The eyes are the windows of the soul, but when your eyes are constantly straining to see what is on your computer screen it is the head that will reveal itself in the form of headaches. When considering how to avoid computer headaches it is appropriate to start with what may be originally causing the headaches. Improper positioning of the computer screen, poor lighting of the work area and glare can combine into a perfect storm that washes in wave after wave of headache pain. Avoiding computer headaches requires an effective assessment of what is causes the pain in the first place.
Having a poorly configured office space, inappropriate furniture and seating, and insufficient or excessive amounts of light can individually and combined result in body contortions that put tension on head, neck, shoulders and arms that can initiate headaches. The key factor to solving these problems and avoiding computer headaches starts with the goal that adjustments should be done on the computer and office furniture and not made by repositioning the body into unnatural angles. The general guidelines for properly positioning include: centering the computer, placing at arms length and tilting the screen slightly away with the top of the screen at eye level. These tips will enable to comfortably type while avoiding computer headaches, neck, shoulder and wrist pain and eyestrain. Special consideration may need to be made if you wear reading glasses or bifocals to ensure the proper downward angle for best possible viewing. If the office setup is not optimal, additional adaptations can be made to correct the location of the monitor and keyboard that work around any architectural constraints of the office.
Another consideration for avoiding computer headaches is ensuring that the workspace has proper amounts of lighting. The goal is to decrease eyestrain caused from too dimly lit settings while simultaneously avoiding glare from harsh lighting or poor light angle relative to the computer screen. Using lamps with adjustable shades and bendable arms can often be better than the overhead incandescent lighting. If the office setting also has windows without adjustable shades, finding a location on desk to avoid glare from sunlight is also an important consideration. It may entail adding window treatments and or purchasing anti-glare filters on top of the computer screen. Making all of these adjustments may take some time, but your unstrained eyes and a pain free head will be your reward.
After applying architecture redesigns and purchasing corrective accessories, you may be wondering if you have done all you can to avoid computer headaches. Sometimes the simplest answer is best one. You may own a desktop, a laptop, a new iPad or even a mobile device that has been adding up the hours your body spends contorted. One of the easiest solutions to better computer skills is found in the settings or preferences features. It involves selecting a larger default font size for your software. It may also be worthwhile to remove the colorful background patterns and fancy fonts that contain colors other than black text on a white surface. If you spend hours at a time on the computer and plan on avoiding computer headaches, selecting plain black and white, larger and simple block fonts will help you reach your goal. Adjusting your environment, lighting it properly and using expanded, crisp fonts will have you avoiding computer headaches faster than high-speed internet downloads.