Today, with an increasing percentage of people spending extensive amounts of time in front of a computer monitor, there has been a sudden increase in neck and back related issues. According to a recent study, more than 60 percent of all office going individuals who spend at least half of their day in front of a computer screen are bound to face problems associated with neck pain from sitting at some point in the year.

Lack of Awareness

What’s surprising is that even with the rising incidences of these issues, there has been no real effort from a major share of employers to educate their workers on the importance of maintaining the proper working position in front of the computer and taking regular breaks from sitting. If you don’t want to end up on the wrong side of the pain spectrum, it’s imperative that you take proper care of yourself and make adjustments to your workspace, specifically your computer monitor. This is because poorly positioned computer monitors are the ruling cause for neck and back pains among office goers.

Making The Change

Having to decide on the best location for your monitor on your work desk can be a tricky challenge. However, you need to remember that if proper thought is not applied in this regard, you will end up experiencing excruciatingly painful days ahead over a period of time. The issues you experience would include headaches, strain to the eyes, and most importantly, neck pain from sitting long hours, which could be debilitating. The following pointers will give you a perspective on how to position your monitor in the optimal ergonomic position.

• If you are working for extended hours in front of a monitor, the optimal position for your monitor would be at the center of your table directly in front of your eyes.
• Your monitor needs to be at an arm’s length away from your seated position.
• When it comes to height, the ideal would be to place your monitor at a height that is exactly at eye level. To achieve this, you could either lower your monitor or raise the height of your chair. Regardless of whether it is too high or too low, it would be putting strain on your neck. In the scenario where you are working with a large monitor, say larger than 20 inches, your monitor needs to be placed so that upper limit of your viewing area is around 3 inches above eye level.
• By tilting your monitor a teeny bit upwards so that the base is a bit closer to you in comparison to the top. By doing this, you can view the whole screen and its contents with more clarity. Tilting the monitor downwards doesn’t really work in your favor in any scenario except maybe to avoid glaring lights
• If you find yourself hunched over with your nose almost touching the screen, it means you either need to get some new prescription glasses or you need to adjust the font size. The size of your text displayed on the monitor should be at least two to three times larger than the size of the smallest text you can read. Smaller sized fonts can actually cause neck pain from sitting over an extended period of time.

Following these tips can go a long way in preventing unnecessary strain on your neck and back and thus avoid painful neck injuries. You can’t obviously cut down your time in front of your monitor, so making these adjustments would keep you safe and capable of maintaining your quality of life.