a hat on to block the overhead lights, too. (Work in a shared/undimmable work area.)

It helps to understand the mechanism your eyes use to focus. For eyes with normal vision, they are at their most relaxed when you are looking far away and your lens is at infinity focus. When you look at something close up, a muscle pulls on your lens to shift the focus point closer. (Additionally, as you get older, your lens gets harder, so it takes more pull to get it to focus closer , and you may need reading glasses once you can no longer focus as close up.) If you do close work all day, that muscle will be pulling all day, hence the recommendation to look at something far away every once in a while to give it the opportunity to relax.

What I did was to get a pair of computer glasses. I measured how far away I usually keep my monitors, and I took that information to my optometrist. She put the eye chart at that distance and we went through all the questions (is A better, or B?) to figure out the prescription. Now, when I'm at the computer, my eyes are at the same relaxed focus that they would normally be at for faraway things, and the computer glasses are providing the focus adjustment for close up.

I learned one other thing as well. If you have progressive lenses, only the small "intermediate" zone in the middle of the lens is really good for computer use. The top "far" zone makes your eyes work hard to focus close up, and the bottom "close" zone is generally focused too close for the computer screen. The problem is that you can't really scan well across the screen with your eyes while wearing progressives -- instead, you have to turn your head to keep the screen in that intermediate zone, which started to give me neck trouble. The computer glasses took care of that as well, since the whole lens is at the correct focus for the computer screen and you can scan with your eyes instead of your head.

One last thing. If you do hobbies or work that is really close up, I would recommend an Optivisor or a jeweler's loupe. I used to be able to do fine soldering without one, but I'm in my mid-30s now, and it really helps. And check the ergonomics for your setup. A high bench and a low chair, plus a Optivisor or a loupe, is way easier on the eyes and neck than a high chair and a low bench, which will make you crane your neck to get it closer to the work, and then strain your eyes from focusing so close. Look at a watchmaker at their bench for an example. There are plenty of watchmakers who work on tiny little parts into their 60s and 70s without messing up their vision.

People will say that glasses with blue light filters are placebo, but my eyes have been feeling a lot less tired since I got mine.

I have been diagnosed with Keratoconus this year. I’ve been seeing double with each eye independently for 6 years or so and every other doctor that saw me before my current one dismissed it. Gets worse at night so when I drive I see 2 sets of street lights, one is kind of a ghost. The red overlaps with the yellow, yellow with green, and then I see a floating green circle in the air. Overall my brain can process this just fine but it gets tough to read text at night on a screen.

There is a collagen cross linking treatment that I’m considering, but I’m somewhat scared of it. It almost sounds like putting varnish on my eyes to make them harder. I’ve read of people getting hazy view after the treatment and there is nothing I would hate more.

My hobbies are racing cars and tennis, both need very good vision.

Other than that my prescription is not so bad, -1.75/-1.5 but the double vision drives me nuts.

I don’t know what I’ll do yet.

how old are you? How fast is it progressing? Keratoconus progresses most through the 20's. Bad keratoconus will destroy your cornea eventually requiring a transplant. I would seriously think about the cross linking.

https://eyewiki.aao.org/Acute_Corneal_Hydrops

About to turn 30. It started when I was about 22 but it’s been annoying for the last 6. It progresses a bit every year, but not at a rate that makes me think I have a year to figure this out

I switched monitors to LG and they have reader mode. I turned that on and it took care of 90% of my eye strain attacks.

Another things mentioned here that help: use reduced lenses corrected for work, work next to a window and take a look at the passing dog once in a while, take daily walks and focus on looking at something far away.

I've used Wokrave for many years which forces me to take regular breaks. Sometimes it can be annoying when it interrupts your flow, but as far as I'm concerned my eyes are worth a bit of annoyance.

https://workrave.en.softonic.com/

I try the 20/20/20 thing - every 20 mins, spends 20 seconds looking at something 20ft+ away.

I wear sun glasses outside when it is even moderate bright.

I take lutein, "the eye vitamin."

I keep pretty far from my monitor and its elevation keeps my head in a neutral position.

I also have semi-regular exams at a retina specialist to monitor some thinning.

I'm not sure the sunglasses approach makes sense, unless you live near the equator. For me, I try to get as much sun light exposure into my eyes during the day (especially in the morning), to help set my circadian clock. I will sometimes use sunglasses at night towards bedtime.

Snow is bright :)

Do you recommend a particular lutein supplement, or do you just rely on lutein in foods (e.g., leafy greens, fruit)? In your experience, what have been the benefits of lutein?

I pick up the store brand at trader joes

I take Macushield (UK brand) and it got lutein (10 mg), zeaxanthin (2 mg) and meso-zeaxanthin (10 mg).

It was shown on a BBC program to help. I tried it and it changed things drastically for me. I used to have my TV very close to my couch because I was struggling when watching movies or gaming. It also made my sight better at night.

Obviously this is my personal opinion only.

Loosely related, the MacBook Pro 2021 laptop display uses PWM [1], which is said to cause more eye fatigue. Does anyone know more about this? How much does it affect a typical user? Or are there ways to mitigate this?

PWM is also present on iPads and smartphones, but the laptop screen is something that is used more often and for longer periods of time; which is why I'm primarily interested in PWM in laptops.

[1]: "Like on the iPad Pro's Mini-LED screen, we can detect constant PWM flickering at all brightness levels.", https://www.notebookcheck.net/Apple-MacBook-Pro-14-2021-M1-P...

I have only ever heard that a small minority of people get headaches from PWM. Nonetheless, you should probably test one for a bit of time and if you are okay, it should not cause any trouble for you (the optical mechanisms of our eyes are not really affected by these small fluctuations, it is at most happens on a neural level)

"Taking care" implies preventing long term effects, besides for protective and sun glasses there is not much you can do.

As for preventing fatigue or strain then short breaks are good not only for your eyes but also your back or neck.

In short - use eyes in as wide range as possible.

If working with screens a lot, I first make sure they are properly balanced (brightness/contrast/color) for the ambient light, so eyes don't receive too much energy off the screen.

Then distance it, preferrably farther than arm length, with something visible behind the monitor (not just a wall of screen). This way I can direct eyes farther away to relax.

Also good quality sleep, which at times is very much a non-trivial task.

Ah, the most critical, and both hardest and easiest task - taking breaks to give eyes and mind some rest. Advice that all parents give to kids, yet often fail to follow themselves...

Have a listen to this episode: https://hubermanlab.com/the-science-of-vision-eye-health-and...

I shared it with one of our developers who was having eyesight issues and he found it helpful.

Things which help: - Exercise - Morning walks facing direction of light - Keeping screen eye level and posture - Other “protocols” mentioned in this episode

“Dr. Andrew Huberman is a tenured professor of neurobiology and ophthalmology at Stanford University School of Medicine.”

Dasung e-ink monitor. Fixed my headaches by using it for reading/coding work.

That looks awesome; how's the refresh rate? Are they available for less than the $2500 price I see on Amazon?

Has anybody used the method to undo myopia at Getting Stronger: https://gettingstronger.org/2010/07/improve-eyesight-and-thr... ?

It suggests to read at an inch or two past comfortable for a few hours a day. At first it seemed too good to be true, but not completely implausible. I'm curious if anyone has tried or had luck with it.

I'm not familiar with it and can't look into it as I'm on a slow connection right now. It sounds similar to the endmyopia method, which has been working very well for me.

What I used to do, as someone who gamed heavily since middle school (I’m nearly 50):

- Go outside at least once a day (no later than lunch) and get and get a good deal of sunlight. Without glasses.

Preferably more than once a day.

- Take frequent breaks away. - Crank up the lights.

I can still function and read without glasses, though Covid has taken a toll (eyesight used to be 20/30, until covid; probably more like 30/40 now).

I have a blue light filter, it's advised when spending a lot of time at a screen.

I used to have headaches sometimes, but that disappeared with it.

there’s not a lot of evidence that blue light filters do anything in terms of eye health (but i’m glad it’s working for you anyway!)

I don't know the research and I'm talking about headache and even tiredness after a day on the computer.

There's an app called f.lux and when I work on my computer in the evening and turn it off, the screen becomes really bright/annoying.

Perhaps it doesn't make a difference on eye health in particular, but it's easy to try that and i do notice a difference immediately concerning eyestrain.

Note: I'm aware of the difference during the day and my situation during the night. It's mentioned as an easy to reproduce example from personal experience, not as a fact supporting any research.

I prefer to use a desktop setup with LCD monitors over an arm's length away. I noticed that with laptops, the screen was too close and I started needing reading glasses to see the display clearly.

I try to spend some time outdoors, looking into the distance. Natural light and focusing on distant objects to counteract the tendency to short-sightedness.

Convergence exercises. Had nasty headaches last year and difficulty focusing on text after a couple of hours on the computer, turns out my eyesight had less than perfect convergence. Did the exercises for some months, worked wonders. Still do them every now and then.

https://phys.org/news/2018-08-chemists-blue.html you can reduce blue light with Settings>>Display>>Night light settings>>Strength

- 20/20/20 rule: every 20 minutes, take a 20 second break from the screen and focus on something 20 feet away

- Bias lighting behind the monitor

- Blue light and anti-glare glasses while working

- Little to no computer on the weekend

- Limit phone use by removing addictive apps

Not a cure but it helps a lot.

I'm using the app to protect eyes on my PC. https://beforedo.com/post/detail/?pid=20

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Redshift_(software)

Also, zooming the websites (can't comfortably read HN below 150%).

Well,

-- use of the [Ctrl]+[Wheel] or equivalent on the relevant software;

-- a keyboard shortcut for inverted colours (e.g. `xcalib -a -i`);

-- different instruments for different environments (e.g.: Sunlight? Maybe prefer EPD. No light? Maybe prefer OLED light on black. Etc.)

should be base strategy - extended adjusting of your comfort through the, well, "hacking" we normally practice.

Microwaveable Warm compress , you can get these for as low as $10 . Pop them in microwave for 20 seconds and put them on the eyes for a few minutes daily . Helps with proper functioning of tear glands.

Mine are in terrible shape, I blame screens and tiny fonts. For example I read the title of this article as "How are you taking care of you eyes?" instead of "your eyes" ;-)

Just so you know, in all the major browsers and operating system you can change the default zoom and font size, without a need for plugins.

I don't smoke or drink and wear sunglasses when in bright sunshine. Hopefully it's enough. My grandfather had cataracts but this was probably cause by smoking and sunshine.

Some non-monitor things that are affecting my eyes:

-clenching or jutting jaw

-furrowing brow

-sleeping on one side consistently, without upper body elevated

-not breathing freely/ab tension

Use nightlight pretty much on everything the whole day.

When you do this, you will need to dim the ambient light.

I now work for hours without feeling tired.

Keep eyeglass prescription up to date, take fish oil, warm compresses on eyes when sore, preservative free eye drops.

30yo, healthy eyes. Never had to do anything. I'm working with my laptop on a stand and a keyboard in front.

I look away from the monitor as often as I remember to and focus out the window on a point in the distance.

Try to focus on something in the distance, 200m+ away every few hours.

Wear sunglasses with polarised lenses.

Why polarized lenses?

For outside. Protect your eyes from those rays.

I have evaporative dry eye caused by meibomian gland dysfunction (MGD). In short, my tears evaporate too fast because my eyelids don't produce enough of the lipid part of tears.

I used to have occasional symptoms of dry eyes without knowing what it was. It all changed after I got LASEK (a bit different from LASIK, but the ultimate goal is the same) about 2 years ago. It's not clear whether LASEK contributed to my condition, or whether it was a coincidence, but my life changed afterwards.

I used to have days when I was physically unable to look at a computer screen, due to the discomfort (burning sensation) and photophobia (light from the screen would look really uncomfortable).

Right now I've adjusted my life and equipment to make living and work more bearable/comfortable. I also got a bit of medical advice/help.

Posting a short summary of what helped and what didn't, in case someone else will find it useful. I've tried so many things, so I might have omitted something.

What helped:

- Changing displays: now I'm using BenQ EL2870U (I went through multiple "eye-care" and non-eye-care displays before I settled on this one). I'm using low-blue-light configuration in the display as well as in macOS. I'm really sensitive to displays with PWM (e.g. 16" MBP). On my OnePlus 7T Pro I switched to DC dimming, which seemed to help too.

- NuLids (https://nulids.com/). It's a "massager" for the eyelids, which stimulates meibomian glands and cleans the eye lids. Both the device and the tips (I boil them and reuse them several times) are a bit pricey but I did feel the difference.

- Sleep position: make sure your eyes aren't pressing on the pillow, as this can prevent them from closing or create unnecessary pressure on the eye/eyelids.

- E-Ink displays: these are good to look at, but hard to do useful work on due to poor refresh rate. I'm using them for reading only (I have Dasung 13.3" monitor and Boox Max Lumi).

- Natural light in the room. There seems to be something about natural light that makes my eyes feel more comfortable when in front of a screen.

- Preservative-free eye drops targeting the lipid tear part (only for short-term relief, but sometimes that's needed).

Not sure whether it helped:

- IRPL (E-Eye). I'll have the 4th treatment soon, but it's hard too judge this because of other parallel things I'm doing (like NuLids). My eyes feel quite good for several hours after a treatment, but then they're back to the usual state.

- Diet (Omega 3, Vitamin A, vegetables, etc)

What didn't help:

- Optimel Manuka Honey Eye Drops/Gel. Some people said that these were revolutionary for them, but my eyes at first felt better and then I got horrible swelling and redness.

- Blue light glasses (I've tried ~10 different brands, including the more expensive and "science-based" ones (Gunnar, BLUblox).

What I want to try:

- Omega 3 supplements with higher EPA/DHA ratio (like PRN Dry Eye Omega)

- Autologous serum eye drops. I can't find anyone who can produce them in my country, but I'm thinking about getting them from abroad.

- Computer glasses for relaxing eye muscles (as mentioned in other comments).

I've had eyesight issues since early childhood (strabismus, ocular dominance). This seriously hindered my efforts in basketball during middle school and also later on -- but I loved books and was good in writing and thus couldn't stay off computers, which resulted in years of constant eye strain problems.

I bought an IPS monitor when they were really expensive, and ate an insane amount of carrots, both raw and cooked. This helped, but the strain was still there, occasionally accompanied by mild headaches.

Eventually, at an age of 30+, I decided to give up full time desk work (also because I was anxious about "sacrificing my body to the computer"). Now I'm a forestry worker on most days: avoiding logging, but cutting brush and planting trees. 5-7 hours in the woods almost every day, currently surrounded by lots of snow and the trees' green palette (which is good for the eyes, isn't it?). Hacking and other creative computer work has become something that I do on the side when I have time or physical/mental energy, or when I wish and manage to escape from our kids.

Am I happier? It's sometimes difficult to switch to mental work from physical labor, staying motivated in my mental pursuits etc. The pay would be poor to most standards. But all in all -- happier, hell yes! Eyestrain is gone completely. Heck, I've occasionally totally forgotten to put glasses on while driving a car, which is something I'd noticed right away during the office work days. I haven't tested my eyesight for years, but I do feel there has been a remarkable change to the better. I happened to shoot some hoops just this weekend after more than a year, and it was an absolute joy: indoor lighting of the court didn't annoy my eyes as it usually does (this used to be a major issue when I was younger), and I made shots with a surprisingly good percentage in spite of not wearing contact lenses.

It's also important to note that my eating habits have probably changed quite a bit since middle school / early to late 20s. I've always loved vegetables, but for now, I've almost completely cut of all processed sweets: cocoa, chocolate, you name it. All the bad stuff I used to love -- but, as cocoa contains caffeine, it's actually bringing fluids out of the body, doesn't it? Based on this, I occasionally think that a big part of my earlier eyestrain issues might have been too big an amount of cocoa-based "foods". Dehydration, basically. Haven't done any research on that, though, so it might as well be BS.

All in all: we're animals from nature, so I suppose the best one could do to his or her eyes is try to spend as much time outdoors (or in wilderness, if you ever can) as possible. And drink a lot of plain water, this also seems to have a positive influence. Or, if you're lucky enough to have other issues with your life as well (like I did), you may also consider changing your job for something that has the "no eyestrain" batteries included by design. :)

Do you have eye strain just from screens or also from reading books? If it's just screen related then there might be some fix in the future, I think of computer screens that do not cause any eye strain at all.

Both probably, but it's much less of a problem with books (I do remember eye strain after reading for 3-4 hours in a row, but I suppose this is normal).

I have an e-reader, which feels great. And I do wait for e-ink displays with consumer-level prices. :) I've read a lot about all the "Kindle as a Raspberry Pi monitor" hacks, but a more straightforward solution would be great.

OLED + dark mode

Dark mode.

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