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Eyestrain? Seriously, Try Iris Now.

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Lately we’ve been hearing a lot about the dangers from the light from our screens. In fact, it’s not just eyestrain. It’s problems with sleep (a major migraine trigger), and general health issues that researchers are only beginning to understand.

Iris settings

Recently I’ve gotten to know a great computer app that helps cut down on some of the typical problems with monitors. Now you’ve probably heard of some of these. For example, f.lux is excellent, and free. It can match sunrise and sunset in your area to give your screen a more natural look. It’s been around forever.

There’s also Redshift, another free one, which is open source.

Iris has both paid and free options. The main program is paid (lifetime or subscription, but not expensive!), but you can try it for free for seven days. And I encourage you to give it a try right now.

Here’s how Iris is different. First, it has a gazillion options in the pro version. Really, this thing can do a lot of tricks.

But here’s the biggest thing – it can significantly cut down on flicker as it dims your screen. This is a huge plus for migraine and headache sufferers.

Give it a try and see if it makes a difference. Try the main version first, with the free trial (you don’t need to enter credit card information – yay!). You can use a very basic version absolutely free (Iris Mini). But the main version isn’t expensive.

I’ve been doing some study on health and light and would like to write more later. But seriously, for anyone who does significant work on the computer, this is a big one. I started using f.lux years ago, and that already made a significant difference. And I’m using Iris right now.

There are a lot of things you can do to improve your health when it comes to natural and artificial light. Even with the paid version of Iris, it’s one of the cheapest options out there to try. Check out the official Iris website, and you can read more about the science and technology behind the software.

1% Thursday: Migraines, Computer Screens, and Headaches

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This week: Make peace with your computer screen.

Why is it that migraines, computer screens and headaches seem to go together so often?  Could a computer screen trigger your migraine attack?  Could your screen be causing headaches?

There could be more than one reason that your computer is causing your symptoms to increase.  One of the most obvious is your posture.  If you’re sitting with bad posture, or even with good posture for long periods of time, that’s something that could be making your symptoms worse.

But today we’re focusing more on computer screens.  Words like "eye strain" and "headache" and "migraines" get thrown around quite freely – but lets just say that we want to make viewing the computer screen as comfortable as possible.

  • When you’re sitting comfortably, the screen should be about an arm’s length away.
  • Try increasing the font size if necessary.  This can be done in individual programs, and you can lower the resolution of your screen or increase the font size of icons, etc.
  • Be careful about having your monitor too bright, especially as compared to the light around it.  If everything else is fairly dark, and the computer screen is bright, that could cause issues.  Make sure you’re in a well lit area, and that the screen is about as bright as what is behind it.
  • Be careful of glare.  If there’s glare, either move the screen to avoid it, or use an anti-glare screen or screen filter (here are some filters for computer screens.  You don’t need to pay a fortune, but do buy something that works well for you – this is your health we’re talking about).
  • Be sure you are in front of your computer screen, not looking to one side or the other or up or down.
  • There are also ways to dim the programs you’re working with, or dim items on the internet.  Check out some ideas here.
  • And always remember to take a break every 15-20 minutes.  Free tools such as Workrave are excellent ways to remind yourself to do this.

Migraines? Computer Screens? Headaches?  Hopefully we can stop hearing those words together in the new year.

What is 1% Thursday?

1% Thursday

Every Thursday at Headache and Migraine News (weather permitting) we’ll talk about one measurable, practical thing we can do to make our lives just 1% better.  Usually it will be something very easy, sometimes it will be a challenge.  Let us know if you try it, or share an idea of your own – and maybe a year from now we’ll see that things have really changed for the better!

Special thanks to Safe Computing Tips for their ideas on this topic.

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