A head-spinning dilemma

January 9, 2008 10:31 AM

Working at my laptop makes me dizzy. But I have a deadline and my work must be done on my laptop. Help??

Working on my book this summer involved a solid stretch of time where 8 to 10 hours in front of the computer was more or less standard. I know that might not seem like all that much screen time for some people, but for me, after two solid months of that, being in front of my screen for longer than 10 minutes triggered episodes of major dizziness. (I've had full-on, ER-trip-necessitating vertigo before, so it wasn't that bad, but still alarming and a bit debilitating.)

Since then I've been able to limit my screen-time -- I figured the laptop-screen-induced dizziness was something brought on by the amount and concentrated intensity of the time I was spending at the screen, and it's true that the dizziness stopped after I was able to take a break for a couple of weeks or so once I was fully done with the book.

But now I'm back on a deadline, working on the laptop, and the dizziness is back, too. Due to the deadline, I can't spare even a day of "detox." Is there anything I can do to stop the dizzies? I'm hoping Mefites with experience in prolonged, long-term computer-screen staring can offer some advice. Thanks!

posted by mothershock to computers & internet (18 comments total)

Do you wear glasses? Do you need glasses? My partner's dizziness and headaches abated quickly after he began wearing glasses in front of the PC.
posted by desjardins at 10:33 AM on January 9, 2008

What laptop do you have, maybe you can change the display settings to minimize the problem.

For example: Enable/disable/adjust Windows ClearType, change contrast, brightness, background color, font size, font, refresh rate, etc.

Second glasses check.
posted by Fins at 10:40 AM on January 9, 2008

Time to see an optometrist.

Try reducing the brightness of the screen, it can help. You may need to put on a hood or filter over the laptop screen to reduce glare. Changing resolution to make text and graphics larger and easier to see will help reduce strain.

Your laptop should have a video connector on the back, try hooking it up to a large CRT monitor and using that instead.
posted by Kioki-Silver at 10:47 AM on January 9, 2008

Increasing the refresh rate on your screen should definitely help—I start to feel a little ill when my screen is set around 60 Hz, 'cause the flicker is visible. Setting it as high as it'll go (hopefully at least 75 Hz!) will help eliminate that. Also, if you're viewing it under fluorescent lights, try to move to an environment with incandescent lighting, if possible—the two competing flickers from fluorescent lights and screen may be triggering this.
posted by limeonaire at 10:53 AM on January 9, 2008

You can change the screen resolution. You can also attach an external monitor to it. I dont believe an LCD monitor can really change its refresh rate like a CRT can.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:56 AM on January 9, 2008

Although, 8-10 hour stretches are pretty bad for anyone. You should probably be taking more breaks from the computer.
posted by damn dirty ape at 10:57 AM on January 9, 2008

Thanks for the responses -- I'm working on a MacBook Pro, and the screen settings are whatever they were right out of the box. Maybe I'll tinker around with that. I do wear glasses, but only for watching tv and other faraway things (I'm nearsighted). But maybe wearing them at the computer would help, even though the screen is fairly close.
posted by mothershock at 11:09 AM on January 9, 2008

nth using external monitor
posted by doorsfan at 11:12 AM on January 9, 2008

In addition, since you're already susceptible to vertigo, could it be that motion in your peripheral vision could be triggering it? Laptops have smaller screens and so require you to work over a smaller area than if you had something that took up more of your field of vision.
posted by rhizome at 11:17 AM on January 9, 2008

Maybe get a full size keyboard and raise the laptop up? Maybe looking down is stressing the muscles in your neck. An external monitor could also solve this.

Also, are you around fluorescent bulbs where you write? Maybe try some full spectrum incandescent ones.

Do you have the glossy or matte finish on the Macbook Pro? (I think it's an option.)
posted by sharkfu at 11:20 AM on January 9, 2008

Also, this app may help. You can use it to switch the screen colors to black background/green text to help reduce eye strain.
posted by sharkfu at 11:31 AM on January 9, 2008

In addition, since you're already susceptible to vertigo, could it be that motion in your peripheral vision could be triggering it?

I think you might be on to something with this, especially since it feels very triggery when I'm reading a lot, and especially when I'm reading very quickly. Maybe I need to start printing stuff out and working on paper instead of reading/working entirely on-screen. Ugh.

(As concerns the screen's finish, mine is matte.)
posted by mothershock at 11:38 AM on January 9, 2008

This might seem stupidly obvious, but couldn't you do a lot of the editing work on a paper copy and make the changes on the computer version afterwards? When you're actually entering the first draft of a piece of text, you could open the screen right out to the flat position and cover it with a newspaper or something to keep your eyes off the display. My program, Clutter Cloak has a feature to let you turn the screen to black during text entry but it's Windows only.
posted by teleskiving at 11:56 AM on January 9, 2008

Maybe I need to start printing stuff out and working on paper instead of reading/working entirely on-screen. Ugh.

I should have previewed. Anyway, I don't have any vertigo or vision problems, but I get sick at the very idea of trying to proofread a long document on the screen. I think your eyes will thank you if you do make the switch.
posted by teleskiving at 12:01 PM on January 9, 2008

Teleskiving -- thanks. It's the reading/research I do online that seems to be the problem. (I do like to use Scrivener for the writing part.) It's definitely faster to research and read online than it is to print everything out (or go to the library), and on a tight deadline, time is of the essence. But it looks like a compromise is in order. I'm going to try printing out what I can, using my glasses more, adjusting the brightness, and working in smaller bites. Thanks for the suggestions.
posted by mothershock at 1:11 PM on January 9, 2008

I'm almost sure you should listen to sharkfu. It's the ergonomics.

If you're not already using an external keyboard and mouse, then either your keyboard is too high or your screen is too low. This is just how laptops are.

You can get away with using a laptop as a desktop replacement for lengthy stretches, provided you raise the laptop up enough that the top of the screen is at your eye height when you're sitting with your back straight and your feet flat on the floor. To make this possible, you absolutely have to plug in an external keyboard and mouse.

Because laptops have LCD panels, and because the picture on an LCD panel is not formed by a single flying spot of light, changing the refresh rate will achieve nothing.

The screen resolution you use with an LCD panel should always be the panel's own native resolution. If not, the panel's electronics will have to interpolate between the pixel values being fed to the panel, resulting in display blur. I'd be surprised to find that a Mac is set wrong out of the box.
posted by flabdablet at 1:30 PM on January 9, 2008

I do wear glasses, but only for watching tv and other faraway things (I'm nearsighted).

As someone who's nearsighted enough to need glasses to use a PC, I suspect this is the problem. Nthing the optometrist suggestion.
posted by krisjohn at 5:03 PM on January 9, 2008

Working with my glasses on has improved things immensely. Thanks, everyone, for the suggestions!
posted by mothershock at 5:06 AM on January 11, 2008