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Health And Safety For Computer Users

Guest post by: Josh Bellendir

Article Overview: 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.

Health And Safety For Computer Users

INTRODUCTION 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.

IN CONCLUSION

As stated previously, computer use has increased dramatically in the past two decades. Everything involves computers; there is no way to avoid using them. Your typical business office looked very different just 15 to 20 years ago. Now, most jobs can't be done without computers. You spend more than 8 hours a day working on your computer for your day job and then head home to sit in front of your computer for several more hours to check Facebook, watch a YouTube video, check personal email and so on.

We rather take notes on our PC's than with a pad of paper and pen. I don't recall taking notes on paper since high school, so can you imagine our children and grandchildren. Files and documents are now stored on a local file server in your office or on your individual PC rather than in filing cabinets. E-mail has almost completely replaced what we now call snail-mail. Appointment books are a thing of the past; stationary stores are giving them away by now.

And all these changes mean one thing; we are spending more and more time sitting in front of a PC, staring hours on end at our liquid crystal displays. But we do it for a reason. They get things done faster and are just plain fun to use. And the only limiting factor on productivity is our bodies and well being.

After using your PC for long periods of time you will develop discomfort and soreness in your hands, eyes, and forearms. Your neck and lower back can also be affected, so it's important to take those micro-breaks.

The focus of this write-up has been on eyestrain as it's one of the most common negative effects of using your computer for long periods of time. But let's not forget RSI, Repetitive Strain Injury, which is commonly used to describe problems that result by using a computer. In addition to injuries, there is proof of loss of concentration and increase errors after prolonged periods of computer usage.

Discomfort and health problems caused by computer use are very common. You can avoid these problems by pacing your work and putting balance back into your daily routine. So remember a few things; to always take periodic short breaks, and every 2 hours or so, take a 5 minute walk around the office or outside and focus on something off in the distance. If you need help, try out one of the software packages I recommended, they are easily found by searching the web.

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Article Tags: computer, eye strain, rsi, safety



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Re: Let Your Employees Nap At Work - Hi Evan, Thanks for the post, it makes interesting reading and I must admit a power nap in the afternoon seems very appealing. I know in some countries particularly Spain they have a siesta and close up the shops for a couple of hours then re-open again in the late afternoon, not sure I could do that,LOL There has been some interest in the UK for 'quiet rooms' in some industries but that relates more to Health and Safety and dealing with stress at work by chilling out for a short period but not much has really come of it and certainly not allocated nap times but I like the idea. I think as one comment on the post pointed out, this is a great side benefit of working from home, you can allocate your own nap time. regards, Mal.
Re: Need some information on freelance jobs! - Hi Evan, Thanks for the video, you have made some excellent points there, I especially agree with your suggestion that we should add value wherever possible. Many of the training classes that I run (my day job) are on subjects relating to Health and Safety and First Aid etc and many of these courses are a legal requirement. So to add value, I make a point of writing or calling my clients when their present certification is about to run out. I also send a report from each course advising of who attended or not and when the earliest course is for those who didn’t make it to come back. My clients really appreciate this because quite often in their own busy lives they have forgotten or just don’t know. These are just a couple of ways that I try to add value and stand out from other trainers, as many of them don’t do this. This is easy recurring business for me so I can certainly relate to your video. thanks again, Mal.
Re: What is your biggest challenge? Today? - My answer to the question is both time and focus. I would love to be in a position to work full time from home but am not even close to that at present. I deliver training courses for various clients mostly in the private sector relating to Health and Safety, Food Hygiene and occasionally deliver basic computing courses to older people in the community. These activities pay the bills but as with other members I find myself burning the candle at both ends trying to find the time to focus on the IM things that are essential if I am to progress. reqards, Mal
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secure my connection - I agree with Link's second post. Security is a personal sticky issue and possibly not the first service you should introduce yourself at the door. I'd suggest also the Back to School "In-Home" Computer tuneup (it's such a pain to take your computer in for servicing) and promise that they would see a smoother and faster computer. You can hand them a 2 page report on the benefits of having a computer tuneup -> this is critical. After you are gone this is the only piece of information that they will have to begin trusting you and want to have you in their home. You can sneak at the bottom of the report the benefits of having a wireless connection and the importance of Securing it. finish off the report with two dotted rounded rectangle boxes beside each other. One has a free Computer tune up assessment and the other a free wireless network security test. If they take you up on either you can test for the other. You now have two sources of possible income.


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