My glasses are giving me a neck cramp

[DaveC426913]

TL;DR

Because of my monitor

Just realized after all this time why my neck is so sore at work.
I use a secondary monitor that sits behind my lappie (not to the side, that just makes it worse).

The secondary monitor is not too high. The top of the monitor is horizontal to my eye and I look down at the centre of the screen at about a 10 degree angle.

Yet I find myself constantly and unconsciously craning my neck to look at it. Like, my head is pointing above the screen and I suddenly realize i'm looking down my nose at it.

I just realized it's because of my bi-/tri-focals! The screen is barely 18 inches away, which is medium/close range, not long range. If I look directly at the screen, I strain to read it because I'm looking through the long range focus.

This explains my eye strain too (I tend to close one eye and squint when I'm having trouble reading, so I look like a pirate.)

So now I'm propping my glasses up on my nose with a folded piece of paper. This allos my neck/head to relax while my vision passes through the medium/close range of my glasses.

 

[AlexB23]

TL;DR: Because of my monitor

Just realized after all this time why my neck is so sore at work.
I use a secondary monitor that sits behind my lappie (not to the side, that just makes it worse).

The secondary monitor is not too high. The top of the monitor is horizontal to my eye and I look down at the centre of the screen at about a 10 degree angle.

Yet I find myself constantly and unconsciously craning my neck to look at it. Like, my head is pointing above the screen and I suddenly realize i'm looking down my nose at it.

I just realized it's because of my bi-/tri-focals! The screen is barely 18 inches away, which is medium/close range, not long range. If I look directly at the screen, I strain to read it because I'm looking through the long range focus.

This explains my eye strain too (I tend to close one eye and squint when I'm having trouble reading, so I look like a pirate.)

So now I'm propping my glasses up on my nose with a folded piece of paper. This allos my neck/head to relax while my vision passes through the medium/close range of my glasses.

I am glad you solved the issue. Man, ergonomics needs to be taken care of more. Hopefully, you can find a long term solution to this.

 

[berkeman]

I just realized it's because of my bi-/tri-focals! The screen is barely 18 inches away, which is medium/close range, not long range. If I look directly at the screen, I strain to read it because I'm looking through the long range focus.

Time to invest in a dedicated pair of single-focus computer work glasses. Your health is worth it.

 

[jrmichler]

After I had cataract surgery, I experimented with reader glasses from the rack at the pharmacy. The +2.5 worked for normal reading, and +1.5 worked for my computer monitor. The +1.5 glasses did not work for reading.

Then I got an eye exam with a prescription for bifocals. The distance portion had a small spherical correction, and a larger astigmatism correction. The reading correction was +2.5. So I went online and ordered a pair of bifocals where I added +1.5 to the distance prescription, and specified the reading correction as +1.0. These glasses work perfectly for computer work where I am also reading paper on the desk.

I needed a quick simple way to tell them apart, so my regular bifocals have wire frames and the computer glasses have plastic frames.

 

[DDTJRAC]

I had the same neck issues problem OP. I just got rid of the bifocals for computer work and put them back on when I get off the computer. I can see both screens OK without glasses. But for anything closer or further I need glasses.