How to Avoid and Relieve the Devastating Effects of Eye Strain
I think it is safe to say that most designers don’t think very often about the effect that their job has on their eyes. If you’re anything like me you probably work until your eyes burn or get blurry then take a break and do it all over again. Until recently, I thought that this was part of the job and that it didn’t have any long term negative effects; well, I was wrong.
About 2 months ago I had an episode of severe eye strain that I would only describe as miserable. Imagine a headache that never went away for 2 months. Imagine being highly sensitive to light, staying indoors, in the dark, with no TV or computer during that time with no idea how to relive the pain. This is what I went through; all because I ignored what my eyes were telling me – to stop working.
During this ordeal I did all the things that you would normally do. I saw doctors, had all sorts of tests but no one could tell me definitively what was wrong. From the beginning I felt that my condition had something to do with strained eyes. I looked up the symptoms and I had all of them. Why the doctors I saw didn’t mention this, I will never know but from that moment on, I knew that my behavior towards computers had to change. I was ruining my eyes, and the quality of my life simply by using the computer too much.
After a bit of research I discovered a few common sense tips that I thought I would share with you guys because no matter how much you love your job, or need the money, no job is worth risking your eye sight.
The Cause of Eye Strain
Eye strain is caused by straining one or more of the eye muscles. This occurs when you keep your eye in one position for a long period of time. This is common for graphic designers who often focus on a screen or part of a screen for long periods. Eyes are typically strained faster while focusing on near distances as opposed to far distances and switching distances rapidly can hasten the symptoms. Common activities responsible for eye strain are computer use, reading, watching television, and driving.
In addition, environmental factors such as low light levels, fluorescent lighting, bad viewing angles, poor ergonomic computer setup, low screen contrast levels, glare, and brightness can also add to the stress placed on your eyes.
Preventing Eye Strain
There are several ways to prevent eye strain. Here are a few tips:
Remove or Reduce the Cause: Your first step should be to pinpoint the cause of the problem. For me, it was overuse of the computer and television. You guys would likely find that to be a common cause as well. Once you pinpoint the problem you will then have to reduce the amount of time you spend performing that task. This is what was so difficult for me. This is my job and my livelihood depends on it. So it was very hard for me to pull away from the computer.
Eliminate Glare: Glare will cause you to squint and overly strain your eyes. Mac users know this feeling well because most Macs have glossy screens. If possible find a method to reduce glare as much as possible. Matte screens are really good at this.
Reduce Contrast: Try reducing the contrast of your monitor. The relative brightness of an item next to another can be very stressful to your eyes.
Wear Proper Corrective Lenses: Make sure your eye glass prescription is up to date. If you don’t wear them maybe you should have your eyes looked at just in case.
Use Adequate Lighting: Make sure you have adequate lighting. Too much or too little light can stress your eyes.
Take a Break! Shut your eyes every now and then. Try mixing things up a bit so you don’t spend too much time working on any given task.
Keep Your Work at a Distance: The closer your screen is, the harder your eyes will have to work. Try moving your screen back a bit to reduce the strain.
Lubricate Your Eyes: Dry eyes can be a significant factor in eye strain. Sometimes eye strain can be caused by something as simple as not blinking enough. In addition, you can also put in some artificial tears (not red eye reducers).
Treating Eye Strain
The best way to treat eye strain is to prevent it but if it’s too late for you than there are several ways that you can do this.
Keep Your Eyes Closed: While this can be tough to do I found that keeping my eyes closed during the day and night as much as possible helped quite a bit. I even went as far as buying a sleeping mask to wear when my eyes really started to hurt during the day.
Sleep: Sleeping worked very well for me. After waking up I felt refreshed and moderately well. As the day wore on however my condition typically got worse.
Steaming Towel or Heating Pad: I found that a steaming towel or a heating pad worked the best to reduce the pain I was feeling. In fact, this method worked better than any other pain reliever.
Dim the Lights: Harsh lighting is bad on the eyes. Turn the lights down or off. This will help immensely.
A Cold Towel: Cold towels didn’t work very well for me but since everyone is different it can’t hurt to try.
Stay Hydrated: Drink lots of water. Stay away from foods that dehydrate you.
Eye Drops: Natural tears worked very well for me. Buy some and try them out for yourself.
Stretch Your Neck and Massage Your Face: I’m not sure why this works but it did seem to help me quite a bit.
Don’t Sleep in Contacts: I don’t wear contacts but sleeping in them can cause extra strain on the eyes.
Conclusion
While my condition was likely a bit more severe than most. I hope that my advice can help you to relieve any symptoms that you are currently suffering. If anything my experience has taught me to not take my eye sight for granted. Your eyes are just too important. Take breaks and get some rest. Preventing eye strain is easy but suffering through a severe case is pure hell. I know this is a common problem in the design community so if you have a story to share or a remedy that you discovered please feel free to leave them in the comments.
More Information
For more information regarding eye strain check out About.com.
Posted in: Articles
Subscribe to the Colorburned RSS Feed to get the latest updates from this site!
Hello Grant,
That is an excellent article. I definitely need to take care of my eyes. Here is how my typical day goes. Wake up, drive to work (45 minutes), work in front of a computer for 8 hours, drive home (45 minutes), and then once I’m home, I usually use the computer for another 4-6 hours. That’s almost 14 hours of strenuous activity for my eyes! I will definitely try to cut back on the computer use.
One thing that I have done is to break up my computer activity by going to the gym and exercising. This has definitely relaxed me and take the stress from all that computer work. To be honest with you, I used to work full time at a warehouse doing hard, physical labor, and 8 hours in a warehouse vs. 8 hours in front of a computer, the computer work is a lot more tiring and stressful. Great article, and definitely something that we should take heed from. Thanks Grant!
Design Informer´s last blog ..Wallpaper of the Week – Desire and Disparity
I occasionally suffer from eye strain, but a lot of the time I think it has to do with glare and poor lighting conditions. My room/office is quite small with a big window and light walls so it’s difficult to reduce the glare. I don’t think wearing glasses helps too much because it’s just something else that causes more glare!
I make sure I take regular 5 minute breaks to get a glass of water or cup of tea to break the day up. Going for a short walk helps too, there’s nothing better than fresh air in my opinion so I usually go to the bank and run some errands!
I most definitely agree with Design Informer (above) too. Sitting at a computer all day actually makes me feel more exhausted than what I would feel like if I spend the day walking and lifting heavy things, so trying to get half hours or so exercise in a day (even if it’s just walking) usually helps your eyes and your whole body!
Thanks for the interesting read and I’m glad you solved your problem, I know how bad it can be and I agree with you when you say it is pure hell!
That’s the problem with design work. My biggest problem is not taking enough breaks or drinking enough. I suffer from eye strain a lot and thought I needed glasses but the opticians always say I have 20/20 vision. A little excercise I do is the “20/20″ rule — every 20 minutes, look twenty feet away for twenty seconds. Helps refresh the eyes.
I found that a majority of my eye strain went away when there was an ample amount of natural light in the room. Just make sure the monitor isn’t glaring the light off of it.
Having a pet is a great way to keep from getting so focused on the work. Whether it be a dog that wants to go for a walk, or a cat that wants to sleep on the keyboard, you’ll always have to keep an eye on them!
Haha, that’s a great excuse to get a pet Marshall! ;) I’d like to have natural light in my room but the monitor virtually looks at it and the room is too small to rearrange… Should be moving out next year though and I’m hoping I won’t have that problem!
Thank you sooo much for the tips! This is something I deal with often… now I just gotta figure out how to get some natural light! lol
I got eye strain recently my entire eye went red – it looked bad but kinda cool but it wasnt it stang like someone running over your hand ,
eye drops work but the best thing is breaks from teh screen
im a designer of graphics and use a screen at work from 9 – 12 every day – i have blinds in my office which cut out light –
the only thing about lowering teh screen light is designs can be affected – they come out at varying contrasts -
Benjamin Rama´s last blog ..9 Free Must Have Christmas Brushes
I’d say you missed a very important one:
Brightness/Contrast of your monitor.
I’ve just started to feel the effects of what I believe is eye strain. I have the common symptoms. The 40 min commute then 8 hours in front of a computer are hard on the eyes. My hope is that I can keep it under control at the office till I leave in a month or so and freelance which will allow me more control and no commuting.
curtismchale´s last blog ..Cars with no Tires Eh? – Don’t Build Sites for Clients that You Wouldn’t Use
Great post!, I had serious eyestrain issues a few months back. I wear glasses and it seems my prescription wasn’t what it needed to be. As a result I had a headache that wouldn’t go away, burning red eyes and light sensitivity. Thanks to plenty of rest and cold towels on my eyes it’s much better.
Since then I do still have a problem with light sensitivity, which is a problem even with moderate to low sunlight. Anyway, it’s very important for designers to be aware of their eyes, they’re our money makers.
I used to have your problem and am concerned that there’s a better solution for you out there and that u may not know.
All the points you made are great but they don’t stop the problem from happening only lessens the extent of it.
http://www.gunnars.com/
Check out this website they are a company who specialize in making glasses for people like us who spend hours on end infront of computer screens.
these glasses are tinted, anti-glare, polarized, and have special filters and lens geometry all to help block harmful poor quality light from the monitor from reaching your eyes and therefore preventing the damage in the first place.
i have been using a pair for i would say 2-3 months now and i not only design but play pc games and used to get migraines but since putting on my gunnars, I’ve never had a migraine since.
all the technical details are there on the site i hope this solves ur problem
yes the eyes are so important, i realised from a young age that its good to do eye exercises and eye stretching as well close yours and squeeze the eye muscles inwards, this draws more blood and energy to your eye balls. i also stop working sometimes for a 30 sec’s to a minute and close my eyes and gently rub my fingers over them. this also helps a lot.
Paul´s last blog ..Website Design: Create a Horizontal Navigation
Great Article. I often get headaches and eye strains when I stay on the pc for too long. In 2010 I plan to only work on the computer for 6-7 hours a day taking 3-4 breaks between those hours.
BTW I think we’re not the only ones straining our eyes, there’s gamers and tv lovers and America haha.
Marcell Purham´s last blog ..Why you shouldn’t steal someones else source code or design
Lately, I have been experiencing eye strain caused by too much computer use. By the way thanks for this very helpful post.
Ezuca´s last blog ..Top 10 Most Popular URL Shorteners on the Web
I know what works for me. Get up every one hour or so and wash your eyes with cold water. Immediately afterwards, blow on your palms to warm them up and place them on your eyes. It really works!
I used to fined that the early computer monitors would cause problems for me. However with advancements is screen technology this has diminished considrably.