I also prefer the sharpness of a crt, but the biggest relief from eye strain was when my optometrist recommended varalux(I think that's the name)lens in my glasses, also lighting from the rear/side.
I'm not 100% sure, but I think low ambient darkness isn't a good idea. You should ideally have a lamp that lights the wall behind the monitor. This is a very old rule for TV's as well. Obviously you don't want the light to shine into your eyes, and you don't want light to shine on the monitor either, avoid all glare. If you're setup properly like I described then there should be no glare, and a back-light reflected from the wall behind the monitor. This gives you an even, ambient light. Basically you put the lamp right or left next to the monitor, facing away from you, that's all. That's what I do, anyway. I've never had eyestrain in my life again thereafter... Yeah, eyes get tired - But so they do with reading or anything that requires extended short-distance focus, because it requires your eye lens muscle to be constantly flexed for long periods of time. The longer the distance you look, the more it relaxes your eyes. Ideally you should try to look at a wide landscape or distant buildings for some time everyday. A really good eye exercise is to take your finger, focus on it and take it as close to your eye as you can still focus. Then you focus at the most distant thing you can see (a tree or so), then focus back at the finger. Keep doing that 10-30 times, back and forth. You'll notice that after not a long time you'll get faster and faster at it, and you can get your finger closer! This is your focus improving because you're training those lens muscles! I find that after extensive hours behind the monitor I often get short-sighted. When I notice that things 3-5m across the room start looking really blurry, I just do those eye exercises 10-20 times or so until things look clear again. It's a lot better than letting your eyes decay and feeding the optometrist. Scientist.
Thx again to everyone that have posted. Very useful info and ideas so far. Definitely should be a balance between the gear ( Monitors) the workstation layout and illumination and the answers to your body calls ( eyes rest). I'm concerned because it's getting harder and harder for me to stay in front of my monitors for more than 10 min without the feeling of that pressure growing up in my head temples. I think that adequate light in the working room is very important .For me , is an imperative need because I'm not only stare at the monitors but read, take notes, print stuff, etc. Btw, some of you have mentioned the Samsungs 19 inch LCD. Somebody using Viewsonic ? They appear to have better contrast ratio ( 600:1) than the Samsungs ( 500:1)
I think you'll really need to get TFT's. It will make all the difference. Regarding the Samsungs vs Viewsonic - Forget ViewSonic. Samsung is the king by far in TFT's, they're unsurpassable, have long overtaken all the competition, except for Sony of course - Because Samsung manufactures them in Sony factories - LOL. But, Samsung has added it's own additiotional technology to the original manufacturing standards of Sony, just like Mitsubishi's Diamondtron CRT's have improved on the original Sony Flatron monitors with additional technology. Sony holds the patent, though, as with many things from the Walkman to the CD. I have compared my 19" Diamondtron CRT to a friend's Sony Flatron once and mine was clearly better in many aspects. My friend went and bought Diamondtrons after that. My brother is a hardware freak in the computer business and knows more about this than I do, or anybody for that matter. But I know he'll tell you forget anything but Samsung when it comes to TFT's. He tells me this all the time. I'm convinced he's right - I've compared them myself! They're the top. Trust me. Scientist.
I dumped my old 'sunlamp' crt a few months ago in favor of a Mitsubishi LCD - MUCH easier on the eyes. Using DVI input from a Matrox card. Also installed a skylight into my office (I work from home) and the combination of natural light with the LCD is terrific! Haven't tried the lava lamp but I do have a desk lamp to the left of my monitor, the type often called a bankers lamp with a green glass shade, and I find that helps too probably due to the regular incandescent globe which casts a pleasing 'yellow' light. Be kind to your eyes - you only get one set!
Now this is one of the most important points of all! Never use chalk-white chart-backgrounds! Poison for the eye. I find it bad enough just going to Google because of all the horrible white. It's literally a pain in the eye. White websites are really going out of fashion these days. Lots of white is a no-no with monitors. Keep it dark or at least dim... "Brigthness" button your monitor helps, too - Turn it down as much as you can. Scientist.
prescription for reading and computer work has helped me alot .... I still use my other glasses for long distance etc
That's positive. All my backgrounds are black and the bright settings in my samsungs are at the lowest level. I'm pretty convinced that my major problem is staring at the monitors for a very long periods of time, thats the issue I've have to work out in the first place although a flickering-less display will help a lot. Another issue I've learned is that because these "monsters" take a lot of desk space, every time I rest my elbows on the desk I'm placing myself quite close to the monitors hence exposing my eyes to a bigger strain, another issue to correct. I'm very pleased for all the positive feedback I've received so far. Best