Health and Safety Tips for Computer Users

With computer use increasing more and more and encompassing our lives from every aspect, it's no wonder the number of headaches, eye strain, and RSI cases caused by computer use are increasing annually. Most people use a computer all day long while at work and the first thing they do when they get home is press that power button on their PC. And then put their eyes on OT for another 4-6 hours. We hardly get outside and focus on objects in the distance. Another problem of focusing on objects for long periods of time is that our muscles get weak to QUICKLY focus on objects. Unless you are an athletic person where you have to focus on moving objects and continually cause your eye muscle to focus and refocus, your eyes probably are not getting the healthy workout they need.

This write-up is to help remind you that your eyes are a precious part of your body and you only get one set of them. But not only does this write-up talk about how to make sure you give your eyes a rest from time to time, but also how to protect yourself from muscle strains in your neck, fingers, and arms. You of course, don't need to treat this guide as the solution for all, but being aware and conscious about what you are doing while using your PC should help to keep you body healthy.

HOW TO REMIND YOURSELF TO TAKE A BREAK

The hardest part is remembering when to take a break, especially when we get consumed by our work and we have deadlines. For IT engineers, we are usually under high levels of stress and have deadlines to meet, which usually leads to not taking breaks. We need to be cautious of this and make sure to take breaks from time to time.

There are a few free software programs available online that will help remind you to take breaks from time to time and keep you from overworking your hands and eyes. I recommend Break Install or Workrave for the PC. Both are free and full of features. Workrave is my favorite as it displays sample exercises while the break time screen is activated - something that is educational and will keep you entertained. There are some programs for the Mac as well, for example, Timeout and AntiRSI. These programs force you to take a break from working which not only give your eyes time to relax but also your fingers, wrists, neck, and other muscles that are used to type, read, and move your mouse.

These programs will also display usage statistics, and allow you to customize the break times and durations. You can also skip the required breaks when necessary, for example, when you are in the middle of doing something critical. Most of the software will give you an option to skip your break or postpone it. Although, if you find yourself constantly hitting postpone or skip, you might want to consider disabling this feature.

THE LONG BREAK

Although short breaks (also known as micro-pauses) are the key, longer breaks away from the computer are also important. You should also try to make sure you take breaks before you actually need them. How often you take breaks and when you take them is actually more important than how long you take breaks for. Taking 2 breaks over 8 hours for 30 minutes each is not going to help as much as 8 breaks for 5 minutes at a time.

Recent research studies have shown that taking breaks are proven to help reduce fatigue and prevent soreness.

Micro-pauses are just as important. You should remember to take time away from the computer occasionally to stretch and re-focus your eyes to distant objects. If you have been working intensely at your computer for an hour or more, more than likely you have not blinked as much as you should have and a break is needed.

So if you are working intensely at your computer, in order to reduce fatigue and prevent soreness, the following breaks need to be incorporated into your daily working practice:
* Breaks every hour or so
* Micro-pauses every 4-10 minutes
* Remember to blink frequently as when you use a PC you tend to lower your overall blink rate.

Micro-pauses

At about 4-10 minute intervals, let go of your mouse and look away from the screen. Drop your arms down to your sides, lean back and allow your shoulders to relax. A micro-pauses should take roughly 5-10 seconds.

Breaks

After an hour or so of working continuously at your computer, you should take a short break away from you workstation. You should do some non-computer work, for example, make a telephone call, talk to a colleague, or file documents. You want to try to do something away from your computer for at least 2-3 minutes.

Blinking

Blinking your eyes is also very important. When we use computers we tend to lower are overall blink rate, which causes our eyes to dry out and results in scratched corneas which then causes blurry or impaired vision temporary. We develop bad habits of staring at our computers for long periods of time and forgetting to blink, try to keep a mental note to constantly blink.

Exercises

During a break it is also good to do stretches and exercises to rejuvenate your muscles:

* Shoulder stretch - stretch your arms above and behind your head while clasping your hands tightly together.
* Upper arm Stretch - place one arm across your chest and grab your elbow with your other hand and pull lightly stretching your shoulder. Repeat it again with your other arm.
* Sitting trunk twist - extend your arms out in front of your body, clasp your hands while in a seated position and gently twist from side to side, stretching the upper and lower back.
* Elbow stretch - extend one arm out in front of you. Grab the hand of the extended arm with your free hand and bend your hand gently downward stretching your forearm muscles.
* Power blinks - So a series of quick blinks, roughly 2-3 blinks per second for roughly 1 minute. Now to bring blood flow to your eyes you will want to shut your eyes and close them tight for 5 seconds, then open your eyes and leave at a relaxed state for 5 seconds, repeat this 6 times.

What you may be surprised to learn is that even low levels of muscle tension can cause RSI if sustained over a long period. If you are stressed you will notice muscle tension even faster, so remember to remain relaxed.

Another interest fact is that just 18% of maximum force is enough to reduce blood flow to the muscle by 80%!

If you have muscle fatigue or tension and continue to work intensely at your computer, you are likely to experience pain and discomfort and could develop repetitive strain injury (RSI).

The term repetitive strain injury is a confusing one and as a result, there are many misunderstandings. Let us take a few moments to look at the true cause of RSI in computer use.

For computer users it is actually static muscle tension, not repetition that causes most of the problems. This means that you do not have to be the fastest typist to get RSI. Just spending too many hours at your computer can be enough. This definitely applies to those of us that use a computer to do their job all day and then go home to continue to use your computer for personal use. You are at highest risk, so you should make sure to take plenty of breaks and make sure to give your eyes and muscles a chance to take a break.

WHAT'S THE SOLUTION?

Breaks are a proven way to allow your mind and muscles to recover from fatigue. Stretches and exercise also rejuvenates your muscles. Breaks help you to improve your overall health and efficiency.

Do you find that you more often than not, you get caught up in your work and remembering to take a break is the last thing on your mind? It's difficult as we have built in these habits of working strait through our tasks and not thinking about anything else. You'll typically not take a break until you are far past the point at which you should have taken a break, which is why software to remind you is key.

Achieving the right amount of muscle recovery at the right times is more complicated than you might think. Muscles recover very quickly from low levels of fatigue but quite slowly from high levels. Once your muscles become tired and sore, recovery takes a long time. For those of you that workout at the gym, recall what you feel like after a workout from a long break from the gym. You feel extremely sore the next couple of days and your recovery takes about double what you usually expect when you are in the middle of your normal workout routine. This is because 1.) you just shocked your body from not working out for a good amount of time and 2. ) your muscles are highly fatigued, so recovery takes longer.

Recovery at frequent periods from low-level fatigue will take only around ten seconds whereas high levels of fatigue will take much longer - even up to several hours. One solution to muscle fatigue is to take micro-pauses, very short breaks of 5-10 seconds every 4-10 minutes. This relaxes your muscles and restores a healthy blood flow.

Why are micro-pauses so important?

* They take very little time and can easily be developed to become a healthy habit
* They prevent fatigue build up
* The are taken before discomfort occurs
* They are perfect for reminding you to do some quick blinking exercises

Micro-pauses are the most effective and efficient breaks you can take but remembering to take them can be difficult.

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