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Comment by readyplayernull | Hacker News Reader

I used green CRTs (Apple II), orange CRTs, B&W CRTs, CGA, EGA, VGA, SuperVGA CRTs at least 12hr/day since the early 80s, then I started hearing people afraid of radiation and moving to LCDs in the 90s which I also used again at least 12hr daily, and I still keep using my laptop and reading my phone. From the Apple II manuals I have always remembered the technique of focusing on objects at different distances for several minutes to rest. But I also developed my own technique of closing the eye in pain and placing my fingertips around the cornea and applying little pressure until colored spots appear in the vision, there will be more pain than the one caused by eyestrain, but after a while it will go, and when releasing the fingers the eye will feel refreshed. I have good sight after all these years.

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Neither staring at monitors nor print is actually expected to actually cause worsening eyesight. The idea that nerds need glasses because they stare at small print is a myth. On the other hand poking yourself in the eye and ignoring discomfort caused by the pressure could easily see you do some local damage. I would not advise anyone to actually follow your eye care regimen.

Close work may result in higher rates of nearsightedness, especially in children. Studies don’t all point in the same direction, but some definitely indicate this: https://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2022/10/kids-gl...

But it tends to not be about the "closeness" AFIK.

But about most "close work" being work which requires your eyes to focus on details, which in turn reduce the amount you blink, which in turn dries out your eyes which in turn can negatively affects it over a long time in various ways.

In children there is also the additional factor that part of their organs are potentially still developing and various external factors might nudge such development in bad directions. Through idk if that applies here.

Lastly some degree of sightedness is your brains ability to process the signals it gets, that part can sometimes, especially in children, make exact diagnosis surprisingly harder. You can sometimes observe this yourself if you have glasses, look with glasses at a text which without glasses you are barely not able to read. Then take of glasses and observe that while you initially are barely not able to read it after some time your brain tends to adapt and make it barely readable. So there is some chance that children brains might just have learned less to process far away signals, without their physical eye sight being change. Through I don't have time to find/read the study implicitly linked through the newspaper to check there methodology to check if it could have affected the study or if it couldn't have.

> But it tends to not be about the "closeness" AFIK.

I've seen studies explaining their findings as the muscles getting used to only focusing near, as a sort of range of motion thing. One study grouped kids based on the amount of time spent outdoors vs indoors (as a rough proxy of focusing on distant vs only on near things) and showed a statistical difference in myopia rates between the groups.

The real issue is being inside and not exposed to high intensity natural sunlight. That's how south Korea got 90% myopia in a single generation.

Hey, dont do that. Thats damaging your eye. It may not affect your vision, but your eyes are super soft and squishy, you can do damage if you rub or press on them to the point of color visualizations. Yes, even the amazing deep knuckle rubbing eye scrub, is bad for you. Still happens, but yeah, dont do that.

You should go see a doctor if you have that much pain or strain. Your vision likely isnt as good as you think.

Is there research on this? Humans can squish their eyes when sleeping too, no?

Yes, there's evidence that eye rubbing is a risk factor for keratoconus.

Not sure I follow what your point is about sleeping. Some folks may indeed rub their eyes unconsciously while they sleep, but that doesn't mean it's healthy.

Thanks for sharing your facinating approach. By good eyesight do you mean 20/20? How old were you when you started using computers? Do you know of anyone else using your technique, if so what are their results?

Good question, haven't visited the optometrist since I was a child for casual checking. Just tried and I'm able to read text with light Arial font size 11 in a 15" monitor 1.4m apart, if that provides any clue. Good eyesight at night. Started using computers when about 10yo. Started feeling eye pain (quick needle in the eye kind of pain) since about 30 years ago, and use the technique since then, the pain goes for a few months, and maybe I've had 3 eyestrain crisis in those 30 years, in which I had to apply the method once or twice per day for 1 or 2 weeks then got well for months. I don't know of anyone else using it.

Go to an optometrist and stop poking your eyes please.

For what it's worth, 20/20 is a woefully inadequate measurement to claim good eyesight in the context of reading or computer use. (It works well for "can walk around town" or "can drive a car".)

Vision works differently at different distances. I have "20/20 vision" (see distant objects at least as well as average), but I also am practically unable to read small print, need reading glasses to read for more than 15 minutes or to read a backlit Kindle in the dark, I sometimes get eye strain headaches if I don't wear my computer glasses, and I'm suffering from glaucoma which, if untreated, will make me blind in a way where I'll likely retain 20/20 vision for a very long time while losing peripheral vision, contrast, and ability to read for more than 15 minutes.

The eye, and the nervous system it feeds, is a complex system with various failure modes.

If you have eye strain, go see an optician. If they think you should also see an ophthalmologist, do that too. If any of your parents/their siblings/grandparents developed glaucoma, and you're 40+ years, go see an ophthalmologist and tell them who all was affected, it's hereditary.

Thanks, I don't feel much eyestrain and have excessively good near vision, but I'm always on the look out for far out ways to improve or prevent further near sightedness.

> afraid of radiation and moving to LCDs

there was on brand of missproduced (I think TVs) which did actually had radiation issues ;=)

through the whole bad eyesight from sitting to close to a TV things was basically nonsense

they main issue which can cause strain and long term eyesight issues is from blinking to little and in turn getting to dry eyes which could lead to microscopic damage which can accumulate over the years AFIK

This is probably why your method works => you close the eye and force production of some tears .

Through eyeballs are sensitive and anything involving "spots appear in the vision" tends to be a bad idea, so I would personally refrain from doing so. Just "strongly" closing the eyes without involving your hands tend to be good enough for facilitating some tear production.

A CRT and an xray are essentially similar internally. However a properly made TV tube had plenty of lead (or other, but normally lead) to block the xrays from getting out.

Nobody should be doing this. Wtf.

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