Lesson Learned: Compensating for Aging Eyes, Bad Posture, and Arms That Are Too Long

The Problem:

Do you find yourself leaning into the computer monitor on your desk, squinting to read, fooling with display fonts, and taking more breaks?

The Explanation:

Presbyopia is the gradual loss of your eyes’ ability to focus on nearby objects, a natural, often annoying part of aging. To compensate we rely on improving our vision by adding to our built-in lenses: externally with reading glasses, contact lenses, or bifocals, or with vision correction surgery (like LASIK, intraocular lens placement, or others).

A Solution:

An inexpensive ($11.99 in 2016) pair of glasses to use at the computer that have the “near” prescription of my bifocals (or reading glasses) but are manufactured with a focal length appropriate for the distance of my monitor when I’m comfortably seated at my desk.  The focal length is the distance between your eye and the point in in front of you where objects come into focus. Reading glasses and the near portion of bifocals are typically designed for close-up tasks, such as reading books or menus, usually held around 14 to 16 inches from the eyes. This is too short for comfortable computer use, as most computer screens are positioned about 20 to 26 inches away from the eyes. (ChatGPT)

I learned this in a 2016 class on life-saving procedures, and was unaware until recently querying ChatGPT that “computer glasses” are a “thing”, and such “glasses tailored to the intermediate distance of computer screens, like computer glasses or extended reading lenses, can offer better clarity and reduce eye strain compared to standard reading glasses or bifocals.” I could be the only person who didn’t know this, but in the universe of blogging, that is no reason not to pass it on.

The Backstory:

I spend a LOT of time in front of my desktop computer. The simple and inexpensive acquisition I describe has saved me thousands of hours of eye strain. I’ve worn glasses since the fourth grade, bifocals for half my life, and had successful cataract surgery in the 90s, (giving me 20/20 out of both one “far”- and one “near” lens implant). Eight years ago, while still practicing emergency medicine, I took a highly respected hands-on refresher course in the life-saving procedure of endotracheal intubation, the placement of a breathing tube in the airway for patients who stop breathing on their own. As with so many other precise and critical procedures in emergency medicine, like suturing, or invasive treatments or examinations, intubation is typically performed at arms-length. The longest-lasting benefit of that course was the instructor’s suggestion that those of us wearing bifocals acquire a pair of eyeglasses with our “near-vision” prescription but crafted with a focal length roughly equal to one’s arms’ length. Prior to that advice, and even with bifocals on top of my surgically improved eyes (to give me optimal near and far vision in both), such arms – length procedures were often accompanied by unwanted and unexplained tearing, blurring and eye discomfort.

I am embarrassed to say that when I retired, my life-saving eyeglasses went into a very infrequently used bag of medical tools for a number of years, until it dawned on me to try them at my desk. Although no longer snaking tubes into various bodily orifices, the simple addition of those same cheap longer-focal-length glasses hanging by my computer has been of significant benefit, improving my vision and posture while keeping me at my desk and out of my wife’s hair, for several more comfortable hours a day.  While I am not suggesting that any of my fellow baby boomers who are currently not certified to perform arms-length medical procedures get some new glasses and give those procedures a try, the usefulness to everyday computer users, writers, hobbyists, crafters, home auto-repair enthusiasts, and do-it-yourselfers is obvious to me.  Your mileage may vary. Cheap to try.

It’s my blog, so I’ll include a picture for no good reason: