Monitors. Eye strain. Still trying to get a clue

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Hello to the community,

It’s been some time (years…), for which I’ve been trying to find a good monitor for my eyes. Hoped that maybe here I could get some help.

As being a child of the 90s, I’ve used the CRT monitors starting from 2000s and never even thought of finding myself having issues when I moved to crystal like flat monitors.

I think it all started somewhere 10 years ago when I bought my first “cool ips monitor”. Think it was Samsung. Pressure on the eyes, nose and a huge headache in the forehead area in just a few hours of sitting in-front of one. Someone suggested to try a different one, so I went for a TN panel. And it helped - used that one till it burned out.

After that I struck BenQ’s EW2740L, which I use to this day. I literally can sit in front of it for 24 hours with/without light in the room, read text from a white background at night without light without feeling any eye strain. Looking at the “dark themes” people use, for me is “masking the issue” instead of addressing it…

But even for this one, there was one thing, that made the headache symptomatic trigger - there was an old utility for nVidia GPUs with the 16-233/0-255 color modes, which has been enabled by default in nVidia’s control panel for some time now. Setting it (and I remember old drivers always reverting it to “233” mode after driver updates) to “limited mode” made my head hurt and eyes strain.

Now, or to be more correct, two years ago I wanted to go for a “gaming monitor” with it’s 2k/144Hz. There I once again recalled the issue, which I literally forgot I even faced before. All by absolutely same scenario to every detail…

First I’ve tried LG’s 850 something (sorry for the not so informative naming… don’t remember the full naming). That one lasted for 5 days before the level of headache reached it’s peak (and the suggestions of “you’ll get used to it” went down the drain). Returned it. Ordered BenQ’s 3203R - ignoring the timing, same problem.

One thing to note. I could spend 5 hours trying to adjust to a new monitor, forcing myself thought that headache, after which gave up. Immediately, without any rest, setting up the “old and trustworthy”, and literally feeling that HP bar going from 1% to 100%.

After this I made three attempts - Acer Predator XUB271manysmallletters, Samsung’s G7 and a “office friendly 60Hz” Dell (just to get the idea if the “gaming” was causing this at all). Dell was literally the worst of them - broke the “speed barrier” with the record of “10 minutes from cold start”, while others at least lasted for 4-5 hours before I started to feel “wrong”.

On every one of them I tried reducing the brightness/contrast/colors and every possible twig and branch I could reach out to in hope of making things better. Nothing.

One thing to note though - when I was trying the G7, I don’t know WHY, but I made it down to “G-Sync”. Turning it off was a game changer. I literally felt a huge and heavy brick being removed from my eyes in a matter of minutes (if not seconds) after setting it to OFF on both the GPU settings and monitor. But that still wasn’t as perfect as the “old and trustworthy”.

Maybe someone would suggest something like “you should see a doctor”, who could tell what’s actually wrong. Tried that. All of them (I cannot call the health care degree even “merely decent” from where I’m from…) simply replied in the “dunno, try a different monitor…” manner.

Any help will be appreciated.

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Try some real Blue light blocking glasses, even if you don’t need a prescription. They seriously do work as long as you get ones that are real and not snake oil. I have a set from GamersAdvantage, fantastic things. Also, just play with the night shift settings in windows, you can adjust the blue-light output there to help as well.

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I’m also very sensitive to refresh rate, eye strain, and I can’t even wear sunglasses without getting a headache. The thing that helps me the most is keeping distance from the monitor. Right now I’m using a 55" OLED at around 6 ft and get absolutely no eye strain. But if you move me in front of a good quality 24" on a desk 2 ft away my eyes are hurting after a couple of hours. Everyone is different but that’s what works for me.

Hope one day you’re able to figure out exactly what it is. Good luck.

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i have a wider than normal FOV, and i am very sensitive to light. while that does not sound like the same issue, this thought might give you something else to try, have you ever tried using either a polarized filter, or polarized sunglasses?

the light profiles coming from lcd and crt will never match, but that might help.

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I’m susceptible to some kind of refresh issue. Some games don’t bother me and others make me motion sick after a few minutes, even at the same FPS and refresh rate. I can’t figure out why that is.

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When I got my glasses I specifically asked for them to have the blue-light coating cranked to 11 since I look at monitors all day.

Helped tremendously.

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Refresh rate sensitivity couldn’t be more foreign to me. I just don’t have that problem. I have perfect vision but still get eye strain and for me it’s because my eyes don’t lubricate themselves properly. Also looking at something a long time I tend to not blink enough. It’s very bad for me on long drives when I’m just looking into the distance a long time.

For me I use Systane Balance eye drops. The Balance one has mineral oil in it.

I do want to go to my optometrist about some kind of computer glasses as long as it doesn’t change my colour perception as I really hate that. Which is why I am very picky with sunglasses.

I had laser corrective surgery about 6 years back. Best thing I ever did but having great vision doesn’t stop eye strain.

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My last set of prescription lenses from an optometrist had the “blue-light blocking” coating. Pretty sure they were charging for something that wasn’t actually there as the lenses were very clear without a even a hint of yellow. The pair I have from GamersAdvantage has a very slight tinge of yellow in the lenses and makes a huge difference in eye strain and allowing my eyes to stay relaxed. I actually do get to sleep faster at night.

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I’ve been considering going ahead and getting Lasik now that I have better insurance and it’s a more mature process now. By time it decides to wear off I’ll be retired and won’t care to see the world anymore anyway, or there won’t be anything left of the world to see … either way I won’t care at that point :slight_smile:

P.S. I still can’t wrap my head around laying there not moving while some guy/gal points a high-intensity laser at my eyeballs while I’m awake …

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Anyone who has any questions on the surgery is welcome to ask me anything about it.

DO NOT SHOP ON PRICE!!! Go to the best eye surgeon you can find. I live in New Zealand and went to the best surgeon in the country it cost me nearly $6000 NZD (about $4000 US) out of my pocket.

It will only correct eye defects it will not reverse or stop visual degradation due to ageing as what causes that is the weakening of the eye muscles.

Do not go to someone who won’t turn you away if you aren’t suitable. If your cornea is too thin and they do the surgery is can actually potentially make you worse as your cornea has to be a certain thickness.

There are lots more to go with what I just said such as how to have the best recovery results and things like that.

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I believe I tried the “low-blue-light” approach. Most of those monitors had it, including my current one. I remember even giving it a try when I first bought it and if something, I felt worse. Also I tried that mode on all those monitors, and even went the path of manually lowering the blue color in the settings. Seems not to be the case.

Also thought about that one. Tried watching a movie from 4-5 meters away, but without any luck.

Thank you.

I think I do have that filter with my daily glasses. Gives a 0.000001% yellowish tint to the picture.

Had tried the “eye drops” approach. Wasn’t it. I do manage to be that person, that blinks… some times a day, but nor the drops nor the “blinking like a regular person would” helped. Plus this would’ve also affected my current monitor.

Thought about that, but for me it’s like the “dark mode” thing - not addressing the issue but trying to mitigate it. I have an OLED smartphone, a working laptop (plus at least 3-4 working monitors from the before COVID), and I don’t get that issue.

I do have yellowish in my daily glasses. Don’t think it’s LBL.

Same creepy fear here :slight_smile:

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This is my biggest concern. I think it has something to do with the backlight itself. BenQ, or the panel manufacturer, I think “by accident” struck gold with that specific model which I have now. I wrote to their support asking to recommend me something, that would “fill the shoes” of that EW2740L (there are newer monitors with similar naming). When they saw my statement that I could sit in front of that one for 16 hours straight (good old vacations with Lineage 2…) without even the slightest hint of discomfort, I got the “oh nooo, don’t do that”, that actually lead to the statement, that bums me out - “you are recommended to sit in front of a monitor no more than 3-4 hours” (I do believe there even is a “a day” if you go and try to research some user manual for it). No matter if I work in IT and my life is IT… and that I have a monitor, for which 16 hours is just my limit since I need to sleep.

Another thing to state here though. Some time ago I ordered a “soft color” LED lightbulb (after that I got the feeling it was cheep). I used it for side illumination in my room. In the first evening I caught myself with the feeling that it’s light (not direct looking at it, just having it as a main light source in the room) is kicking in that “brick on my forehead” pain feeling. Changing it to a different LED (had one lying in the room) removed that feeling instantly.

I have a strong feeling that it’s related to backlight or something. I researched the “PWM issue”(found articles for it to be one of the majority of reasons for eyestrain and headaches), but all of those monitors seem to have that one tested out.

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it honestly sounds like you are throwing mud at the wall and seeing what sticks. if you want to fix this you need to scientific method this B!7C#.

that means actually finding several different filters or sunglasses with individual measured optics. IE: blue block only, polorized only, maybe even a few different types of color block, as well as the typical UV. then find a monitor that triggers you and compare the effects of the different lenses.

with that knowledge you could look at light output diagrams of different panels and find one with the lowest range in the area of light that triggers your pain.

otherwise, you will just always be guessing.

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Mine are an amber color.

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Thank you!
This approach actually sounds crazy enough to work.

Sadly, but that’s true. I started from researching different aspects of the problem, all of which failed (all monitors I tried had low-blue-light and no pwm… which I thought being the culprit). After this I really went for the “kick and see if it rolls” approach.

Ah, the ones that you could find in bike/sport shops? (block specific light specter etc). Worth checking. Thanks.

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