Dubstepforum.com

Easy, dsf, basically I use the computer for long periods of time, if not for producing for assignments or other uni-related work as well as generally doodling. I wear corrective vision glasses on a day to day basis as well.

Lately I've been getting eye strain and periodic and uncontrollable twitches/spasms in my bottom left eyelid.

I can't exactly reduce my computer-use without work/production suffering, and I've installed flux and played around with my display settings to make it more comfortable.

So what else do you guys recommend for reducing the eye strain of long periods of computer use?

take a break

I just turn my brightness down

Trainrek wrote:take a break

This times a million.

Ideally, you should be spending at least 15mins out of every hour not looking at your screen.

1) Get enough natural light.

2) Use liquid tears if you don't blink.

2) Get an anti-glare layer on your glasses.

3) If you're using a projection monitor, get a flatscreen.

4) Get enough sleep/rest.

5) Wear wayfarers.

There are glasses designed to prevent eyestrain. They were meant for gaming but can still serve their purpose in this situation. I do not have personal experience with these but I have heard through one of my friends that they do work well for eyestrain. Check em out: http://www.gunnars.com/what-are-gunnars/

Flux is pretty good, especially at night. the computers naturally blue/white glow actually keeps the brain stimulated when your body is trying to tell you to goto sleep. Worked a treat for me, less eyestrain more sleep!

I agree that turning down the brightness is the best to prevent eye strain.

Getting up and taking a break is good too, but it's amazing how well lowering the brightness works.

Try not to work in an environment that has only a computer as a source of lighting - aka don't sit in a DARK room with a BRIGHT computer for hours at a time. Keep the light on, put up a lamp, whatever. That shit tears up your eyes and (supposedly) causes depression.

I installed f.lux yesterday and my eyes have hurt ever since. Did anyone else experience that? Adjustment period maybe?

But yeah sufficient ambient lighting in the room really helps, especially behind your monitor. Put a cool looking lamp or something behind it. You've seen those televisions with the ambient light in the back right? It's not just to look cool.

wormcode wrote:I installed f.lux yesterday and my eyes have hurt ever since. Did anyone else experience that? Adjustment period maybe?

But yeah sufficient ambient lighting in the room really helps, especially behind your monitor. Put a cool looking lamp or something behind it. You've seen those televisions with the ambient light in the back right? It's not just to look cool.

No not just you!
I had it installed on my old computer and it really felt good on my eyes and got used to it.
But then I got my new laptop, and it did nothing but bother my eyes, and had me straining my eyes.
Don't know what the deal is, but it's uninstalled now :/

Yeah I installed it on a laptop as well. My eyes don't hurt today though, maybe I just needed to get used to it.
I thought maybe it was because I go from 1 computer to another sometimes. I only use internet on my laptop, and have a dedicated studio room/pc with no internet on it. That monitor is huge and I didn't install it on there so maybe that's why.

I use a program called eyeleo. It can be set to remind you to blink at certain intervals and to get up and take a break as well

I just spend enough time using my keyboard/fiddling with my launch pad that it doesn't become a huge issue. I'd say get some reasonably cheap outboard gear that can take your eyes off the screen...more fun anyway.

Yeah pretty much what everyone else says - take breaks, have plenty of ambient light and use flux and eye drops. I have pretty much permanent black marks under my eyes from too much computer use, the day someone solves this problem i'll be happy.

Hopefully in the not too distant future we'll have decent e-ink screens. They're too slow to be useful for mainstream computing at the moment but i know progress is being made.