Computer glasses

S

StoleMyOwnCar

2[H]4U
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Sep 30, 2013
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So I'm not 100% sure where to put this, but since it's related to me staring at my display for extended periods of time, I'm going to go ahead and stick this in the "Display" section. Both during my common work day and when I get home, I'm on the computer A LOT (PG278Q at home, S22A460 at work). Frankly, practically my entire waking day is spent in front of a computer short of the hour long walks that I take, and the 15-20 mins I spend working out at the gym. Even when I'm cooking or cleaning dishes I tend to put some anime or something on my Surface Pro and watch it on the side.

I tend to get a lot of eye strain and since I have been working at as a php/js/etc. web dev/perl hacker/SQL person/etc for like 2 years now I'm finally having eye strain issues and occasional pain (especially with lack of sleep).

I recently read about computer glasses. Has anyone tried these? How well do they work.
 
i've never tried them. there's no objective reason that they're useful.

>ar coating
it doesn't help anything, it just mitigates potential additional glare from using the glasses.
they reduce light reflections off the surface of the glass, not glare from the monitor
if you wear glasses, you should get those with ar coating anyway. and if you wear those special glass over it, that doesnt do anything to help the reflections from your primary glasses.
if you don't wear glasses, you don't even have this problem in the first place.
>tint
i can't find any info on the transmittance spectra, but from the pictures it looks too light to really have any significant beneficial effect. might as well change the settings on your monitor. or wear sunglasses. also they do not increase contrast or saturation (unless the tint is like three narrow bandpass filters)


anyway i recommend trying: adjusting your viewing distance, turning down the backlight, shining a light behind the monitor, and maybe changing the color balance of the monitor to match the environment.
 
There's one major thing you can do to combat eyestrain: take a break for 15 seconds every 15 minutes and focus on the farthest thing you can see from your desk. It sounds tedious but is very simple and doesn't really have any impact on your productivity. Try it for a day or two, with discipline, before dismissing it.

Also make sure you aren't using monitors with PWM dimming, or with brightness set too high.
 
@flod: I think it's fishy myself, that's why I'm asking people on here if they've tried a pair themselves. I would search google, but they TOOK OUT THE FRIGGING DISCUSSION SEARCH WHICH PISSES ME OFF TO NO END. No seriously I thought I forgot about it by now, but nope. Absence of discussion search at Google is just so bad. It was my most-used search feature.

Cough /rant

@wabbit: Yeah I've used that method before, I kind of forgot about it. Need to pick it back up again. There's also lifting your eyebrows all the way to the top for 30 seconds I think. As for PWM, I know the PG278Q doesn't use it. I'm not sure about my work monitors but what's odd is that I don't think I've ever been particularly susceptible to PWM dimming? Or at least not the CCFL sort. My LP2465 certainly never bothered me. It's hard to tell whether this S22A460 I have at work uses PWM or not, I think I tried searching for data sheets on it once and either came up empty or came to the conclusion it did.

That being said yeah, I was mainly asking on here whether anyone's actually tried these things themselves. In case they somehow did work... or whether they were actually doing anything.

I mean these two articles talk about using the right glasses for the right job:
http://www.webmd.com/eye-health/eyeglasses-that-do-the-job
http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/computer_glasses.htm

I'm wondering if they have any other unique adjustments for optimized viewing.
 
My computer glasses are basically my bifocal prescription in a single lens format -- ie reading glasses. See an optometrist before getting "computer glasses". I get my eyeglass prescriptions filled by zennioptical.com. You can get glasses there for less than the co-pay of your normal insurance and you can't tell the difference compared to the glasses offered at your optometrist location.
 
mlcarson said:
My computer glasses are basically my bifocal prescription in a single lens format -- ie reading glasses. See an optometrist before getting "computer glasses". I get my eyeglass prescriptions filled by zennioptical.com. You can get glasses there for less than the co-pay of your normal insurance and you can't tell the difference compared to the glasses offered at your optometrist location.
Click to expand...

My computer glasses are similar. I went to my optometrist and he said I could do bi-focals, which I was opposed to because I want to be able to look straight ahead at my monitor, or he could make me a prescription for computer glasses. They're kind of like reading glasses, but he tweaked the prescription a bit to allow me to be able to walk around the house with them on without getting blurred vision or dizziness. They really work well. I can tell a difference over my regular glasses when I'm on the computer. Basically it's just clearer with less eye strain. You don't need a bunch of fancy coatings on them. Just get anti-glare, which most decent companies will include as part of the basic lens fee. I got mine from Costco. Cheap and work great.

Also, even if you don't wear glasses normally, going to an optometrist and getting a prescription tailored to your eyes and vision is going to get you get best results. Then you can take that prescription wherever you want and get as fancy as you want.
 
The more exposure you get from LCD light the more rough you will sleep unless your up like 24 hours at at time.

I recommend just turning the brightness down if you can get a better monitor at work just do that. Smaller Monitors are better then bigger ones for extended periods of time because of less light exposure but that is just me. I mean Imagine being two feet away from a 60" screen then trying to goto bed 15 minutes later it just doesn't work that way.

I recommend Magnesium citric and L Tryptophan for sleep if it gets out of hand the graphic cards in your work computer could be inferior too that happens in a lot of work places.
 
I am in a similar situation for the past years I have sat in front of various PC's laptops and have noticed my eyes are getting bad, at first I thought that it had to do with eye strain and the like but it occurred to me that sitting in front of a screen that is displaying 2 dimensional views might actually be doing more harm then the brightness, an example of this is people that do allot of reading tend to need glass's I am very sure this is because of the 2 d effect.
so long story short I highly doubt that so called "computer glass's " will make any real difference in the long run and to me at least seems to be more of a gimmick then anything
 
I actually have been diagnosed with symptoms associated with "computer vision syndrome." My biggest problem is with extreme dry eyes, and I have tear duct plugs to keep my eyes wetter. My other issue is my eyes go in and out of focus really fast, which results in double vision in each eye; my ophthalmologist believe my eyes are refocusing due to my dry wrinkled up lenses. I've tried computer glasses, and this is my recommendations.

Any non-polarized, non-blue-tinted sunglasses would work. The point is to reduce UV and blue light; so don't get blue-tinted lenses. It's hard to find black non-polarized lenses. The most common computer glasses tint is yellow, and I would say it's a good tint to have even for driving at night to shade out opposing headlights.

Reducing blue light helps as well, and I know manufacturers such as BenQ and ViewSonic have these options. So buying a good monitor in the first place may solve your problems.

You can also achieve the same results as computer glasses or blue light reduction monitors by installing this program called F.lux. http://stereopsis.com/flux

As for me, right now I'm mostly not wearing my yellow glasses or using F.lux. My tear duct plugs solve most of my problems and my steroid eye drops also help. Seriously, if you have eye problems, go to an ophthalmologist. (I had to go to two to get my problems fixed; the pediatric ophthalmologist figured out my problems.)
 
sharknice said:
My wife uses gunnars at work and says they reduce eye strain a lot.
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THIS. My senior at work pointed me toward these and they help tremendously. They're marketed for gamers, but they help in normal productivity just as well.
 
This is some really interesting stuff here, and a lot of good input. Exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I think I'll just go to my eye doctor (or try, my company's eye insurance plan is kind of wonky about how it lets me visit...) and bring up some of the suggestions you folks have gotten from your doctors. For all I know, the ones here aren't as competent. =\

For now I've been using the Flux program and turning down my color temperature to min at work. It really takes some getting used to, but I feel like my eyes aren't nearly as strained. Could be sugar pill but perhaps not.
 
I have Gunnars glasses but also a reading mode preset in the monitor OSD, it does feel better for the eyes when I am using them.
 
Well unfortunately I'm not switching my ROG Swift out for anything else, especially not considering how hard it was to obtain one. I don't think I have any choices for eye strain modes on it though unfortunately.
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
This is some really interesting stuff here, and a lot of good input. Exactly the kind of stuff I was looking for. I think I'll just go to my eye doctor (or try, my company's eye insurance plan is kind of wonky about how it lets me visit...) and bring up some of the suggestions you folks have gotten from your doctors. For all I know, the ones here aren't as competent. =\

For now I've been using the Flux program and turning down my color temperature to min at work. It really takes some getting used to, but I feel like my eyes aren't nearly as strained. Could be sugar pill but perhaps not.
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Most vision insurance covers optometry, which is different from ophthalmology. Ophthalmology is typically covered by regular health insurance, being that these are real Medical Doctors (MD's).
 
StoleMyOwnCar said:
For now I've been using the Flux program and turning down my color temperature to min at work. It really takes some getting used to, but I feel like my eyes aren't nearly as strained. Could be sugar pill but perhaps not.
Click to expand...

I also started getting problems with eye strain recently and like you I have found that the f.lux program helps.

Besides using it to turn down monitor brightness during late afternoon/night hours (for which the program is tremendously helpful, I feel), try setting it to slight white/yellow during daylight hours also - I just did, and I feel it helps.

Is your monitor placed too far away on your desk so that you get eye strain because the text on the screen is then too small for you to read comfortably? Try moving the monitor a bit closer to you.

Another thing to try, if you're on Windows, is to go into Screen resolution->Make text and other items larger or smaller. Try setting the size to Moderate/125%. I did, and it helps a lot.

What browser are you using? Some homepages can be difficult to read, I find in fact that especially HardForum can be tough on the eyes. If your browser supports zooming, you may be able to define a zoom level for each homepage you're on. For example in Chrome, which I use, I just press Ctrl + to add zoom on a homepage. Then every time I visit this homepage, Chrome will remember the zoom level I've set and add that for me. It works very well.

You can also check in the settings for your browser if it's possible to make text larger and/or to add a zoom on a general level for all homepages you visit. Again, this is possible with Chrome.

Does your monitor use PWM? If so, that can also be a source of eye strain. My Asus VG248QE monitor needs to be set to Brightness 100 in order to not use PWM.

Finally, I personally found that adding a lamp to the right side of my desk has helped during late afternoon/night hours, where my desk actually got pretty dark in the right side (I have a lamp already on the left of the desk, so that side is covered light-wise). This I feel has also helped reduce eye strain for me.

Moderators, I hope it is okay I refer to a post on another forum in this case. It's because I feel OP could have good use of the answers I got to my question in this thread:
http://forums.blurbusters.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=1562

Hope some of this can help you!

Best,
Henrik
 
Using eye drops every couple hours helps out alot also, even if your eyes dont feel dry. Something thats cheap and easy to try.
 
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