Problems with human vision

Binocular vision #

It seems that in many cases bad tech triggers binocular vision problems.
It doesn’t matter if you ever had any binocular vision problems or if your vision is perfect. Bad tech (or bad lighting) may interact with binocular vision, either causing additional troubles to people who have underlying problems or causing troubles to people who have perfect vision.
A very simple binocular vision self-test is a Brock string test . You can test yourself before an eyestrain and in the middle of it to understand what’s going on. Brock string can also be a basic exercise.

If you suspect some underlying binocular vision problems you may consult with an optometrist and try:

• patching one eye (thread: One-Eye-Success for 10+ users on LEDStrain )
• exercises, a.k.a. “vision therapy” (you can learn some exercises at Martin’s website about heterophoria )
• prism lenses (also discussed in thread: One-Eye-Success for 10+ users on LEDStrain . One example here )

Helpful links:

• Martin’s website about heterophoria
• Binocular vision troubles thread

If your core problem is bad tech and not an underlying condition, they can help you only partially (or not help at all). Patching one eye has the best chance to lessen tech influence.

Exercises and lens are not a cure if you never had any binocular vision problems. In that case, you better avoid bad tech and track your health with the Brock string test. You also can do exercises to help you get rid of symptoms faster, but be careful. Avoid overdoing them and avoid doing any exercises through pain, in some cases, it can make things worse: the bad screen will overwork your eye muscles and exercises/lens can overwork them additionally ( example ).

Please note that tech can affect your light sensitivity, lead to red eyes, etc. Track your eye health during exercises and patching. If you notice that your eyes or one open eye have increased light sensitivity, a lot of new visible blood vessels on the conjunctiva, or signs of inflammation ( post with example ), consider avoiding the bad screen.

Prism lenses reviews #

Several of our users have tried prism lenses. Here are summaries of their feedback on this:

• martin:
  • The help for me first were glasses with prismatic lenses, that eased the problems by about 50%.
• bkdo:
  • “ I definitely have some strain from trying to adjust, but I’m absolutely noticing a reduction in flicker sensitivity. ”
  • “ I’m currently wearing lenses with this prescription & have about a 60-70% reduction in symptoms.
  • I noticed the 60-70% relief from flicker symptoms pretty quickly, within a few days IIRC. It definitely took a long time to actually adjust to the lenses
• ensete:
  • ”… They recommended adding prism to some lenses, so I had some custom lenses made up and they didn’t help at all."
• Dominic:
  • Then I got prismatic eyeglasses. I didn’t feel comfortable in any of them (I got three pairs). One of them made me sick to the point I was up all night due to horrific headache. The weakest prisms I got were bearable, but didn’t give me any significant relief. Trying to get used to I was wearing them for two weeks, then I gave up.
  • Today I tried “vertical” prisms and my body reaction was pretty much the same as it was when I was trying my first and second prism lenses - I got a severe headache, pain around my eyes, dizziness
• AGI:
  • What a dreadful experience. […] In the next couple of days I wore the glasses pretty much every time I worked on my laptop and even when I used PCs connected to a monitor and at night in bed reading from my phone, a book and my Kindle. Long story short, on day 4 I had developed so much pain in my arms, wrists and legs down to my ankles (can you believe it!) and spams in my face and my arms that I put the glasses in the case and sealed it.

Prescription glasses #

Just to double-check: check your prescription glasses.

If you wear prescription glasses/contacts and you have troubles not only with some screens but also with different activities that involve focusing, double-check your prescription.
Sometimes a mistake as little as 0.25 can lead to a lot of troubles: thread

Astigmatism lenses reviews #

Several of our users have tried astigmatism lenses. Here are summaries of their feedback on this:

• Dominic:
  • “My astigmatism glasses also give me a slight headache and sometimes eye strain, but they lessen my other symptoms I usually get from devices.”
  • “They give me a 50% relief.”
• DanielK:
  • “It’s now been 10 days since getting the glasses and I’ve been 6 days without the pain I’ve become used to.”

Vision therapy reviews #

• martin had much success: “I must say that even after the visual therapy which took 2 years (and I still do training once a week now) and using multiple glasses adjusted over time to fit my needs in the therapy, I can still tell the difference between new and older tech. However, some better days I would say I almost cannot, or that it takes some hours of work on new technology to tell the difference, which is great progress compared to 10 minutes in the past.”
• MagnuM : “I did some pretty dedicated in-office vision therapy for about a year, and weekly “maintenance exercises” which I do on the weekend to try to hold what I have. I’m still symptomatic, but not nearly as much as I was during the initial symptom onset.”
• laur5446 : “I was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency and have been doing weekly vision therapy for over a month (but it is prism therapy–no traditional eye exercises). My symptoms have not improved at all.”