Heard 'masturbation' was the cause of blindness but I'm far from certain.

I'm not an eye doctor so this isn't real science, but I played one as a kid.

Any strain on any muscle for extended periods of time can't be good. Learn to force yourself to go to a window and focus on something far away every once in a while and while you are at your desk switch your focus to objects across the room frequently before you get the tried eye feeling.

Be a fanatic about glare, which tires your eyes sooner. Heck, anything with makes it harder to see the screen.

While we've got you sitting at your desk, check your posture and the way you use the keyboard and mouse. There's stretching exercises for the chairbound office worker to fight fagigue and muscle soreness. It's not a physical job but if your not careful you can still injure yourself or just be a miserable sob.

Ever see the Twilight Zone episode with Burgess Meredith a guy who liked to read (pc has declared the term book worm to be judgemental) that survived WWWIII. He went to a library were he hoped to live the remainder of his days reading, but broke his glasses. It's been so long since I've seen it I might have the show or some of the details wrong. But take care of your eyes, it'd be extremely difficult to use a computer if you loose your vision or if it is highly degraded. I know there are hardware and software solutions that you can purchase and theat there are laws designed to help the visually impaired worker but I'd hate to think that your own activities and habits would have that kind of effect onyourself.

get a LCD i have noticed its alot gentler on the eyes. there expensive thu.

It depends on what you are looking at on the computer.

Being a network type guy I can tell you that extended periods of looking at a monitor will definately strain your eyes.  Bigger monitors will help somewhat, but for the most part you should take a break to relieve your eyes at least once an hour.  I usually get up and take a walk around the building or something like that so that I can let my eyes relax for about 10 minutes or so.

I'm not a doc, but I did stay at a Holiday Inn last night. I would have to say, after seconds of insight and research, NO. [;D]

I do know it causes me to get migraines a lot.  Since if I'm not looking at the computer at work, its at school...if its not at school, its at home.


And yeah, the look away and do something else every hour is recommended...

20/200 isn't that bad!  You need to talk to someone that really needs glasses.  Most of my family would love to have vision that good.

Try either turning the brightness up or down on your monitor.  The monitor might be so bright it gives you a headache, or it might be so dim that you can't easily read it.  I often work 16+ hours without taking a break, other than to go to the bathroom, and I've found small differences can make a big difference over the course of a day.  Experiment, and you might find something you like better.  I'm 74 (as of yesterday), so I have a nice Sony monitor that I have to turn-up the brightness all of the way to make it bright enough.  If you're older, your monitor just might not get bright enough.   Also, a better video card can make a difference.  About two weeks ago, I upgraded all of the cards at the office from Tridents to ATI's, and I'm still getting free cokes and snacks from coworkers that appreciate the improvement.  The better cards are much brighter, the black is no longer dark gray, and white has less of a blue tint.  Also, increasing the refresh rate can help.  70 Hertz is a good setting.  Most people are fine at 60, but if you look at the monitor out of the corner of your eye and can see the screen flashing, you need to increase it.z

Yes it can, for a varaiety of reasons. The biggest one is caused by the screen refresh rate. You know how when you see a computer monitor on TV you can see the horizontal lines. Well even though your brain tries to adjust for it your eyes see the same thing. They are constantly following and refocusing as your screen refreshes. Sitting too close to the screen for prolonged periods can affect your focus also. I used to have some links for it but not anymore, but there is a thing called "Functional Astigmatism", that studies found has been connected to staring at monitors for too long a period of time. Others have already given the best advice, take breaks often and let your eyes roam the room.

I don't know if it hurts your eyes but I do know that some of the post here hurt my brain!

Sgtar15