ryans Likely, although it's very brief. The last time it happened was about 10 minutes ago while reading an email. For a split second, we're talking half a second or even a quarter of a second, it felt like my vision shifted while reading a line in the email. It almost felt as if my eyeballs spasmed to the corner or something for a brief moment, but what I think happened instead is my brain "shut off" the vision from one eye very briefly before recalibrating it and turning it back on again.

I don't have strabismus or amblyopia and have never had anyone point out that my eyes don't line up properly, but when doing vision therapy back in 2013, my vision therapist did suggest that my eyes seem to work pretty hard to maintain fusion when reading. Could a hard to detect flicker be making it harder than it should be? I'm not sure. I should really do more testing again reading print long term to rule out flickering and backlights and what not to see if the symptoms are the same as doing a lot of reading on a phone or computer screen.

    6 days later

    @martin I'm curious if you've ever identified PWM as a cause for your eye strain ? Does your optometrist have an idea for how long your vision therapy will last?

    Yes I did, on external asus pb298q monitor, when lowered below 100% brightness theres pwm of 2000 Hz. That triggered similar symptoms as other tech. But it also triggered them when connected via HDMI instead of VGA, maybe VGA disables FRC dithering. I dont know, too many variables, but confirmed in this single case that clearly PWM is to blame.

      martin At some point I remember you were doing the "SEE sick" exercises, do you still do them?

          ryans No, see sick syndrome is not my issue. Its also a problem of visual and vestibular system, so I felt some connection when doing those exercises, but it wouldnt help with my issue.
          With the therapy now its better everyday, I can use the new iphone 7 for longer periods of time without any issues. Also when I push it just gets more uncomfortable and tiring, but no migraine so far. And the discomfort fades quickly when I lay the phone down.

          Basically the cup of tolerance is increasing all the time now. Before it filled in 10 minutes, now its hours. Hopefully eventually it will be as tolerable as all other devices of the past.

              tfouto computers seem better now, judging by friends laptops. But Ill know best when I buy a new of my own. Still waiting with that. I think with the glasses I have and the exercises that are filling what the glasses cant, it should be ok now for couple hours of work. Without them, not yet, only the phone.

              It still also changes day to day, when Im tired or anything else.

              Funny thing however - I used to have really bad headaches when hungover. Theyre gone now - apparently the muscle strain showed much more when tired from drinking previous night.

                5 days later

                Hi @martin and all,

                Finally started my vision therapy. I am doing these exercises for a few weeks, will then go back to get harder ones:

                1. Read print with one eye covered and the other eye using two different lenses and switch between them. One lense makes text seem closer, one makes it seem farther away. Will get harder lenses every few weeks. I believe this trains accommodation.

                2. For suppression - take a handheld mirror on one eye at a 45 degree angle. With the other eye focus on an object. Make the image on the mirror appear in front of the object solidly. If it appears behind the object, this is mild suppression. (Similar to http://squintyjosh.blogspot.com/2011/01/vision-therapy-week-5.html)

                3. Syntonics -- using a blue colored goggles, stare at a light 20 mins 3x a week. I'm curious if your optometrist knows much about syntonics @martin .

                I've not really noticed a difference in my strain after doing them for a few days but this is probably way too soon to see a difference.

                  ryans I remember some of these exercises! I believe the device you use in #1 is called a "flipper". I also remember the mirror one being fairly tricky.

                  While doing these vision therapy exercises, often the very type of strain/pain you are trying to resolve will be brought on by the exercises. Maybe that's a good sign that you're targeting the right area?

                  I also wondered for those doing vision exercises if there is still benefit of doing the strengthening with strained eyes (or it is better to rest them and wait for there to be no ache/strain?)

                      Hey, I'm doing my excercise for nearly 6 months now with such spherical and prismn flippers.

                      one with +-0,75 diopters and and one with +-1,5 diopters
                      and each a +-1, +-2 and +- 4 prismn flippers

                      Im doing the excercices while I'm looking for some time trough the + side of the flipper and than suddenly change to the - side of the flipper and so on.
                      Also I change the distance from the object to which I focus. I change between 30cm, 50cm, 3m and 5m.

                      These exercices help me a little bit with my strain. However a notebook with intel graphics is still too much for me. I'll do these excercices till february in this kind. After that I'll visit my optometrist again in order to test my progress and try out other excercices.

                        ryans I dont know syntonics. If my therapy is finished and the trouble not fully gone, Ill give it a try too. I dont know whats your exact diagnosis, but dont expect results below two months. Even then it might take a few days to get used to some device.

                        MagnuM Its like any exercise, its muscles after all. I do 6 days on, 1 day off. If its too painfu I take extra day off in the middle of the week, but mostly I have step by step progressively harder exercises, so I dont overdo it and take it slow, allowing me to progress continually. When I did overdo it, I lost ability to focus at close distance completely for a day, couldnt even read books without pain. That was scary but went away when rested. Muscles grow when you rest, but of course the growth in rest period is given by the stimulation in exercise period.

                        Harrison You should also have a progress track, I write every day results and time into a google sheet table shared with the optometrist. There I can see if, how and in which directions I progress. Also if Im stuck we change some exercises to help bump the system in different ways.

                                martin

                                good point. It's clear for me that I'm stuck with my excercices at this point ant that only little progress is going on now. However the optometrist meant that 1 more month with the same excercies could still help.
                                He also meant that the "change" of the vision isn't linear progress like going to a gym and train your muscles which will get stronger and stronger after every session.
                                However I'm looking forward to february and maybe some new excercices.

                                Maybe it's also a good idea if we connect our two optometrists. Vienna and Prague aren't that far away and there aren't so much experts familar with this kind of eye problem. Maybe they know each other yet.

                                    Harrison to me it actually seems very similar. There are plateaus where I have the same results for month or more, then I break through in a week with a lot of progress and then plateau again. I just keep going and have it as a routine. But yes, the point is no pain vs. growing muscles, so target is different🙂

                                    Whats your specialists name and office address?

                                        Harrison Could you also send me a more specific diagnosis if you have it from the specialist? You can use private message here. My optometrist is interested in seeing it as well as contacting him. It would be very useful for future research to see all and which kinds of these issues are connected to the display problem we all have. I believe this will take on momentum eventually.

                                            martin Could you also send me a more specific diagnosis if you have it from the specialist?

                                            not really. I couldn't give you more than convergence problems. One result of the test was that I get double vision too early when I'm looking through increasing prismn glasses. My eyes could only compensate nearly the half prismn people usually can at my age. The other thing was the cord test -> At about 30cm I lost 3D vision and saw only one cord from the dominant eye any more (if you know what I mean). However this isn't a problem any more. I'm much better after my excercises.

                                            Please give me an update of their conversation then.

                                                Harrison Isnt there some document from the specialist? I have a very detailed report. Summarized as 20 unit ezophoria and also 1,5 dipoters weaker right eye (that I knew before). Ill let you know when he gets back to me.

                                                    martin

                                                    no sorry. We just conduct verbal conversations in regularly intervals. The topic is also new for him and the only thing which was really conspicuous was the convergence problem.

                                                    Maybe a conversation between the experts is more helpful in this case and can lead to further approaches.

                                                        I have an appointment at my local university's eye clinic next week. I believe they can and do test for stuff a normal eye doctor wouldn't do. Is there anything I should stress that you can recommend other than "convergence" (which I will mention for sure)? I'm running out of time to collect all information because that appointment literally came out of nowhere and I need to be prepared until Monday in the best possible way. Until then I try to write down everything related to my eye strain issues but also treatments/diagnoses that helped others of us so far.

                                                          KM mostly vergence - could be con- and di- vergence issues. Also accomodation. Eye teaming should be tested in general.

                                                              dev