Long hours spent at the computer posting on My Lot.

If you are currently experiencing eye strain then you need to take time for the muscles around the eye to recover. You need to prevent further damage by gently working the muscles which have become strained and experienced minor damage. The first thing would be to take a break and try to relax your eyes by allowing them to focus on objects around the room or even outside. Let your eye travel from object to object your eyes will automatically adjust themselves to the subject you are looking at. If the strain does not ease after five to ten minutes then you could try to sooth the eyes and perform eye exercises gently. Depending on the severity of the strain these may not prove to effective initially, remember this is because you have already strained the eye, when you should have tried to take preventative measures before it happened. Taking breaks and gently exercising and soothing the eye muscles afterwards may prove for helpful to some and not affect others. Helpful Tips: • Get your eyes checked to ensure you’re using the right prescriptive glasses or contacts for your eyes – you may find you need to use glasses when working at a PC but not for any other activities. • Reposition your desk and PC at a comfortable height and angle to make reading easy and your body comfortable – your eyes should be level with or just above the top of the computer screen so you look slightly downwards at your work. • Make sure your desk has adequate lighting that does not create a glareyou’re your screen or shine into your eyes (so don’t place your PC in front of a window), and sit upright looking at the screen straight-on. • If necessary, you can get a non-glare filter for the computer screen to reduce glare • Take regular breaks to stretch, get up and move around, or simply look away from your screen and watch something further away to rest your eye muscles. Do this at least once every half hour to allow your eyes to refocus and relax. • Drink lots of water to prevent headaches and dry eyes. • Keep the room hydrated by working with a window open or use a humidifier. • Try to alternate computer work with other jobs to prevent too much time staring at the screen. • Use a document holder to place any documents you are using at the same level as the screen – this prevents your eyes having to constantly adjust to focus on different angles and distances Sources: http://www.avoideyestrain.com/eye-strain-treatment.php http://www.keepthedoctoraway.co.uk/Articles/TipsToAvoidEyeStrain_454.html

My suggestion is to walk away and take a break. Get up and stretch, get something to drink, walk around a bit. I post quite a bit on mylot each day too, I spent hours in front of my computer last night. However, I do get up, get away from the screen, and move around a bit and it has seemed to help me some. Give it a try, it might work for you too.

The only advice I could offer would be to turn the brightness of your monitor down a little bit. Try taking regular breaks as someone else suggested, even if it's just to get up walk away for a minute every 15 minutes or so... You could also try moving your chair back as far away from the screen as possible, whilst still being able to see, and reach the keyboard of course. Other than that you could try taking a quick trip to the optometrist next time you are out and about and seeing what they suggest. perhaps they could advise you whether there are glasses appropriate for people who spend extended periods of time on the comouter (i'm sure there are heaps of people in office jobs in a similar situation to yourself!) Good Luck with it all and I hope your eye strain eases, it must be quite uncomfortable.

I can hardly sit for an hour in mylot and after that i play some games or chat with my friends. Regarding eye-strain i saw a topic here how to give some exercise to our eyes. We should not set the brightness at maximum try to minimize as much as we can and sometimes we should take our eyes off the computer and focus on some far way objects so that we are giving our retnia in the eyes some exercise.

I work in front of a computer every day for nine hours a day. My eye doctor told me that eye-strain comes not because computers are bad, but because in real life we don't stare at a same point, same distance, for long periods of time. He says it's only bad publicity for computers, he he he So, what he reccomended me, is this: put a picture of your kid, your cats, whatever nice to look at, near the computer monitor, but at a different distance. and loot at it every chance you get, and then back to the computer. SOLVED!! I hope it works for you!

Like other people said, just take a break. Every 20 minutes or so you need to take your eyes off the computer and move them around the room for about 30 seconds. This will help prevent eye-strain. Also, you might want to dim your computer, because the brightness can hurt them too. Lastly, sit at least two feet from the computer screen. Hope this helps!

Well, I read an article the other day, perhaps some other posters read it too. It said that every 10 to 15 minutes, we should stand up from our seat and look around the room, focusing on something other than the computer. Every hour we should get up and take a break for about five minutes. Go to the bathroom, take a small walk, or fix a sandwich. Something like that.

I read somewhere that you can rest your eyes and looking at plants or trees, any trees as long as they are real and not digital images. other than that you can also use flat monitors, they said it's less glare.

Well I guess I am lucky I wear glasses anyway so i usually always wear them at the computer and I find since I got the laptop that I very rarely suffer from eyestrain! Do you think that you might need glasses? If not you should always take a five minute break and avoid looking at the screen to give your eyes a rest every hour or so! xxx

I also spend two to three hours on my lot probally more most of the time because this site is really addicting and is a great site with lots of good people and good discussions but I do get eye strains but not severe ones like you the only thing that I do when this happens is just look away from the computer untill you feel better I know it works for me when it happens.

I agree, as many do, that Mylot is more addictive and usually one dont keep track of their time when Posting here. Even I do see that I have spend more hours, only after completing some satisfying quality and quantity posts. But at the same time, you should also ensure that you have some frequent breaks in between your Mylot session. I have made it as a habit for me and I do that without my knowledge. I do stretch my hands, look at something different apart from my laptop screen, and occasionally walk around too.. Try them out and you wont feel the tiredness and other strains you face now.

Initially, I spent a lot of time posting discussions on my lot. However, recently, I've kind of slacken a lot because the income just ain't coming in and it gets on my nerve. Imagine, I'm into my 500++ posts and I only rake in ard 3 bucks. Quite a number of people told me that they rake in much more for this amount of posts.

I know the feeling! I haven't been staring at the laptop for MyLot, but work has me in front of the computer, working very mechanically for extended periods too. What helps me is to be working in front or next to a window so i can periodically glance up and look at something far (it'll help your eye muscles to move and change positions when you look far away). Try to do this maybe after every post you make so that your eyes won't be strained to one position for too long. Hope it helps! P.S. Maybe you should decrease the brightness of your monitor and get one of those non-glare shields for the monitor to protect your eyes too.

you may need glasses. I wear glasses for reading and computer work, I find if i do not wear them, then I end up wiht eye strain and a headache. If you do not need glasses, then you may have your monitor too far or too close to your face. Try repositioning it. Or you could always, GASP, not spend so much time on mylot! LOL. just kidding.

First, if you do not have a flat panel monitor, activate Clear Type, and increase the refresh rate. This will make it easier on your eyes and keep you from getting headaches. Also take a break. What I do is to get up and walk away. During that time, do something like go for a walk, do some houseworks, the laundry, anything that will give you a break and yet you are doing something useful. I also have a TV break during which I watch my favorite show and return to myLot during the commercials. You can only go and do the checking the pluses during this time.

I felt like that the other day when I stayed up all night posting discussions and had sore eyes at the end of it. I think I need to take more breaks in between and leave the computer for short periods of time, that might help.

I am so sorry to hear that. In fact I experience the same like you. I think I'm addicted in computer. Try to relax eyes and take a break. I hope I can do so.

i wouldn't say that my eyes got strained but i have to admit that sometimes my when on mylot, my eyes get tired and i all i wanna do is just sleep and not post/respond to discussion anymore. it's like suddenly i do not have any mood to stay on mylot for that particular time. maybe it's because i'm tired and really needed some shut eye;) ..guess we shouldn't spend that much time on mylot, i mean continuously...get up and go away from the computer for a couple of minutes, to stretch, watch tv or dig something from the kitchen, etc...

Hello beautyqueen26, I normally spend more hours in front of the computer rather than anything else *smile* but I won't sit there for more than two hours. I will get up and go somewhere be it the kitchen, my bedroom or the living room. I put a small mini leafy plant in on my computer table and I have a picture of a beautiful scenery that I hung on the wall. So, every time when my eyes aching so much, I will stop glaring at the monitor and look around at those green plant and poster. I take a break every one hour, just to make sure I won't get eye strain or 'bigger hips' for sitting too long *laugh*

i just join mylot a month ago, and usually in front of computer for i think 10 hours a day!like you i'm having eye strain, these past 3 days, i tried to ignore my computer,try to sleep long, and it improve.. i think thats it! just take a rest!