TechSpot - PC Technology News and Analysis

Hey everyone. I have something off-topic I'd like to ask.

Do any of you get headaches when working for long hours in front of the computer?
I find that when I am hard at work and concentrating to my work on the screen, I get a headache after about two hours of work.
However, when I just casually use the computer for either games, surfing the web, reading Techspot, or listening to music, then I can usually go up to about 3 hours without any discomfort.

I was just editing a movie for a school project, and I was captivated and 100% hard at work, while staring at the screen for about two hours straight, at which point I realized my headache.

Does anyone else experience this? Is it natural to feel stress in the form of headaches when hard-at-work on a computer for a long time?
I know there are many of you who work on computers for a living, how do you manage any eye strain or headaches from that? How often should one take a 5-minute break when working on the computer?

Thanks.

I experience this problem also Things become blurry and I have problems focusing. And you already mentioned a headache, mine isn't a very harsh headache. I resolved the problem by lowering the refresh rate from 75Hz to 60Hz.

Eye strain causes headaches. You may want to look over your monitor setup. Starting from the size and specs of the monitor itself, moving to display settings like text size and resolution.

Also, you may have to start conditioning yourself out of bad habits. Slap yourself every time you lean forward closer to the monitor

That would be my suggestion too.

I get very red dry even painful eyes. Even when I close them they ache. I use eye drops before during and after and it really helps.

When was the last time you had your eyes tested? You might need glasses.

I look at computer screens bloody constantly and the only problem I have as a result is that I don't currently have a girlfriend.

lol. Phant, that is truely a terrible side effect!

Grafficks, how far away do you sit from your monitor, is the resoulution set properly? Do you catch yourself squinting a lot? Have you tried getting one of those screen cover things that reduce glare? I had a similiar problem last year, as said, after seeing an eye doctor. I discovered I really needed glasses. Another thing I do is look away, focus on something periodically in my office other than the monitor at work. That seems to help.

Thanks for all your replies.

I use a regular 17" LCD monitor, with a 1280x1024 resolution @ 75Hz refresh rate. I usually keep it at 75Hz to get higher FPS in VSync-enabled games. I have just turned down the refresh rate, thanks for the suggestion.

Now that you mention it, I do find myself hunching my back and leaning closer to the monitor sometimes, when I'm tired. Guess I'll try to stop that too..

The last time I got my eyes checked was sometime last year (a while ago). I said to the optometrist that I have been spending more and more time in front of the computer, but after the test he said that I still have almost-perfect eyesight. That was a while ago though, and I will book another appointment soon to see if my eyesight ability has changed.

Thanks!

You may want to set the font sizes to something bigger so you can read stuff more easily. Like in Windows display settings settings->advanced->DPI setting 120. You may have to set some desktop fonts to bold to make them look less weird.

At work I have set my browser (Opera) to zoom all pages to 120% by default and I usually zoom longer pages to 150% to get really comfortably big text that is easy to read.

I`m not so sure it is a terrible side effect.

I mean, if there`s no girlfriend/wife, then there`s no "she who must be obeyed" to tell you what to do, what to watch and what not to watch on the TV, how long you can stay on the computer, not to drink so much and no nagging lol.

I too get headaches if I stare at the computer screen for too long and yes, I do wear spectacles. When I feel a headache coming on, I usually stop, take a break for a while and take the dog for a walk. That usually solves the problem.

Regards Howard

Well yeah, it has its pros and cons for sure! I take it you are divorced ehh?

I have still yet to find a girlfriend :unch: !

I get more headaches from the wife and kids than I do from staring at a computer screen... :-)

Make sure your in a very light environment. I used to use the computer in almost darkness which really wrecked my eyes. As soon as i used a lamp next to my pc it was great, stopped squinting, stopped getting headaches and eye straining!