millennial straining to see...the future, yes, but also computer screens

July 27, 2018 4:26 AM

I am 33. My work involves about 10-12 hours a day of reading-- I'd estimate about 80% on a laptop or ipad, these days. My new prescription reading glasses (+0.75 ADD) help sporadically and unpredictably. I'm between insurance plan atm-- help me get sorted!

YNMO, I know, but I'm so new at vision problems I don't even know what search keywords to use.

- My distance vision is 20/20; no problem there.
- I have dry eyes and probably some sort of digital eye strain. My eyes, pre-glasses, often get very tired and my vision blurry at the end of the day.

-I got a pair of prescription reading glasses from the optometrician, with my specific PD and such. It's also got the blue light filtering lenses.

My eye doctor said to use it for prolonged reading and keep it by my computer.

I've had these glasses for about 10 days now, and I am a bit confused as to what is supposed to happen:

1) Sometimes it's SO much more comfortable working with glasses on
2) Sometimes I don't know if it's helping, and my eyes feel a great relief when I take the glasses OFF
3) Sometimes it helps but I feel dizzy

All of these don't happen all the time, which is why I am confused.

4) I also find that my eyes strain to *read* larger fonts. It almost feels like I am seeing individual pictures and I can't process these pictures as words. I have an 11 inch computer and I, for example, set the brower to 90%. So each letter is only about 0.2 cm tall.

Am I just adjusting to life with glasses? Am I actually farsided instead of neading reading glasses (I can see distance totally clear and fine)? Is this just still within eye fatigue range?

posted by atetrachordofthree to Health & Fitness (16 answers total)

Response by poster: Forgot to add:

- I get aura migraines. I typically dislike reading in very bright situations even when there's no migraine and sunglasses are a must. So I also don't know if my vision problems have more to do with light than anything else.

- all of this is worse when I am sleep deprived.
posted by atetrachordofthree at 4:30 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

When we (as humans) are at the computer for extended periods of time, we tend to not blink as much. This also happens when we are driving or reading. Not blinking leads to dry eyes which can lead to blurred vision, eye strain, and general discomfort. To combat this, try using artificial tears (OTC, there's a lot of brands but I would HIGHLY suggest getting one labeled "preservative free" and avoiding anything that says it will "get the red out") and taking breaks at the computer and using that time to look out a window or wander around the office, anything that will allow your eyes to focus for distance.
posted by itchie at 4:42 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

That is a LOT of backlit screentime, no wonder your eyes are strained. Borrow a Kindle Paperwhite off someone for a few days and see if the e-ink and frontlight helps. Also try reducing the brightness of your screens to the minimum for readability in a given light. I get similar eyestrain/migraine symptoms (lifelong myopic though) and my Android is permanently set to minimum auto-adjust brightness.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 5:16 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Hello--fellow millennial with eye strain and dry eye problems here. Since it sounds like you just had your reading glasses prescription checked/adjusted, you're probably okay there and might even still be in the adjustment period? I know whenever I step up a prescription (I'm hella farsighted) it can sometimes take a couple of weeks to fully adjust to just how terrifyingly clearly I can see my phone and computer.

My doctor said the same thing about "staring at screens = not blinking as much as you need to" and recommended trying out the 20-20-20 rule and to use eye drops throughout the day (he recommended TheraTears, and I like them) and one of the thicker gel-type eye drops (I've been using Systane) at night to try to lock in the moisture. It...sort of worked? When I remembered? And had eye drops with me? There may have been some user error there. I use an app at work called Stand Up! to remind myself to stand up and drink water, and it could easily be repurposed to go off every 20 minutes as a "look away" reminder.

Eventually I moved up to prescription eye drops, but if you can head this off with glasses, eye relaxation, and normal eye drops, I'd try to do that first, both because insurance and because Restasis comes in the most unimaginably STUPID eye dropper bottle ever designed, and the new Xiidra stuff kind of burns and leaves a weird medicine-y taste in your mouth for awhile.
posted by helloimjennsco at 6:16 AM on July 27, 2018

1) Sometimes it's SO much more comfortable working with glasses on
2) Sometimes I don't know if it's helping, and my eyes feel a great relief when I take the glasses OFF
3) Sometimes it helps but I feel dizzy

All of these don't happen all the time, which is why I am confused.

I'm new-ish to reading glasses myself (I also have 20/20 vision, with one eye even testing at 20/10, but I need the reading glasses because I am 48). I also find that my need for glasses fluctuates - and can confirm that sometimes fatigue affects whether or not I need them. Lots of things affect whether I need the glasses for a particular piece of writing - the light in the room, the size of the font, the color of the print...

I say, leave them off as a rule, but keep them handy unless you notice you're struggling with them. Then put them on. That's what I do. (These days I regularly use them for books - old-school paper books - and only occasionally for the computer work.)
posted by EmpressCallipygos at 6:18 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

I would not want to second-guess a professional optometrist, but "reading glasses" are not what you need for computer use. Reading glasses focus at about 12-14 inches, while your computer is maybe 18-24 inches from your eyes. (These figures are approximations and you can adjust them by physically moving your reading material and your screen.) You need what US optometrists call "computer glasses." My working glasses are bifocal; they have a bottom portion for reading, and a top portion that is usable at computer distance and out to about 8 feet.
posted by JimN2TAW at 6:20 AM on July 27, 2018 [4 favorites]

I have similar eye problems. Get computer glasses not reading glass, computer glasses have the focal point set to a different distance than reading glasses because screens are usually further away. I am not sure of the exact terms but simply stating you wish your glasses to be set for computer use not reading use should be enough in this day & age for them to know what you mean. Also make sure to get anti glare coating. Some people also find tinted glasses in one shade or another helpful but you can get a similar effect by tweaking your monitors light settings, you can also download various types of software to help. My current monitor has all sorts of blue light settings I didn't know I needed until I had them. Also play with the color temperature, brightness & contrast.
posted by wwax at 7:00 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Nthing computer glasses. I've had mine for a while, and they work great. Also called working glasses or mid-range glasses.
posted by Marie Mon Dieu at 7:08 AM on July 27, 2018

aura migraines

I don't want to be too much of an alarmist, but as someone who helped a person to deal with her aura migraines for years and years, only to find out they were the only symptoms of undiagnosed meningioma tumors, you might want to ... I guess think about asking your PCP for an MRI referral.

Also, yes, computer glasses. They have two kinds (at least) now, progressives that are pretty much only 18-24 inches, and others with a larger region for distances across a room at least.
posted by Chitownfats at 7:16 AM on July 27, 2018

Best answer: Could you share your full prescription?

I'm going against the grain here because I think everyone is overlooking your age and they may be talking about their experiences at an older age. If your vision is 20/20 without glasses, and these glasses are just SPH +0.75 in both eyes I think they are extremely unlikely to solve any problem you're having at age 33. 45+, yes, but not 33. It's no wonder that you can't tell if they're helping. I think your optometrist listened to a set of symptoms that didn't point to any clear problem so s/he did what s/he could: take a shot in the dark and sell you some expensive glasses that are not different from drug store readers in any meaningful way. (PD is not very critical at such low powers, and you're probably close to the usual 63 you find in drug store readers anyway.)

I think your real problem is looking at an ipad for 12 hours in a row. That is the wrong tool for whatever job you're doing. Can you get yourself a desk and put a full size monitor on it at a comfortable height and distance? Try placing it about as far away as you can just touch with the tips of your fingertips. Then experiment with a darkened room, a brightly lit room, and different settings on the monitor. Every hour or two, get up and walk around the block so you are looking at things far away and you have a little break. I think your problems will totally disappear, including the problem with fonts going all wonky and not looking like words anymore (this is NOT a problem with glasses). It sounds to me like you are working to EXHAUSTION with terribly wrong tools.
posted by fritley at 7:35 AM on July 27, 2018 [7 favorites]

Response by poster: My prescription is
Plano on everything except
ADD +0.75 in both eyes
PD 61, near PD 58
posted by atetrachordofthree at 7:58 AM on July 27, 2018

OK thanks, with this new information I'm even more sure of my answer. I hope it helps.
posted by fritley at 8:21 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Arrange to use a really nice monitor for a month, 27", 30", IPS. Maybe rent one, maybe purchase a seat at a work space. Cast your iPad and laptop to that screen. See if that makes a difference.

Do a megablink every few minutes. Close one eye for a minute or two.
posted by at at 11:35 AM on July 27, 2018 [1 favorite]

Timeout App - I set it so that every 7 minutes, it takes a 5 second microbreak so I am forced to blink and look away from the screen. This is really the only thing that is helping me save my vision from deterioriating immediately and I've done 12+ hours on screens since I was very young.

Acupressure eye exercises - Ignore the super irritating Orientalism here - my mom would study for hours everyday and she was taught by her teachers to do this while studying. I also suggest looking at the furthest away green thing regularly to relax your eyes.
posted by yueliang at 11:57 AM on July 27, 2018

helloimjennsco : Restasis comes in the most unimaginably STUPID eye dropper bottle ever designed, and the new Xiidra stuff kind of burns and leaves a weird medicine-y taste in your mouth for awhile.
Ask for the droperette instead of the multidose. The multidose is actually, really clever. Since preservatives can be drying to many people, Restasis doesn't have preservatives in it. The multidose is designed to avoid any suckback from your eye (or the atmosphere.) The vials are still available even though the manufacturer is pushing the multidose really hard. The generic should be out any day now though, and it will most certainly be in vials since the funky multidose bottle is patented.
posted by piedmont at 8:45 AM on July 28, 2018

I'd go back to your optometrist and tell them exactly what's going on. Any decent optometrist will let you have a refraction check at no extra cost, though sometimes there's a 90 day limit on this. You may hint that you want a "wet" refraction if you didn't have one before. I wouldn't rule out latent hyperopia. The dilation drops used in a wet refraction will knock out your accommodation and can reveal things that weren't apparent before.

It wasn't part of your question, but I'd also do the math on a vision plan. It's normally not really vision insurance, they won't pay for the unexpected. A lot of people would be better off just saving up and paying full price for their vision needs rather than giving that cash to a vision plan that won't pay out nearly as much as they pay in. Not everybody, but many folks.
posted by piedmont at 8:57 AM on July 28, 2018