Health - eyesight

[trendie]

I have been experimenting with day-trading for the past two weeks.

I have noticed that my eyes feel quite sore and itchy. And seem on the verge of being teary.
( not related to losing money !! ).
I use a LCD screen, not an old-fashioned CRT.

How do others cope with the constant short-distance focus ?
Are there any eye exercises that anyone does ?

I never had these problems when I do my normal job of software development.
Is this psychosomatic ?

 

[chump]

Trendie, eyes also my biggest problem if I am overdoing the screentime.... arises I understand from not blinking enough and allowing the eyes to dry out...use some proprietory eyedrops that lubricate your eyes..plenty onsale at the chemists...

 

[Tileman]

I find turning the brightness and contrast lower on the monitor settings help , have both running at 25% .
Whether its the correct thing to do i dont Know but it seems to have cured the sore eyes for me.

 

[breadmaker]

I would agree with both the previous replies, artificial tear eye drops (hypromellose about £1.30) should prove helpful. Also rather than staying focused on your monitor give your eyes a rest by looking away and focusing on some more distant object in the room i.e keep your eye muscles working.Repeat quite frequently. Hope this helps

 

[SvenFoster]

You could always change the background colour of your charts to black/gray or if your a software developer what do you do differently than when your trading? My guess(if your anything like me) is you get away from the screen frequently, play games occasionally and sit in your coffee room resting your eyes.
If your not following the same pattern trading then spend less time over watching your screen. obviously you need to watch it but whilst waiting for a trade to get near to execution having something as simple as another window open on your pc with some crummy web game can relax your eyes.
When ever I suffer the same plight its because I'm using my super human manual zoom and seem to focus to intently on each tick. This is both bad for your eyes and your P/L IMHO.
-Sven

 

[AndreiP]

Here's My Step-By-Step Guide To How I've Restored My Own Eyesight To 20/20.

Outdated thread, but the answer to the qestion is simple. When you work with a pc, read a book, or when you are doing anything else that requires you to stare at it for a long time, especially close up, you need look around the room, look into the distance now and again. If you do that, your eyesight will NOT get worse. Otherwise, it WILL - it's only normal, only common sense. If you do start noticing your eyesight worsening, then you can start doing more exercises - move your eyes up, down, left, right, look onto your nose etc - do this for a couple of mins once every hour or so, then close your eyes and relax. If you put your hands over your face, so that your eyes are right in the middle of your palms, with no light getting through, and stay like this for a minimum of 3 mins, then your eyes will relax and you'll see a huge improvement. It'll help a lot. Hope some1 will read this & it helps - I know, I've been there.

Andrei Petunin

--------------------------------

Here's My Step-By-Step Guide To How I've Restored My Own Eyesight To 20/20.

 

[Magos]

I have the same think at work, f.... six screens.
In the end I bought a pair of eyeglasses low radiation etc.

 

[BSD]

CVS seems to be turning into an ever bigger issue afflicting ever more people.

Computer Vision Syndrome - Wikipedia

 

[BSD]

GJ, as funny as this sounds, but you work in a bank and have a big trading floor probably, so maybe the reason for your not having problems is that you automatically and quite often do what is recommended to prevent these problems in the first place, take your eyes off the screens regularly and focus on something else in the distance, which in your case would be people halfway across the room etc.

Probably also more walking around during the day, again giving the eyes more rest / recuperation time.

Sitting home alone doesn't give that many distractions / incentives to take your eyes off the screens.

At least not until we get our dietary assistant sorted.

 

[Vrothdar]

I think you're right there BSD. I'm going to have to buy more trading books to read during my lunch breaks so that I don't spend lunch in front of my PC on the net quite so often. Only thing I've got to distract me today is a rubik's cube that I have in my bag but that'll get boring before lunch is over. Could go for a jog around the factory I suppose!

 

[BSD]

Yeah, I think a jog / exercise would probably be the best thing for the eyes and whole system.

Enjoy

 

[Vrothdar]

Until I get run over by one of the crazy factory workers in a fork lift truck...

:edit: Trendie, if you're reading this, how is your eyesight now? Still having problems or did it clear up?

 

[normbeef]

Health and safety guidlines state that you should break from your PC around 10 mins each hour... also if you alter your field of vision regulary

i.e

LOOKING OUT THE WINDOW AT THE LADIES... why do you think scaffolders never wear glasses !!!

 

[trendie]

Until I get run over by one of the crazy factory workers in a fork lift truck...

:edit: Trendie, if you're reading this, how is your eyesight now? Still having problems or did it clear up?

quarter past two.

EDIT: seriously, havent used any exercises, other than I dont really screen watch as much since I created alerts for my set-ups, so I am only in front of screen when set-up available.
problem is, I am probably reading or doing my stretching exercises.
eyesight stabilised, but still short-sighted.

 

[BSD]

So, somewhat counterintuitively, maybe more screens = less eye strain?

GJ

I'll use that line on my wife to gently inform her of a very valid argument in favor of increasing the number of screens.

 

[eagletower]

CRTs used to be quite bright and cause eye strain but i have found the switch to LCD a few years back is a lot better as it's not so bright on the eyes. Therefore my eyes don't adjust when staring at the screen and when i'm not like they used to with CRTs. I keep a TV that is on news channels deliberately across the room so my eyes need to take a wander every few minutes to see what's on.

 

[JTrader]

I have been experimenting with day-trading for the past two weeks.

I have noticed that my eyes feel quite sore and itchy. And seem on the verge of being teary.
( not related to losing money !! ).
I use a LCD screen, not an old-fashioned CRT.

How do others cope with the constant short-distance focus ?
Are there any eye exercises that anyone does ?

I never had these problems when I do my normal job of software development.
Is this psychosomatic ?

Remember to blink often. This moisturises the eyes.

Look away from the screen when not necessary to look at it.

Move away from your desk at regular intervals. eg. every 30 minutes or so.

Focus on objects around the room/out the window at various distances. Staring at the screen is what isn't great for the eye muscles, because its a fixed distancve away, and the eye muscles are not having to constantly re-adjust as they would do if you were walking down the street for example.

Get your eyes tested every 2 years at eg. specsavers. I got mine tested the other week, for the 1st time in 4 years. I got the all clear, which is always a relief, especially the glaucoma part of the test. Same slight prescription in 1 eye as 4 years ago, but not worth getting glasses for PC use. As i tried some PC/reading glasses 4 years back, and they gave me a headache!

 

[0007]

Remember to blink often. This moisturises the eyes.

Look away from the screen when not necessary to look at it.

Move away from your desk at regular intervals. eg. every 30 minutes or so.

Focus on objects around the room/out the window at various distances. Staring at the screen is what isn't great for the eye muscles, because its a fixed distancve away, and the eye muscles are not having to constantly re-adjust as they would do if you were walking down the street for example.

Get your eyes tested every 2 years at eg. specsavers. I got mine tested the other week, for the 1st time in 4 years. I got the all clear, which is always a relief, especially the glaucoma part of the test. Same slight prescription in 1 eye as 4 years ago, but not worth getting glasses for PC use. As i tried some PC/reading glasses 4 years back, and they gave me a headache!

Get your eyes tested every 2 years at eg. specsavers.

It's a good point to get your eyes tested regularly - not only will it enable you to fix your viewing but it can also pick up other health problems early.

I've found the testing facilities at Vision Express to be particularly good with state of the art equipment. I was impressed by the machine that photographs the back of your eye (retina?) and keeps a record on their computer system. This is particularly useful for detecting any changes since the previous test, which could be the first warning of any problem.

I've no connection with Vision Express other than having been a very satisfied customer at 2 of their branches. I wouldn't touch Boots - worst service I've ever had: sold me some duff vari-focals (cheap quality lenses with high quality price) with a no quibble moneyback. Had to do an awful lot of quibbling to get my refund. Specs were like being in a drunken stupor (visually) without the physical pain. The people at Boots told me I just needed to get used to them: Crap! Went to VExpress, got the best vari-f lenses and never been so happy. Vari-f Ideal for PC use in my case and perhaps my chart reading has now improved!

Of course, in my younger days i could see straight .............

 

[JTrader]

It's a good point to get your eyes tested regularly - not only will it enable you to fix your viewing but it can also pick up other health problems early.

I've found the testing facilities at Vision Express to be particularly good with state of the art equipment. I was impressed by the machine that photographs the back of your eye (retina?) and keeps a record on their computer system. This is particularly useful for detecting any changes since the previous test, which could be the first warning of any problem.

I've no connection with Vision Express other than having been a very satisfied customer at 2 of their branches. I wouldn't touch Boots - worst service I've ever had: sold me some duff vari-focals (cheap quality lenses with high quality price) with a no quibble moneyback. Had to do an awful lot of quibbling to get my refund. Specs were like being in a drunken stupor (visually) without the physical pain. The people at Boots told me I just needed to get used to them: Crap! Went to VExpress, got the best vari-f lenses and never been so happy. Vari-f Ideal for PC use in my case and perhaps my chart reading has now improved!

Of course, in my younger days i could see straight .............

Yes, perhaps it may help accidentally detect something like a tumor, which otherwise would have gone unnoticed for considerably longer.