My monitor and my eyes

[Dreaming]

Hey guys.

I keep getting this thing the past week or so when looking at my monitor my vision is going a bit funny. It's like where I'm looking there's static. It goes away when I stop looking at the monitor. I turned the brightness etc. down to see if it helped but it hasn't really. Do you reckon it could just by my monitor that's doing something funny or...? Occasionally I get what the doctor calls migraines where I don't have any pain but lose vision in one eye so I'm worried in case it's related :|.

I thought TFTs were supposed to be quite pleasant on your eyes. No problem with TV and not noticed it when using monitors at university, though those ones are smaller and normally in very brightly lit rooms and not normally for extended periods of time (max 2 hours - but my eyes wont be focused on the screen like they are at home).

*blinks*

edit: turned on Stylish (plugin for firefox) onto "Easy on the eyes" only problem is text in text boxes is white on white

edit 2: only on certain forums. On others it's black text box background but on this and another I go on frequently it's a white text box background for some reason (it would seem the style sheet mod is trying to override this but doesnt)

[Clunk]

See an optician.

[Dreaming]

See an optician.

I did do before and they had no idea - my vision is fine - it's to do with the optic nerve or something. Referred me to optometrist who cancelled on me twice, so I saw my GP for another referral who diagnosed me with migraines....

[handscombmp]

I'd go get your eyes checked out.

Are you wearing glasses. If its for short sightedness take them off whilst using a monitor.

EDIT: Clunk beat me!

[Dreaming]

I'd go get your eyes checked out.

Are you wearing glasses. If its for short sightedness take them off whilst using a monitor.

EDIT: Clunk beat me!

No, my eyes have been checked in sight terms as being ok and of not being damaged. It seems to be my monitor in particular I notice it on. Might see how I go and consider investing in one of those filters you put over the screen lol. Currently still turned down to lowest preset brightness.

[tiggerai]

Sounds like good old eyestrain to me.

Are you taking the required breaks away from your computer?

I also get the vision thing when I get a migraine... lose half the cision in my right eye for about 20 mins. then get the flashing lights and a tingly nose!

[Barakka]

I did do before and they had no idea - my vision is fine - it's to do with the optic nerve or something. Referred me to optometrist who cancelled on me twice, so I saw my GP for another referral who diagnosed me with migraines....

What sort of optician did you see, high street name or local independant, I would always recommend the local independant ones over the national high-street names. Also might be worth finding one with a Digital Retinal Photography service, whereby they can take a digital image of the back of your eye to see any problems with the optic nerve entry point etc.

Remember you should only using your PC in well lit rooms, it's not like watching TV in a dark room where you're several feet away from what you're focusing on. Also make sure you take a break every 20-30 mins or so by looking away and trying to focus on something very far away (out of a window maybe) for a few minutes to prevent muscle strain and lactic acid build-up.

[Clunk]

Also get yourself checked for Diabetes, it's a different set of eye tests if you do have it.

Either way, see your doctor.

[tiggerai]

it's a good excuse to go on a tea run, or go chat to a colleague and it does make a lot of difference.

Make sure you're not squinting at the screen or have any nasty reflections etc too.

[Ferral]

Try changing your refresh rate, it happens to me also. I have to set it to 75 or 85 Htz otherwise I either get a stinking headache or my vision goes fuzzy when looking about.

[tiggerai]

Try changing your refresh rate, it happens to me also. I have to set it to 75 or 85 Htz otherwise I either get a stinking headache or my vision goes fuzzy when looking about.

Hm yes same... I can *see* 60Hz and even more sensitive to it when i've got a headache.

[TheAnimus]

Also watch out for strip lighting. Often that is at mains frequency so you can get a horrible cross flickering thing going on when you look at PC screen thats 76hz. You think you're getting a head ache from the screen but its a combination of the light too. I used to get this a lot, i couldn't figure out why i was bad at college but good at home

[greenalien]

When using a TFT screen, make sure you have the 'Clear Type' option turned on. In XP, right click on your desktop, left click on 'Properties', left click on the 'Appearance' tab, left-click on the 'Effects' button and make sure the box for 'Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts' is ticked and that the drop-down menu for that box shows 'Clear Type', not 'Standard'.
Be careful not to strain your eyes by having fonts too small - as screen resolutions go up, everything shrinks! If you do a lot of web browsing, use 'Ctrl and +' to increase magnification.
Make sure that your monitor is the brightest thing in your entire field of vision, including peripheral - if not, deploy screening, shut curtains or blinds, remove fluoro tubes from overhead lights, whatever it takes.
Finally, make sure that your display is at the right height - the top of the monitor should be level with your eye height.

[AirCop]

Eye AIDS.

[arthurleung]

When using a TFT screen, make sure you have the 'Clear Type' option turned on. In XP, right click on your desktop, left click on 'Properties', left click on the 'Appearance' tab, left-click on the 'Effects' button and make sure the box for 'Use the following method to smooth edges of screen fonts' is ticked and that the drop-down menu for that box shows 'Clear Type', not 'Standard'.
Be careful not to strain your eyes by having fonts too small - as screen resolutions go up, everything shrinks! If you do a lot of web browsing, use 'Ctrl and +' to increase magnification.
Make sure that your monitor is the brightest thing in your entire field of vision, including peripheral - if not, deploy screening, shut curtains or blinds, remove fluoro tubes from overhead lights, whatever it takes.
Finally, make sure that your display is at the right height - the top of the monitor should be level with your eye height.

Cleartype doesn't do much. In fact I find that on high pixel density monitor they could increase eye-strain due to the blurring.

With monitor being the brightest thing in the room, I have to say it hurts my eyes very badly. I always have to set to almost the minimum brightness (or half brightness for laptop) otherwise its blindingly bright. I would say "About the same brightness" to be the best. Turn the brightness up if its in the afternoon where its very shiny outside.

Also, Ctrl + doesn't really help as only the font size is increased. It could also mess up the formatting of the website. Instead, just reduce the resolution to say, 1280x800 for minimal eye-strain.

About the monitor height...I actually get neck pain when eye level is same as top of monitor. Looking up is less strainful for me.

Also one thing you could try is, make sure the wall behind your monitor is warm / white colour / grey. I have had my vision going funny (like white turns pinkish, green looks like blue) if the website is blue or green. I get slight static in my vision if the background is red. if I have posters that is exotically coloured. That means removing wallpapers.

[greenalien]

Cleartype doesn't do much. In fact I find that on high pixel density monitor they could increase eye-strain due to the blurring.

If Cleartype doesn't sharpen up your fonts, either you have a faulty monitor, or you're still using a CRT monitor. Cleartype is only recommended for TFT monitors, which the OP says he has.

With monitor being the brightest thing in the room, I have to say it hurts my eyes very badly

You misunderstand. I'm talking about relative brightness, not absolute brightness - your eyes will adapt automatically to the brightest thing in your field of vision, and if that isn't your monitor, your eyes will strain to see it clearly. Obviously you shouldn't have the brightness of your monitor set so high it's uncomfortable.

Instead, just reduce the resolution to say, 1280x800 for minimal eye-strain.

Totally wrong. Remember, it's TFT monitors we're talking about here, and they should always be run at their native resolution, and will inevitably give a worse picture at other resolutions. I see no problem with using 'Ctrl and +' to magnify any text that's too small to read, and it will only screw up the formatting on badly designed web pages, e.g those that use absolute, rather than relative sizing / positioning.

About the monitor height...I actually get neck pain when eye level is same as top of monitor. Looking up is less strainful for me.

Having the top of the monitor level with your eye height is the adjustment recommended by current Health and Safety advice. If you have to look up at the monitor, you're probably compressing the back of your neck which could lead to long term health problems.