Vision dictates your whole posture. If you can’t see properly, you tend not to sit properly. This can lead to eye fatigue, neck pain, and injury.
Photo credit: iStock.com/SIphotography
Say “office ergonomics” and we tend to think about adjusting our chairs, keyboards, and monitors. But let’s not forget about our vision.
Emma Christensen is a corporate ergonomist with WorkSafeBC’s Safety, Health & Wellness department. She helps staff customize their workstations for comfort and efficiency.
“We tell people that your vision dictates your whole posture. People really do need to take care of their eyes and get regular eye exams,” Emma says. “It doesn’t matter if you have a fancy office chair or height-adjustable desk. If you can’t see, you’re going to lean forward and have bad posture.”
People who wear progressive lenses should take a look at how their monitors are adjusted. Says Emma: “Sometimes people with progressive lenses tilt their heads up so they can see their computers through the proper part of their lenses. They actually need the monitors lower so they can see through the lower section of their lenses but have their neck straight when they are doing that.”
How to make your computer workstation fit you
Here are a few other questions to consider when you’re sitting at your desk:
- Is your monitor at a good height and distance?
- Is the brightness and contrast of your screen set properly?
- Is your font size big enough?
- Are you blinking often enough? (Emma says we actually might forget to do this when we are concentrating!)
- Are you stretching often enough? (see below)
For more information on how to identify and solve problems with your computer workstations, see How to Make Your Computer Workstation Fit You.
20-20-20 rule for stretching
Every 20 minutes, take a 20-second stretch break and look 20 feet away. I wrote about this good rule of thumb in my post Is sitting the new smoking?
Do you have anything to share about vision health, workstation set-ups, or anything else? Do tell!
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Great article! As an optometrist in Vancouver, I find that computer vision syndrome often impacts posture. I blog about vision issues, including computer vision syndrome and I linked to this article, which deserves a wide readership.
Thank you for helping to spread the word!