With more people using laptops, tablets and personal computers daily, ensuring we are working with the correct monitor height has never been more crucial. Ergonomic screen height isn’t just important for your workstation’s overall aesthetic — it holds the key to ensuring that you don’t suffer from unnecessary aches and pains while working.
Without the correct height installed for your monitor, you could encounter several problems, including eye strain, neck discomfort and nagging shoulder pains.
Welcome to our comprehensive guide to monitor ergonomics — you’ll find out that boosting productivity and safeguarding your health is easier than you think, and should go hand-in-hand!
Your monitor screen should be at arm’s length away from you — when you are sitting, if you reach your arm straight forward, your fingertips should just touch the monitor. This will reduce strain on your eyes and allow your neck to rest in a neutral position.
To most people, it all boils down to simple eye measurement — but the correct monitor height should go beyond that. Here are a few key tips, so the height of your monitor is optimised for your needs:
Try to align your monitor in such a way that you find yourself naturally gazing forward without much effort. This can spare your neck from tilting too much or straining itself trying to find the best way to look at your monitor.
Although you’re looking forward, your eyes will naturally travel to other parts of the screen, including the icons you have that can provide easy accessibility to your apps.
Pay attention to your eyes — when you look down, do you need to tilt your head downward just to see where your cursor needs to be? If so, your monitor might need a little more adjusting.
Glare can not only cause you to make mistakes while using your monitor, but it can also lead to some eye strain after a considerable amount of use.
Try to position your monitor away from any bright light behind it. If you can’t avoid a window completely, try to lower your blinds to lessen the glare you see.
Tilt the top of your monitor back about 3 centimetres. The correct monitor height should put your screen at a 10-15 degree angle, which ensures that your neck does not have to be constantly moving for your eyes to read the screen comfortably.
If you’re tilting your head too much to see your search bar, adjust the tilt of your screen accordingly.
When it comes to monitor height ergonomics, the rule of thumb is that your body should be comfortable even after hours of computer use. Shop our standing desks, standing desk frames and ergonomic office chairs at UpDown Desk, so you can achieve the correct height for your monitor easily!