Other Monitor feels too bright,any recommendation to reduce eye strain?

Hi all!

For the past few months, I have been suffering from a problem where I feel that my monitor is a bit too bright, especially when I am reading/writing on a white background such as this. I recently got an eye test done from specsavers with the following results -

Right eye - SPH - +0.50
CYL - -0.50
Axis - 85.0
Left eye - SPH - +0.50
CYL - -0.50
Axis - 75.0
BVD - 12.00

They recommended glasses along with an anti-glare coating. I haven't got them yet but I was wondering how could I further reduce eye strain from my monitor as it seriously affecting my productivity as I read and write a lot on my computer. I blink a lot and cannot look at the screen for too long.

The following are the settings on my monitor. It is a Hanns-G HL-231 connected to a MSI 8800gt through a VGA port-

Resolution - 1920 x 1080(native)
Refresh Rate - 60Hz
Colour Dept - 32bit

Brightness/Contrast -
Brightness - 32
Contrast - 57
X-contrast - Off
Preset Mode - PC

Colour Setting - Nature

Image setting -
Aspect Ratio - Full
H-Position - 50
V-Position - 50
Clock - 50
Phase - 86
Sharpness - 0

All colour settings in the Nvidia Control Panel are all set to 'application control' apart from the following enhancements, which are at default -

Digital Vibrance - 50%
Hue -0 degrees

My room has 2 windows, one right above me, on the ceiling and one at the back wall to the right and behind the monitor. It doesnt help that much if I cover them or not, the monitor still feels too bright.

I hope this information is useful and will help you to help me.

Thanks!

 

Turn the brightness down?

 

As Pieface said, have you tried turning the brightness down? Seems the most obvious solution.

 

Turn the brightness down to match its surroundings. Set it an arms length away from your normal reading position, with your eyes level with the top edge.

Take frequent breaks, make sure you blink often (rather than staring), and try some eye exercises. Once every few minutes have a stare out the window at a distant object, try and keep it in focus for 30s.

 

I have turned it down to 11, hopefully this will help over the long run.

 

By the way the lights at the moment are off in my room. Will that affect me a lot?

 

Yes, you should not be in dark (unless you got 3 monitors like me, which is nearly the same thing as having secondary light source in the room ). And sometimes lowering the brightness makes things worse, because of the PWM brightness regulation on cheaper LED-backlit LCD monitors.

 

Still not helpful. I have a dull ache where my eyebrows are.

 

Solution

 

Looks very interesting! Will give it a go. Thanks!

 

Make sure you set your location so that it works properly ...the app automatically sets the screen depending on the location of the Sun in the sky at given times, the only time I disable is for gaming and movies.

 

I use flux like tuk suggested, works great and has a handy switch to deactivate for an hour if you need to do some design work where colours matter.

 

that is WHACK! I am loving it though, great suggestion!

 

When you've been using for a few days, wait till late in the evening then disable Flux and feel your eyes physically cringe as your screen slowly goes back to normal.

 

Flux, while a good idea, really does my head in [moreso than having my monitor at 'full brightness']...

That said as soon as I got my current monitor I had to turn the brightness way down... on full/default it was so bright you could probably see it from space...

 

It's not a magic potion, Harry Potter won't swoop down and wave his wand with a cry of "Oculus unpussyus!" and make it all better. Put some effort in.

 

There's your problem. You're supposed to go up to 11, not down!

 

Personally I get the same thing after long periods unless I light the wall behind my monitors. I've got an LED strip hung off the back of them, and this is aimed at the wall. I tend to strain my eyes if they're adjusting for light from the monitor, but the surround is dark. Works well in conjunction with software! I have to say, since I've done this I can leave my room light off without issue.

 

What is bad about it in your opinion?

I am finding my cursor is now blue, which is slightly odd....

 

Flux sounds pretty darn cool- I'll have to give that a go when I'm home.