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Comment by beacon294 | Hacker News Reader

I was interested in e-ink solutions for a long time due to eye fatigue and dry eye.

It turns out I had a very minor stigmatism. My eye doctor did not recommend correcting it, but upon correction my dry eye and eye fatigue completely went away.

So, get your minor astigmatism corrected via computer glasses, regardless of the eye doctor, best practice for minimum prescription strength.

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Seconding this. I have a very minor astigmatism in my right eye. Getting it corrected with custom reading glasses instead of just using regular readers, even though perceptually it's fine with the cheap ones, is night and day in terms of eye strain and headache. I was genuinely surprised when I figured out how much of a difference it makes.

Whoa. So, on a whim, I got my eyes measured when my wife was picking up her glasses. Very slight astigmatism in my right eye.

And like you say, even though it's a minor abberation, the difference it makes in fatigue is incredible, especially after a day of coding work behind a screen..!

Straight up the best 200 bucks I spent in terms of QOL improvement. Well that and a very nice thick blanket to sleep under.

I'm glad that you have found a solution. Dry eye and eye fatigue often go hand in hand. Theres a whole forum dedicated to the topic of eye strain from LED based screens. Might be worth a visit for some with similar issues: https://ledstrain.org/

>computer glasses

What is this?

Glasses for working at a computer. The same as reading glasses. The word is directly translated from the common name for it in my native language.

Oh. So the glasses correct the astigmatism. Understood.

Glasses dispensed for reading often don't work well for computer use. Historically "reading" meant looking at a book held in your hands, but computer monitors are further away and at a higher angle than a book. If you spend a lot of time using a computer, you need to discuss this with your dispensing optician when you buy glasses to make sure you get the right lenses for your needs. You may benefit from a dedicated pair of glasses for computer use, or a properly designed varifocal lens. This is especially important if you're over 35 and are likely to have some degree of presbyopia (look for an "add" value on your prescription, or different prescriptions for near and distance).

There are a lot of special lens technologies and coatings that are advertised as being able to reduce eye strain when using digital devices. Most of these have little or no evidence to support their efficacy, so be wary if they try to upsell you on expensive extras.

Basically intermediate distance glasses.

I sat at my home desk and measured the max and min distance between my eyes and all parts of the screen. I then presented those measurements in my next eye appointment, and the optician (not sure of American terms) was very appreciative that he had specific values to work from. He then simulated text at the different distances, and adjusted my prescription to work correctly over that distance. I think it was 18 inches minimum, 30 inches maximum.

I got computer glasses from that, no special blue filtering or whatever, just set to give me the best view.

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