Ask HN: How do you prevent headaches from screen use? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: How do you prevent headaches from screen use?

Much my life is in front of a computer, even without taking into account my hobbies. Every so often, I get a massive headache (its effect compounding from my pretending it will go away soon) after which I need to take several days away from the screen. Obviously, this is impractical.

I'm pretty sure that reading books/on a Kindle e-ink display has not made headaches worse. But I can't transfer much of my routine away from the computer.

So far, I've tried taking more breaks to focus on something distant, maybe now I will try actually scheduling breaks instead of taking them when I remember. Maybe I need to change how I set the brightness, or try distancing myself from the monitor, get special glasses, ... I don't know what I should do.

What has worked for you HNers who struggled with headaches from screen use?

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1. Use proper monitor resolutions. E.g. 24” FullHD, 27” 2k, 32” 3k, 36” 4k. This affects the distance you have to stay against the monitor.

2. Background lighting. Have a lamp on the back of your screen.

3. Stay perpendicular to the screen. Otherwise one eye gets faster the information than the other and you feel dizy.

4. The phone screens are incredibly strong regarding their lighting. Limit their use, replace with a tabled whenever possible.

Is there a posture component to this? I've found my headaches are not the screen in so much as having poor posture, with the resulting muscular stress reaching up from back to neck to headache.

I now have a theracain, foam roller, and heat pad. Stretches and any regular physical activity will help to prevent / alleviate.

Many reasons which may indirectly contribute to headaches aside from screen use which you can eliminate to narrow the diagnosis:

#1 Eye sight/power, a simple visit to the ophthalmologist might put you at ease.

#2 Balanced diet, sometimes we consume food which may not be the best in terms of gut health or maintaining acidity in our stomach, this in turn could cause digestive issues leading to headaches. (drink only two cups of coffee spaced 6 hours apart)

#3 Effective breathing, science has linked poor breathing and mental fog which lead to many physical ailments not restricted to headaches, so before you start working it's essential to prime your mind just after you wake up since the brain's neuroplasticity is at it's peak and ready to be tamed, so meditating for 20mins with deep breathing and expansion of your diaphragm could mitigate mental fog which could accrue throughout the day and also decrease afternoon drowsiness. Also get your sinuses checked for any air blockage.

#4 Sleep, make sure you are getting minimum 7-8 hours of sleep every single day, if you say work or family or any other excuse, that means you are not effectively prioritizing your time, no matter how much work or productivity you cram in a day, if you skimp on sleep, beta amyloid proteins get built up in your brtain leading to extreme brain fog or headaches and over many years you could be on the verge of experiencing severe dementia or Alzheimers.

#5 Emotional mindset, Are there troubling issues with your personal life that occupy your mind and not allow you to completely focus, this may seem benign at first but could be the symptom of a larger un-diagnosed emotional issue which can manifest in physical ailments like headaches, digestive issues, joint pains etc. Also Chronic Stress is one of the most leading causes for headaches among adults, so be mindful of your stress levels as cortisol in your blood can alter your mood and physiological states.

and few other factors like, dehydration, skipped meals, hormone fluctuations, and exposure to chemicals are common migraine triggers. Please take care and wishing you great health for 2021!

The three things that helped me in order from most to least:

1) Getting 8h of sleep a night. Without 8h of sleep sitting in front of a computer for a few hours would give me a massive headache.

2) Moving my computer from in front of a window to a different location.

3) Using blue light filtering glasses.

Now I almost never get a headache, I think 1 and 2 were the biggest improvements. I've also started experimenting with having fake green plants around my monitors.

I rarely have headaches. But this may help: increase sunlight in room, stop drinking coffee, change color settings (day/dark), increase font size, increase fresh air, use ionizator, reduce stress, sleep more

Some unusual ideas:

You could hack your kindle to function as display. I haven't tried this, but it seems possible https://gizmodo.com/hack-your-kindle-to-use-it-as-a-raspberr...

Another possibility is using blind-computing technology. They have no need for a screen and are able to code. But this may take quite some learning time.

In the past they used a printer as computer output, probably that's not practical these days. But the principle should still work for a terminal. If you do sysadmin work, that may do.

Regarding screen use vs reading a book, I've read some discussions here regarding this, particularly on 'reflected' vs 'transmitted' light. Some HNers say there is no difference because light is still light arguing this distinction is pseudoscience, but I'm left unconvinced. An argument for the distinction I've heard is that 'transmitted' (or perhaps, better, 'emitted') light gives a false image that doesn't allow the eyes to focus well. Does anyone know (of a good article that explains) the science behind this?

I think emitted light from monitors and displays causes more eye strain than reflected light, as people tend to have their monitors set too bright and with a colour temperature that is contrasted to the ambience of the room. Whereas compared to reflected light, the reflected light is always as the same intensity and colour temperature as ambient light, thus reducing strain as the contrast is lower.

Thus, my recommendation is to set monitor brightness and colour temperature to match the ambient lighting conditions. I have no data to support this, other than my own personal comfort. I also suffer from eye floaters, so I use dark colour schemes to reduce contrast so I notice them less. A downside to this is that text can appear to be more fuzzy if you suffer from astigmatism.

Created an account to respond to this as I get headaches from any of the below triggers

Non interlaced sources

No 50hz refresh battery saver crap

IPS monitors over TN

Look up PWM as a backlighting tech, a bad source

Lighting in your room, PWM can come into play here again in the switch

Bad flourescents

Good luck.

-Get an Dasung E-Ink external monitor

-Check out https://ledstrain.org/ and read about temporal dithering and PWM

-Get Eyedrops

-Read about hetereophoria (even consider eye excercises and optometrist)

-Regular breaks and display free time (even schedule with eyeleo or rescue time app)

-Limit screen use in general

There's a settings preset on my monitor called "paper" - it makes the screen look basically like paper illuminated by a warm incandescent bulb, mainly by reducing the brightness and maybe the contrast of the monitor. That preset plus a blue-light filter makes looking at a screen much easier on the eyes.

I don't do anything more than take frequent breaks, and I've never had trouble with headaches like this.

Maybe you should see an ophthalmologist or optometrist. You may need glasses or a different prescription for whatever lenses you might already have. Or you may have some other vision-related issue that needs diagnosing.

Gunnar glasses have helped me a lot. They are kind of pricey, but the difference has been kind of incredible. My headaches are also much worse if I’m not sleeping enough, and they have helped when I don’t really have much choice on how much sleep I can get (like when we had a newborn).

I've started keeping a 32 oz water bottle next to me at my desk and that helps. I drink a lot of tea throughout the day, and having a huge bottle that I fill up in the morning helps me track my water intake.

I also use f.lux to change the color temperature of my screen.

I started getting headaches a few weeks ago since it became colder and my screen time increased.

1. Adjust the brightness of your screen multiple times a day. Auto-brightness is too bright often.

2.Do not use smartphones or tablets in the dark before sleeping, even with blue-filter.

Are you sure it's not because of your head posture? Make sure you don't twist your head too much when looking at the screen, from my experience bad posture is the #1 reason for headaches, screen resolution less so.

Get your eyes tested. I used to get headaches all the time, they've disappeared completely since getting glasses.

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