Ask HN: How are you taking care of you eyes?
Like anyone else these days, I am spending 8 hours for work, couple of hours for entertainment and social in front of the monitor. As I age I can see the stress and strain on my eyes. No issues as of now but I want to take care of them before anything happens.
Couple of things I am doing right now. During the day, moved to single monitor and immediately noticed less strain on the eyes and neck. During night started spending at least couple of minutes in a room(not bedroom) with out any major light source either meditating or chatting with partner, it provides major relief.
What tactics are you following and any resources which talks about practical eye health.
193 comments
[ 2.8 ms ] story [ 266 ms ] threadI am your servant and knight forever should you ever have need of me.
https://www.menshealth.com.au/peeing-sitting-down-is-good-fo...
I used to have headaches sometimes, but that disappeared with it.
There's an app called f.lux and when I work on my computer in the evening and turn it off, the screen becomes really bright/annoying.
Perhaps it doesn't make a difference on eye health in particular, but it's easy to try that and i do notice a difference immediately concerning eyestrain.
Note: I'm aware of the difference during the day and my situation during the night. It's mentioned as an easy to reproduce example from personal experience, not as a fact supporting any research.
I try to spend some time outdoors, looking into the distance. Natural light and focusing on distant objects to counteract the tendency to short-sightedness.
As an adult, a lot! I go each year for a test that includes a extended 3D scan of my retinas. I always have glasses that match my prescription. I have "night shift"/reduced-blue mode turned on my computer and phone almost permanently to reduce eye strain and reduce the chemical effects later in the day. I wear sunglasses whenever I feel eye strain outdoors, even if it's winter. I increase font sizes on sites where it now, post 40, feels necessary (such as HN). This all seems to be working well so far.
Can someone with some strong contextual knowledge provide ANY references actually linking myopia/astigmatism to reading?
I would argue actually being on the street in quickly changing weather (very dry air, very humid air, extreme cold/heat) probably has a larger effect on what happens to your eyes, but even that is arguably very weak.
And to @heavenlyblue - don't worry, people have been saying the same things about books as well. I remember reading "Diary of a Short-Sighted Adolescent" and his parents wouldn't let him read because he was short sighted, y'know, for his health. The belief that stairing at close things is causing myopia is common, but, as far as I can tell, not based on any conclusive science. It's just that recently it's more in vogue to be concerned by technology than by books, and, beside, these days, most people stare at screens and phones rather than books.
"Immediately following a sustained near visual task". How is that related to having consistent myopia?
Using, no; straining, yes.
Wear sunglasses with polarised lenses.
1. Daily eyelid hygiene - using special wipes to get the leftover from your eyelashes, to unblock Meibomian glands. It can dramatically improve how your eye is moistened. People who suffer from dry eye syndrome should at least try it.
2. Using eye drops daily - whenever I see them or I need them.
3. (Something that is specific to recurrent corneal erosion). I put some ointment/gel when I go to bed. As most of recurrent corneal erosion events happen during the night, it is crucial to be protected when you sleep.
Eye drops in my case didn't help, it mostly was caused due to producing to little tears at night when I sleep, I can't put eye drops in when I sleep.
But there where some things which did help:
- eating/drinking healthy, while unclear it seems my tear under production was partially linked to a unhealthy diet
- eye hygiene helped a bit not much
- Making sure air humidity is at a good level during winter times helped too.
- And while it sounds ridiculous: Getting used to carefully open the eyes when waking up, like very very carefully. That probably helped better then all the other effects combined as most damage seems to have happened when opening the eyes when waking up.
What is very interesting that there is a certain set of actions that you can take and the ones that helped you, didn't help me (diet - I've been eating healthy for a long time, air humidity - we use air humidifier for a long time too), but the ones that were great for me (eye hygiene) didn't help you.
No fix that I'm aware of but there are work-arounds:
1) For people that already wear glasses, use bifocal/trifocal/progressive lenses
2) For people that don't wear corrective lenses, use "reading glasses" and constantly put them on and take them off as you switch between looking at close/distant things.
For contact lens wearers, there are some options:
1) Bifocal contact lenses. These gave me a constant headache.
2) Monovision. Essentially one eye tuned to distance and one tuned to close-up. I could not get used to this.
There are some surgery options but really only to give you something like monovision through surgery instead of contacts. Unfortunately there's no fix for the root problem that I am aware of.
This is my situation. It sucks. I only have one really good pair of reading glasses; I am starting to think the strategy of having a dozen pairs all over the house might be a better option. What's worse, for me personally, is that I get motion sick really quickly with the glasses on. I have to work quickly when I need them to see something.
Fast forward to today, my wife and I, both 50, have many sets of dollar store 1.25x reading glasses strewn around the house. I try to only use them when absolutely needed. I imagine an optometrist visit is in my future within the next few years but I'm trying to hold out.
Now she doesn't laugh anymore.
Everyone I've talked to says basically the same thing as you. It sneaks up. You don't realize at first the compensations you are using, unless someone says something. Or when the first thing you do on a new computer is crank up the font size. LOL.
I started wearing glasses at 16 for 20/40 vision and then switched to contacts at about 25 years old. My vision has remained stable since then except for presbyopia. That is really the only effect of age that I've experienced yet and it is a pain to deal with.
If I don't have glasses on/contacts in I can read something right up against my nose with no problem but obviously have trouble seeing further away.
If I have glasses on/contacts in seeing things close up becomes far more difficult.
So if anyone has a fix for presbyopia, hit me up!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o-1utP_UV3A
I do eyelid lifts and eye rolls. 3 sets of 20 6 days a week with a rest day on Sunday.
You can do these while on the treadmill and doing other excercise to increase efficiency.
You can also mix in some beta carotene into your protein shake to really maximize the eye pump.
Why on earth would you do hypertrophy sets for a body part that clearly benefits more from pure max strength training? Lower those numbers to 5 sets of 3-5 reps at max intensity, and recover for at least 48 hours. At 6 days a week, you're pretty much begging for an injury.
> You can also mix in some beta carotene
Holy cow you're crazy. Stay natty my friends.
Going to work on getting the eyes swole after some good endurance training first so there's a good balance between fast twitch and slow twitch so there's some definition but also function.
> Among current smokers, beta-carotene supplementation was found to be significantly associated with an increased risk of lung cancer (odds ratio [OR], 1.24; 95% confidence interval [95% CI], 1.10-1.39).
[Beta-carotene in multivitamins and the possible risk of lung cancer among smokers versus former smokers: a meta-analysis and evaluation of national brands](https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18429004/)
Like people are for real supplementing with arthropod moulting hormones. Seems legit. "Ecdysteroid" has "steroid" in the name. If that doesn't make you swol, I don't know what does.
Get up and go for a walk helps too.
Keep monitor brightness around a white paper in whatever ambient light. Sometimes this requires dropping brightness to 0 and then decreasing contrast/sharpness.
Wear sunglasses after several hours of monitor use. Sometimes I’ll put a hat on to block the overhead lights, too. (Work in a shared/undimmable work area.)
This technique helped me a lot.
I also use a 32" 4K display at 125-150% scale so, fonts are nice and big.
Disagree on the latter though - I hate stuff big! Browser default set to 80% and a lot of things I use at 67%.
I got Lasik a little over two months ago. Prior to that, I had severe myopia - 20/400 or so in both eyes. Corrected with glasses, my eyesight was 20/15.
I'm still in the blurry phase of healing, so anything past about 20 feet is about the same level of blurry. Making out license plates from the car ahead is possible if I squint just a little if they're over two car lengths away.
Even before Lasik, once that 8:00 PM time hits, I depart from all digital screens entirely. I try to remember to do the 20/20/20 rule, but I mostly forget.
It suggests to read at an inch or two past comfortable for a few hours a day. At first it seemed too good to be true, but not completely implausible. I'm curious if anyone has tried or had luck with it.
I wear sun glasses outside when it is even moderate bright.
I take lutein, "the eye vitamin."
I keep pretty far from my monitor and its elevation keeps my head in a neutral position.
I also have semi-regular exams at a retina specialist to monitor some thinning.
It was shown on a BBC program to help. I tried it and it changed things drastically for me. I used to have my TV very close to my couch because I was struggling when watching movies or gaming. It also made my sight better at night.
Obviously this is my personal opinion only.
-- frequently check if your reading (etc.) is comfortable. If it is not, adjust your position, fix your environment etc.
(As opposed to those who strain themselves intensively or prolongedly out of inattention. You check your posture, your inner states, your state in general: you also keep a watchdog that your eye comfort is given.)
Edit: like for the rest, memory of the triggers for awareness of the indirect causes. Some factors have effects only after time, and they are of course more dangerous. Local attention is the base ("comfortable now" is the first requirement); practices that strain you with effect hours later can still be identified; the less evident factors could be a concern but they will probably gain relevance only if the former basics (avoiding causes for immediate and recent impact) are observed.
Also, zooming the websites (can't comfortably read HN below 150%).
-- use of the [Ctrl]+[Wheel] or equivalent on the relevant software;
-- a keyboard shortcut for inverted colours (e.g. `xcalib -a -i`);
-- different instruments for different environments (e.g.: Sunlight? Maybe prefer EPD. No light? Maybe prefer OLED light on black. Etc.)
should be base strategy - extended adjusting of your comfort through the, well, "hacking" we normally practice.
https://workrave.en.softonic.com/
Sitting so close to the screen it makes sense, and the “stretch” you feel when focusing on something close and then far away has really decreased my eye strain.
If working with screens a lot, I first make sure they are properly balanced (brightness/contrast/color) for the ambient light, so eyes don't receive too much energy off the screen.
Then distance it, preferrably farther than arm length, with something visible behind the monitor (not just a wall of screen). This way I can direct eyes farther away to relax.
Also good quality sleep, which at times is very much a non-trivial task.
Ah, the most critical, and both hardest and easiest task - taking breaks to give eyes and mind some rest. Advice that all parents give to kids, yet often fail to follow themselves...
To sum it up: reduce the amount of near-work you do (looking at your monitor, smartphone, books, etc) and, if you already have glasses, use glasses with a reduced prescription or no glasses for near-work.
With these rules I've managed to go from -5.5/-6 to -3.5/-3.75 in just these 9 months. And that's with me still spending 12h a day on my computer.
Pro tip: you can get very cheap (as little as $3) myopia glasses from aliexpress or a bit more expensive zenni optical. So there's really no big barrier to entry.
Side note: Lasik only cures the symptom of bad vision (just like glasses), but not the cause (elongated eyeball, which is what increases the likelihood of retinal detachment). If you don't change your habits after lasik, chances are you will need glasses again a couple years later as your eyeball further elongates, see: 35% are above 0.5 diopters again just 3 years after lasik https://bjo.bmj.com/content/103/4/565.abstract 58% are above 1 diopter again after 7 to 8 years. https://www.proquest.com/openview/722546068e4b0c9c1d3acba7e3...
I recommend you read more on endmyopia.org to learn about the scientific background and the eye biology behind it. But what I summed up above should easily get you started though and in just a couple of months you should notice improvements in your eyesight (you can test it at home by printing a Snellen eye chart).
Finally going to the eye doctor is no longer frustrating because my eyes are improving instead of getting worse year by year :)
Pro tip: with 6 diopters, make damn sure you get your PD correct. Otherwise the headaches you get from the induced prism just won't make it worth it.
It is much worse if you have a narrow PD, say 56. Before convergence, you already have over 2 diopters of prism wanting to spread your eyes outward.
The website claims the idea is based on peer reviewed research, but all the links and guides lead to what appears to be clickbait styled videos and testemonials. Overall it isn't clear and doesn't really sell the idea to me
You can find the research linked in these posts: https://endmyopia.org/category/science/
The summary is basically this: You increased your eyeball length from too much near work and lens usage. This further increases your myopia. To reverse it, use lenses appropriate to your task (reduced lenses for near work) and reduce near work in general. I can recommend the free 7 day email guide, it's probably the closest to a coherent overview about the whole topic.
Do you mean you've gotten used to a weaker pair of glasses? Can you actually see just as well, and how have you tested that? Are you around 40 (far vision improves around that age)?
To check my current eyesight, I use a printed Snellen chart and the focal calculator https://endmyopia.org/focal-calculator/calc.html
The focal calculator is less accurate, but over mutliple measurements it averages out and adds up to a similar result as the Snellen chart for me.
No, I'm in my early twenties.
Yes, fully corrected, I can even see better than before to be honest. My eye doctor told me last time (before I started endmyopia) that I only have around 80% vision, even with glasses. I noticed that when playing tennis, I had trouble telling if balls were still in the opponents field because I couldn't see the back line properly. Last time I played I noticed how much better I could see it :)
What you said is basically what I read 7~8 years ago when I was in my early twenties
I searched and read about this method in a Chinese forum website, zhihu, IIRC. As lazy as I was, I just couldn't be serious with any methods to cure my eyesight
Now that I read your comment on HN, it is actually legit lmao
Try it out, I'm sure you can change your habits and make it work!
Also, seeing an ophthalmologist is still important, they check your eyes for potential problems, more than just issuing prescriptions. You say you worry about retinal detachment, they can see early warning signs of that and fix it sometimes.
I will be going to the eye doctor soon again and will hopefully get a similar prescription from her as from my own measurements :)
You're right about retinal detachment. I worry less about it now that my eyes are improving and it doesn't feel like I'm on an unstoppable trajectory towards worse eyes and higher risk for retinal detachment anymore. I heard it can appear quite rapidly, which worried me even when going to routine checkups.
Seriously considering lens implants since my eyes are too bad for lasik.
You can find more information on that on the endmyopia page or wiki by looking for "differential glasses"
Zenni Optical also offers custom prescriptions, but is more expensive (likely still a lot cheaper than your local optician).
But you can totally also get glasses with a lower prescription from your regular optician, but as you will relatively frequently need new glasses, that can get expensive (at least here in Germany it would, and I heard in the USA glasses cost up to $1000).
Not griping about capitalism, I think its the best thing out there for the economy, its just that we haven't figured out a way to prevent it from creating authoritative science backed research that somehow always promotes the funding party's product.