Tips for people with near-sightedness and who are in front of a computer for longs hours

grss1982 · October 2, 2018

So at work and home I'm mostly in front of a computer. Give or take in a week I average 12 to 14 hours a day in front of a computer and an Android smartphone.

I'm also near-sighted.

So I do have a couple of questions related to computer usage with my eye problem:

1) When in front of a computer for long hours, should the room or area you are in always be lighted properly to avoid eye-strain? At work my workspace is well lighted while at home the only light is from the monitor.

2) For someone near-sighted, is it okay to not be wearing glasses while in front of a computer? Since I work with modern LED screens I think the radiation issue from LCDs and CRTs are not really a concern.

Thanks for any tips on this concern of mine.

Crunchy Dragon · October 2, 2018

If you're near-sighted, you'll have less problems than a far-sighted person. For example, I'm far-sighted. My body has to more or less manually focus on things that are closer to me, such as a computer screen or a book. That means after a while of reading or gaming or whatever, my eyes will be more strained because of my eye muscles having to focus constantly.

My glasses are practically reading glasses for me, I almost never need them unless I know I'm going to be looking at something close for an extended period of time.

In general, you should always have good lighting if possible.

I wouldn't think glasses are required for a near-sighted person other than the ones that block blue light, but Windows 10 has an option that you can use for that without needing special glasses. If you have poor vision in general and always need your glasses, then I would say it's recommended.

DrMacintosh · October 2, 2018

If your vision is bothering you while on the Computer you should consult a Optometrist and see if a prescription can help you. Any less strain on your eyes is a good thing.

I would look to see if you can get a blue light filter on any potential glasses as well. I have an astigmatism so and wear my glasses all the time and invested in a blue light filter and transition lenses. Makes life so much nicer and helps my eyes massively.

Mira Yurizaki · October 2, 2018

45 minutes ago, grss1982 said:

1) When in front of a computer for long hours, should the room or area you are in always be lighted properly to avoid eye-strain? At work my workspace is well lighted while at home the only light is from the monitor.

Yes, of course. I don't think staring at something bright while the rest of the room is dark is good for the eyes. If you don't want to get a full room light for some reason, an LED strip placed on the back of the monitor to give some mood lighting supposedly works.

The monitor should also be only as bright as it needs to be and no more. My monitors are typically set between 30-40 out of 100 in the brightness setting (I understand this won't be the same for all monitors, but all of the monitors I've used tend to fall in this range)

Quote

2) For someone near-sighted, is it okay to not be wearing glasses while in front of a computer? Since I work with modern LED screens I think the radiation issue from LCDs and CRTs are not really a concern.

If you're not straining to view the monitor, then it should be okay.

If anything, it's a lot more important to take regular stretch breaks, look at something else besides the monitors once in a while, etc. I haven't given things like computer glasses a second thought because between taking regular breaks and adjusting my monitor and lighting setup, I haven't suffered from eye strain and my vision hasn't gotten worse so I don't think those things make sense for me.

Plus I really hate that yellow tint.

grss1982 · October 5, 2018

Thanks to everyone who commented. Trying to move away from computing in a darkroom at home. Will practice exercises in between long hours of computing.

Drawbar · October 6, 2018

I'm near-sighted as well. I also had eye strain issues while not wearing my glasses at the computer.

With my laptop I can see ok with out my glasses.

My desktop screen is 27" so it's a little farther away, about an arms length + 6". That's a little too far for me with out glasses and just right on the edge with my regular glasses, but not comfortable. I suffered with them on or off.

I finally had a set made just for sitting at the desktop computer. It worked out that it made using a laptop more comfortable as well. Best $200 I ever spent as it became a much more enjoyable experience. Eye fatigue dropped to almost nothing. I can sit for hours now without issue.

I do sometimes use a blue light filter in the evening/night if the ambient lights are low. This helps quite a bit as well. Google is your friend here.

Should point out that I use Trakir a lot so bifocal lenses won't work for that. They don't work well at a desktop unit anyways unless you put your monitor down lower to look thru the bottom of the lenses.