I found a recent Internet article, from a board-certified Internal Medicine physician, that outlines some of the unique health problems occurring in an “expanding tech-growth community”. Beyond Carpal Tunnel Syndrome (CTS), the doctor lists the following repeating problems: 1) horrible sleep hygiene, 2) headaches, 3) back pain, and 4) poor attention span.
Where do I (you) fit into each of the four mentioned problem areas? Sleep hygiene - less than 8 hours of sleep per night, project deadlines keeping me up, the fun of programming in bed. Headaches - staring at the computer screen too long, old monitor, need new glasses. Back pain - bad monitor height, bad chair, no footrest, need to sit with back and neck straight. Poor attention span - too much multi-tasking, boring meetings, lack of sleep.
Oh, by the way, a chiropractic friend of mine taught me, years ago, how to avoid CTS (a possible problem given that I have been keyboarding for more than 36 years now) - when you are sitting at the keyboard, make sure your wrists are below your elbows.
Read the health problems of the Geek lifestyle posting (and the comments from readers)
Read a blog entry on sleep hacking
Polyphasic sleep article in Wikipedia
UberSleep.com web site
{ 13 } Comments
I get backache from falling 30ft off a climbing wall onto my bottom and cracking my head on my knees, followed 2 years later to correspond to the headaches (migraines) which started following breaking my steering wheel with my head in a car accident. However, poor sitting posture is rife throughout computing worlds, we all tend to laugh at the guys/girls who get the special chairs, footstools, arm wrests, mouse arm wrests and everything. However, nothing will stop you if you dont use it properly. As you say, sitting straight, not slouching or leaning back as a lot of us do, having your keyboard at a height where its lower than your elbows.. this can be hard as often you dont want your chair 8ft in the air as your feet dont reach then, it should be more feasable to lower the keyboard - but desks dont take this into consideration, plus have your monitor high enough so that you dont look down. Then doing things like getting off your bottom and moving around more will help, it aids circulation, and stops you staring at the screen. I found game play was real bad for my hand, I started getting major pains around my last 2 fingers right hand till I got me a powerball (www.powerball.com) great fun and builds strength and mobility in wrists and fingers.
Liz, I think you meant the URL to be http://www.powerballs.com/, not the Powerball lottery website.
I did indeed!
Hi david:
you need to add another potential health problem:
"Contant headaches that never seem to go away when there is no buyer found for NewCo."
Writing more worthless Blogs to divert attention won’t help either.
Mr. Concerned.
That’s funny. I find that if my wrists are below my elbow I get backside of my palms.
I also get up and walk around. I make sure I get at least 6 -9 hours of sleep depending upon the day. Rigorous workout and daily cycling help too.
Can’t say anything about the headaches as that’s not something that I’m privvy to.
That’s funny. I find that if my wrists are below my elbow I get sharp pains in the backside of my palms.
I also get up and walk around. I make sure I get at least 6 -9 hours of sleep depending upon the day. Rigorous workout and daily cycling help too.
Can’t say anything about the headaches as that’s not something that I’m privvy to.
That’s funny. I find that if my wrists are below my elbow I get sharp pains in the backside of my palms.
I also get up and walk around. I make sure I get at least 6 -9 hours of sleep depending upon the day. Rigorous workout and daily cycling help too.
Can’t say anything about the headaches as that’s not something that I’m privvy to.
Thank you for your article very interesting.
Keep up the good work. Greetings
Thanks for posting this information.
Keep up the good work, thank you.
Lets see where I fit into these problems: I have tried to eliminate the back pain problem by buying a very comfortable chair. It helps but not completely if you are sitting 12 hours a day on it(at least). I don’t have time to sleep more that 7 hours so I always feel tired. I am a graphic designer and find CRT monitors more proper for my work so headaches and eye tiredness are quite common(actually regular) for me. In other words - my daylife includes all of the listed problems plus I can think of a few more as bad as those - that’s the life of a geek.
> Lets see where I fit into these problems
Some of the software engineers here stand at their computer with the keyboard and monitor at the right heights. This way they stand upright/straight and there is less stress on their backs and necks.
When I would suffer from what I would call "bleary eye" after staring at bad screens all day (especially in the early computer years and on the first Macintosh small screen), my eye doctor told me periodically (frequently) look away, especially far away out a window, across the room, or down the hall.
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