What kind of eye wear can I use to protect my eyes from being irritated from staring at a screen all day?

Question

Many of us stare at computer screens all day. Lately, my eyes have been irritated from prolonged staring at my computer screens. Does anyone use or know of any eye wear technology that helps with this? About five years back, I bought a pair of non-prescription eye glasses that had a no-glare layer put on them by an optometrist. It helped a lot, so I'm considering getting another pair. Is this the best option I have at this point?

Thanks so much in advance for your wisdom!

Solution 1

Gunnar Optiks have gotten positive reviews.

An optometrist explains to Ars Technica why these are not just hype or placebo effect:

The tints are pretty standard in the optical community. The advantages stated are all true... they haven't reinvented the wheel, so to speak," she explains. The amber tint is going to increase contrast when looking at computer or television screens, and the anti-reflective coating will also help. Anderson says that should help you "get back 8-10 percent of the 12 percent of usable light that we lose to glare, when worn in front of a light-emitting source such as a computer or oncoming headlights.

Some testimonials from a thread on Hacker News:

I have a pair of Gunnar Optiks (http://www.gunnars.com/) that I LOVE.

I used to have ridiculous eye strain when staring at the computer screen for hours, but after getting a pair it's all but gone away... after using them for close to a year, I can honestly say they have made a great impact on my ability to do work. I'd highly recommend that anyone who hasn't and has issues with eye strain give them a try.

...

Agree on Gunnars - ever since I started using them (about 2 months ago) my eyes are not nearly as much tired at the end of the day as they used to be. Also, no more headaches.

I was also very skeptical about them, however something had to be done about all the pain I had after using computer for 8-10 hours.

Solution 2

Polarized glasses help (what you probably had with the "non glare" coating). The best idea is to fix the "real" problem.

• If you have a CRT, ditch it an get an LCD.
• Set the resolution and/or DPI to a setting that doesn't cause eye strain.
• Get an LCD that's big enough to fit everything you need on the screen.
• The more indirect and natural the lighting in your workspace the better. Standard light bulbs that aren't frosted flicker at 60Hz; florescent do as well, but much less noticeably. Uniform brightness helps; also when looking at your screen you should not be able to see any light elements directly.

Solution 3

best way is to look anywhere else at every 15 minutes for a 30-60 seconds ..my father is a doctor ;) ...

Solution 4

There's nothing really out there beyond anti-glare technology, but a lot of the strain doesn't come from the glare.

Your best bet is to take a 5-10 minute break every hour or two. Get up, talk to team members, get an answer in-person for something you normally would have written an email for, etc. These little breaks help significantly.

Solution 5

I don't have any idea about the eyewear. If I had this sort of problem the first things I would do would be (1) turn down the brightness on the monitor, and (2) think about getting a larger monitor so text can be larger and easier to read. A large new monitor is cheap (say 22" for less than $200), while your health is priceless.

Also, as another poster said, definitely switch to LCD monitor if you're still using CRT.

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Comments

[Tamara Wijsman]

Please note that other things like room lightning, monitor type and settings, sun light, light positioning and such things also influence how much strain your eyes receive...

[Lewis]

The CRT/LCD advice is spot on. I sort of assume everybody is working with an LCD these days, but some aren't, and the flicker from CRT displays can cause eyestrain and headaches even if it doesn't appear to the user to be flickering. LCD technology is different, pixels are constantly backlit rather than phosphors that get refreshed many times per second, much better for the eyes.

[100rabh]

+1 for turning down brightness and even contrast to reasonable levels. Lost count of how many folks keep it at full, getting it down to reasonable levels dramatically reduces stress on eyes

[Satanicpuppy]

Fricking no-glare coating doesn't do much more than make the glasses impossible to clean.

[Chris S]

If all you're looking for is the "no glare" polarization coating, the $2 3D glasses at theaters would work well enough. It's still not the main cause of eye strain, but whatever placebo works for ya...

[John Bowers]

@Chris S - I used glasses similar to the Gunnar Optiks about five years ago when I was programming for twelve hours a day and they made a significant difference. I had virtually no strain at all without having to adjust my monitor settings or lighting conditions. I encourage you to give these a try because your alternative solutions that you mentioned may have worked well ten years ago, but unfortunately they don't make any difference at all with today's monitors, and I've tried them all (except the CRT/LCD advice of course, since I haven't used a CRT in close to a decade).