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copied!<p>Staring at this screen for years has given me a mild case of the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_vision_syndrome" rel="nofollow noreferrer">Computer Vision Syndrome</a> (CVS), and for a little while it made my life pretty miserable. Eventually I learned that I was doing terrible things to my eyes on a daily basis, and implemented a few tricks. Now it's rarely a problem at all.</p> <p>My color scheme of my Visual Studio is one of the tricks.</p> <p>For me, dark backgrounds with light foregrounds are the only way to go. It really made a huge difference.</p> <p>My Visual Studio looks a bit like this (image from Scott Gu's blog): </p> <p><img src="https://silverlight1blogpost.s3.amazonaws.com/step8.png" alt="alt text"></p> <p>I also wrote a little application called EyeSpy that beeps every so often to remind me to blink and take breaks. This is much more important than the color scheme, and something that developers really do need to be aware of. Not only does staring at the screen all the time cause repetetive stress injuries, there's also a tendency to stop blinking that can dry your eyes out. Just getting up and walking around once every hour or so will make a huge difference, although that is probably an absolutely bare minimum.</p> <p>When my eyes get dry (usually because I failed to listen to EyeSpy and take breaks) I use a brand of eyedrops called Blink. They seem to be the best one for me. My doctor, a specialist in CVS, showed me a technique for applying them where you tilt your head back, roll your eyes down so that you're looking towards your chin, and try to apply the drops to the top part of your eye. Because of the way the drainage works in your eyes, this part of your eye tends to become especially dry, and doing it this way is (surprisingly) a lot better. Although it's a fact that by the time your eye is dry, you're already in trouble, because the damage is done and the surface of your eye has become <a href="http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/abrade" rel="nofollow noreferrer">abraded</a>.</p> <p>Lighting is also very important. I don't use an overhead light at all. Instead, I brought in floor lamps that I position to indirectly light the room. I've also got a lamp on my desk. I keep it <em>behind</em> my monitor.</p> <p>One last thought: for years, I went to eye doctors with this terrible eye strain and they told me I had perfect vision, acted like I was maybe a little bit crazy, and rushed me out as quickly as possible. This was incredibly frustrating since something was obviously wrong. If you feel like you have these types of problems, make sure you find someone who knows about and understands CVS. It's a new condition, and as of a few years ago, most eye doctors don't seem to understand it.</p> <p>Just pay attention to how you feel and adjust as necessary. Hopefully this information will help somebody. :) </p> <p>As for scientific research, there's some good information in <em><a href="https://stackoverflow.com/questions/498698/white-light-vs-black-dark-backgrounds-health-effects/527378#527378">White (Light) vs. Black (Dark) Backgrounds: Health Effects</a></em>. Note that it does not all focus around eye strain, a lot of it has to do with retention and so on.</p>

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