Avoid red and sore eyes computer monitor problems
A bit of an unusual post by me, but I want to share my experiences regarding this topic.
About 7 years ago I had problems with my eyes that had grown so big I was unable to work in front of a computer screen more than 10 minutes at a time. My eyes would simply explode and all the white in them would become red. Then that happened my eyes would also become sore. It had become a vicious circle and at the time many eyes doctors were clueless and had failed to read up on common symptoms among IT people who work many hours each day behind a computer. Luckily I finally found an eye doctor that was of some help, and managed through experimentation to get my red eyes problem under control.
In the years following I tried a number of things. Some of these worked wonders. This is my own “as-is” personal list of tips and tricks to reduce problems with red and sore eyes:
- Consult with an eye doctor if you experience problems with red eyes.
- Get tear eye drops with no preservation additions. Usually that means one day dosis containers.
- Get eyedrops against allergy, again unpreserved like the tear drops.
- Make sure you do not expose you eyes to direct lighting. Experiment with slightly dimmed soft whole-room lighting.
- Turn down contrast and light on computer screen.
- Avoid reflections. Check your monitor, windows, glass frames etc. Avoid, dim and defocus all light reflection sources as much as possible.
- Remember to blink with your eyes. Studies have shown those that work and read much at computer screens blink less, which in return dries the eyes.
- Be aware of the room temperature. Computers can warm small rooms very quickly, and this can really worsen eye irritation.
- Force some pauses into your work. Chat with colleagues, sort papers or whatever.
- Use modern “flat screen” TFT monitors. Do not use one that reflects light!
Above are things that helped me the most. In addition you can also:
- Get your eyesight checked. Glasses can help reduce eyestrain “work stress” on eye muscles.
- Try massage and relax the muscles around your eyes once in a while.
- Get checked for obvious allergies. Whether it is pollen or something else.
Comments
Comment from Thomas Schulz
Time: September 12, 2007, 12:24 am
Hi Anna,
Unfortunately I am not good at German, but perhaps you can point the forum readers to this blog post? If there are some tips in particular you feel need to be spread, feel free to translate them from English to German and post them in your forum 
I hope everyone with red and sore eyes in front of computers will help share their experiences, both here by posting comments in my blog, but also in forums around the net. It was close I had to give up working with computers completely.
Comment from Ryan
Time: September 19, 2007, 4:50 pm
I seem to be experiencing what you’ve described above as well. Prolonged use of a computer leads to my eyes going red, but not just a little… Totally red with the symptoms taking some time to go away. I’ll have to try some of the tips you’ve suggested here, thanks!
Comment from Thomas Schulz
Time: September 20, 2007, 12:02 am
I think it took me more than an year of extremely careful computer use (minutes at a time in the beginning, my eyes could turn all-red that fast) and regular eye drops before I gained sufficient control of it. Took some time, but it slowly got better and better over the years. I still use eye drops in periods.
Comment from Mat Schranz
Time: October 11, 2007, 10:10 pm
Nine years ago I became addicted to a video game called “Total Annihilation”. I would play from whenever time my parents went to bed until 3-3:30 in the morning. My eyes began to get very sore and red and blood vessels in my eyes started to pop up. I thought this would go away like it usually did so I kept playing late into the night, night after night. Then after 3 days in particular of playing that late (pushing myself) they got so sore I couldn’t even look at the monitor. After that, I couldn’t even look at a TV or monitor for more than a few minutes. It took months of virtually no T.V. and computer to get back to being able view something for a half hour. It is now 9 years later and the Veins that popped up in my eyes have never faded. I still have problems looking at a computer screen for long periods of time. It is still causing problems. At work I am expected to produce CAD drawings all day on the computer and am now having the same reactions I did back then. I’m not sure If I will be able to continue this particular career that took me 5 years of school to achieve. Had someone told me back then that this terrible (and avoidable)problem would last so long I would have limited my game time!
I hope this rant helps somebody.
Comment from Thomas Schulz
Time: October 13, 2007, 3:25 pm
Hi Mat,
Sounds like our symptoms and experience have been quite similar.
I myself was more of a C&C, Red Alert kind of guy. Even today I find games provoke red eyes much quicker than anything else. I am not sure of the reasons to this except it guess it could relate to eyes blinking even less and the constant intensive eye usage in e.g. real time strategy games.
If you don’t already, I recommend you consider using tear eye drops. I sometimes use them 10 times a day. I use “one-dosis” containers (no conservatives). However, they could just as easily be called “on-day” containers. (I was told I could use the same throughout the day, and it fits well with the amount of drops available.)
You should probably also consult with an eye doctor, and if he can’t help – go to another!
The first eye doctor I visited laughed and “explained” computer screens could not give red eyes…
Comment from Thomas Schulz
Time: October 13, 2007, 3:31 pm
One more tip you might consider which I forgot to mention in my original list.
Some tools (software development, but I imagine CAD as well) allows you to set a color theme. Some people think white is easier on the eyes, but I tend to use black background in my programming environment. It probably won’t do a huge difference for your eyes, but still worth trying out if you are already using all the tips mentioned in my “avoid red eyes” post.
Comment from Peter Neerbek
Time: October 17, 2007, 3:13 pm
Hej Thomas
That is a annoying situation to be in. I can understand why you want to help others to avoid it. I hope it will never get that bad again. It is also wellwritten.
Comment from Johannes Berg
Time: October 17, 2007, 3:18 pm
With respect to background colours, I tend to use dark (black) background but find white much less a problem on TFT screens, while on CRT screens I cannot stand white background for prolonged work; on TFTs it’s still more strenuous but much better than on CRTs.
Comment from Judy Dokmanovich
Time: January 3, 2008, 12:03 am
My eyes get red every day whether I am on the computer or not. I use eye drops repeatedly but they are not helping. Are there eye drops that are better than others? I have tried a few but with the same results. Is the gel better than the drops? I am going to see the eye doctor soon.
Comment from Thomas Schulz
Time: January 3, 2008, 1:44 am
Perhaps you have allergies to something in your surroundings? Depending on what, it may be easy for an eye doctor to test. I also think you should try different eye tear/allergy drop products. They are not all entirely the same, and only one day/dose contains are without preservation. Under all circumstances, I really think you should consult an eye doctor.
Comment from Ruud
Time: February 28, 2008, 12:05 am
I don’t have a solution, did have very tired eyes in the past. May I recall some old knowledge:
1
sales arguments about television : keep a distance from the television about 7 times the crt – screen diagonal, mostly about 3 to 4 meters, with a pc monitor no option. Monitor 19 inch = about 48 cm x 7
2
although I agree with you, modern tft / lcd flat monitor is better, nevertheless the CRT colors were better,
colors : white is no color, it reflects all ; black is no color : it absorbs all. Think about that also when designing a webpage 
. Webdesigners can try Color Wheel Pro for instance, shareware but very good, unfortunatly I’m not a shareholder More important in my point of view is the contrast, a good contrast = less tired eyes.
3
As point 1 , this time the backside of the monitor : a friend of mine, served 20 years ago as a military security officer , told me, he was able to re-create on a distance of 250 mtr behind the television, the video signal shown on the front side! Did you ever see a telephone call center, office islands of 4 monitors, each employee getting the radiation from the front, plus the radiaton of the backside from the monitor on the opposite, during one day it’s no problem, but even a stone get’s a hole after years of water, falling dropwise.
All together : remember every monitor is an electronical and magnetical instrument and has radiation, centered in the middle of the screen and the backside, a sort of lasergun. Try to sit next to that radiation, as far as possible from the screen and the backside of the opposite monitor and use the buttons of the monitor, made for adjusting the colors and the contrast to personalize the monitor like good old James Bond said “For Your Eyes Only”.
Comment from William Taylor
Time: May 19, 2008, 6:15 pm
Perhaps it would be worth investing in a pair of sun glasses . . . they should offer some protection from the radiation the screens produce. I’m wearing a pair right now . . . it might look odd in public but even a low level tinted pair would do the trick – besides, it makes you look cool. Lol.
All the best.
Comment from brian
Time: June 10, 2008, 5:52 pm
i wonder if polarized sunglassed have any effect. i use a pair of high end glassed that are not too dark many times with success. but that being said i have never had that dramatic of a problem.
Comment from Dhaval
Time: July 31, 2008, 1:20 am
i work 8 hrs a day constanntly staring at screen having problems, for last few days.
trying diffrent things like blinking eyes and applying cold hanky every hr.. these seem to help
Comment from Rosie
Time: August 22, 2008, 6:37 pm
Wow! Thomas I know you wrote this a year ago but I don’t care! How spot on this is as I am currently looking at my vampire red eyes as I write – and without a doubt it’s my nerdy computer existence! Nice piece.
Comment from Monika
Time: September 23, 2008, 4:31 am
Matt Schranz makes a good point about video games. I have been playing some games online and for the first time EVER I got the red eye while on the computer. I have experienced eye strain and fatigue before, but this is the first time there was actual blood in my eye. Of course I didn’t learn, and today went back to playing video games, and it happened again! Reading about his story and how if I don’t quit this could keep my eye red FOREVER is making me play less. I wonder if using the computer over a period of years has caused my eyes to grow weaker? Someone should do a study on this and get some concrete data so they can develop better monitors or a safer way of using the computer for extended periods of time.
Comment from Dominick
Time: October 2, 2008, 1:24 am
I had red eyes for over 1.5 months. First my eye Dr. said it was pink eye and prescribed me TOBRADEX which worked almost immediately. The next day my eyes were as white as eggs. 2 months have gone by and my eyes were back to red again. I went back to my Dr. to have another look, he then told me that I have eye allergies and must be alergic to something. He prescribed me LOTEMAX which has’nt even put a dent in my red eyes. Should I consult with an allergist to whether or not I am indeed allergic. I work on a computer all day but I also take breaks. I’m totally confused on what this is. My eyes have never had this happen to them.
Comment from Hugo
Time: November 5, 2008, 12:57 am
Hi, this really is a spot on post. Having been working on the computer for 6 hours taking a few breaks interspersed just now i saw in the mirror that my eyes were all pink, gasp. So this has happened to me before also when using a computer for an extended period of time. That is my Macbook computer screen. So Dominick if you are working at a computer all day then taking regular breaks wont help. Unless you are especially careful. I do think the eyes weaken so that it can happened quicker the next time you get red eyes. I am now working on black on white with a slightly higher contrast so that i can work on a darker screen. So the black is dark enough to be bearable. But i think i should get off now since all i have heard about extended periods of exposure. And yes, I am starting to think more about blinking. see if that works, lol
Comment from Hugo
Time: November 5, 2008, 1:02 am
Oh, and after consciously blinking a lot in my previous post I have now found the red eye substantially reduced. hope this helps.
Comment from maria
Time: November 23, 2008, 10:54 am
Hi, just ran across this discussion and want to toss out a couple ideas. I have something called optical rosacea. What this essentially means is that my eyes get very irritated very easily. They also get clogged ducts and other fun stuff. BUT not nearly so much these days as before my eye doctor told me The Secret. (Heh, don’t worry, not about to launch into an ad for anything here!) He told me to do this thing and I looked at him like he’d totally lost it, “You want me to do what???”
He told me to wash out the INSIDE of my eyelids with johnsons baby shampoo.
Well, okay, after much discussion, I bought some and tried it. He told me to soap up a washcloth with it and nothing else and just pull down eyelids and very gently rub across the inside. Then to go ahead and do the entire eye area on the outside, paying special attention to the crevices where you get sleep cruddys. Well, my episodes of eye irritation and infection stuff dropped DRAMATICALLY. I mean like from about 6-8 major episodes per year to maybe 2 if that. Now while those numbers dont sound all that different, trust me, they are!
Anyways, one more thing on that – I found that it does indeed have to be the brand name baby shampoo. All the other ones cause stinging or even more irritation.
Okay so the next thing – I have found that most of the Hylands homeopathic eye drops are fantastic. I say “most” simply because I’ve not had reason to try all of them. I don’t have any in front of me to name the types exactly but there are some just for stressed eyes and some for pinkeye and a couple others.
As to screen contrast and all that – I have this one little older dell laptop that for some reason isnt as irritating as most other screens. I do keep the screen fairly dim and I use a lower resolution than most people prefer (1024 X 768 right now but I’ve been known to go even lower at times too!) – but I have found that the higher the res, the quicker eye strain and fatigue seem to set in.
Anyways, hope these help somebody somewhere at some point!
Comment from James
Time: November 28, 2009, 10:20 am
Hi.
I suffered badly with exactly this red sore eyes thing in the past, but after much searching about I decided the nutritional approach is (as often) usually the best. (Combined with other stuff).
For the last 2 months I’ve been taking Lutein and Bilberry extract, and it really has helped relieve my red sore computer eyes. Not sure which (one or both), but together thay have really helped ease the problem.
I was a little surprised, because I’m very particular about nutrition and my diet, and I always eat the best quality healthy and fresh organic food. I didn’t imagine I should be short of any essential nutrients affecting eye health. – but obviously for unnatural stuff like spending 8 hours every day in front of a monitor, this just wasn’t true. Try it, – nothing else worked for me.
Rgds
Comment from duffman
Time: December 13, 2009, 6:44 pm
05Call of Duty Modern Warfare 2 has destroyed my eyes. Be carefull
Comment from David
Time: January 16, 2010, 9:37 pm
Just adding my thoughts and experiences to the thread:
* Maybe the problem & solution is a bit different for each of us. Sure be nice if it was all the same problem & solution = easy diagnosis.
Wish I’d knew my eye stamina would deteriorate so soon back several years. And wish I’d thought/knew of the trick to change Windows coloring scheme to minimize eye strain. I hate the fact that most software makers and users prefer white backgrounds like reading text from a white paper printout. White is terrible on the computer screen. Better to go back to the days of DOS and terminal screens (black background, white/red/green text).
For my eye problems, these are the quirks and solutions I’ve experienced:
* Seems to me, my eyes get strained from the backlighting output from the digital screen, whether that be a monitor, iPod or portable video game console LCD screen, etc. Interestingly, the old monochrome black LCD displays of old school portable video games and the original Nintendo Gameboy don’t hurt my eyes because of the nice/easy contrast and no backlighting. Too bad that same monochrome display/contrasting doesn’t work when you go to 16+ bit color, which really requires backlighting.
* For me, screen resolution doesn’t seem to matter as much. Rather the deciding factors are refresh rate on CRTs (60 Hz kills my eyes, I need 70+ Hz), and type of display for LCD monitors and laptop screens. It seems some work better on my eyes than other, with minimal or no screen configuration needed. Unfortunately, it’s too problematic to try all LCD monitors and laptops to find the right one. You’d need to work on it for 8 hrs to figure out if the display is good or not. And one can’t afford to buy them all to try. Rentals are really offered in most cases. Best I laptop screen for me so far seems to be the HP nc600 laptop or so.
* Following on my point above, LCD screens tend to hurt my eyes more than CRTs. Perhaps that might be because LCDs don’t allow you to configure the refresh rate, standard is 60 Hz.
* For CRTs, and sometimes LCDs, a glare filter seems to help my eyes, by filtering the strength of the screens backlighting. But the improvement factor is not as great for LCDs, probably because they’re just too bright. Tone them down, and the contrast strains your eyes from the dimness. Hard to find the right brightness/contrast ratio.
* On Windows, hard to find the right dark color scheme that works for all the things you do on a computer. So I settled with standard color scheme but changed default background window color from white to a shade of gray. Too bad most websites force upon you white backgrounds, so that’s still a pain point for me.
* The special moisturizing “tear” eye drops (not single use) seems to irritate my eyes. I can’t afford to try all the eye drop products but the one that seems to work best so far that I’ve stuck with is “Clear Eyes Tears + Redness Relief Liquid Gel”. It doesn’t get all the red out but makes me feel better with minimal or no irritation.
* I’ve found that putting any (non single use) eye drop can still irritate your eyes, right away or over time. So what I do is put in eye drops, let it work my eyes for a bit, then wash away with water. It feels a bit tingly as you wash with water but then you don’t get irritation from the eye drops later.
Comment from Article Writing Phil
Time: February 11, 2010, 2:24 am
I have noticed that taking breaks every 30-40 minutes seems to help quite a bit. I am not sure if eye crops are the best way as I have never tried that route. Its interesting to hear people say that the LCD isn’t the best on eye strain as I always heard that it was…Hmm
Comment from Arku
Time: May 18, 2010, 12:08 pm
I had the same problem with red eyes, it started a while ago, first I thought I just worked too much on the computer, but then I found your blog and read about reducing the contrast and brightness of my monitor. I instantly remembered that I had turned both, brightness and contrast up a few weeks ago. Thanks!
Comment from laptop toshiba
Time: May 25, 2010, 12:58 am
I have noticed that taking breaks every 30-40 minutes seems to help quite a bit.
Comment from Mystique
Time: July 5, 2010, 12:33 pm
I came here looking for a cure to a similar problem in which I actually feel is computer related and that is that the skin around my eyes has become, red and my eyes kinda look swollen, using my computer at night/morning with the bedroom light off whilst I am continuously using my computer can’t be helping much. I came across a program you all might be interested in its called F.lux which is freeware that modifies the screens brightness and colours automatically for you on an internal schedule.
Check it out here:
http://www.stereopsis.com/flux/
btw I am not affiliated in any way with this software or its developers, I just found it a few months back and although I didn’t really like it the software is great and some of you might find merit in it, its also available for mac users too it seems.
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Comment from Anna
Time: September 11, 2007, 6:04 pm
Halo!
I´m student from Austria. We made some “Glasses talk”, ther we are speaking about problems with eyes, eyewaer etc. Sombody ask how to proteck eyes during work on the computer.
I saw your blog and my quastion ist:
could you write about your experiens?
thank U
Anna
http://www.glasses-talk.com