Top Law Schools

Anyone who reads documents all day for 8-12 hours feel the eyestrain?

Did you have to get glasses or a new prescription after starting their career? Any methods to prevent this?

I actually ran into an issue of eye strain this summer. One of my eyes would get blood shot for weeks at a time so I finally went to see the optometrist and he said he has quiet a few law students/attorney patients that come in with symptoms of strain or over worked eyes. He basically said my eyes were fatigued and over worked due to the amount of reading that I do. His only suggestion was to use eye drops and try to look away/outside the window for 20 seconds for every 30 minutes of reading. I know this doesn't help much, but I figured it was worth something anecdotally

Sure hope not as I'm on hour 16 billed since 10am yesterday.

ezjojo30 wrote:I finally went to see the optometrist and he said he has quiet a few law students/attorney patients that come in with symptoms of strain or over worked eyes. He basically said my eyes were fatigued and over worked due to the amount of reading that I do.

My optometrist had a similar response. Said a lot of law students and attorneys he sees have their eyesight worsen over time. Kind of just a consequence of the job.

There's something called the 20-20-20 rule, which says that, every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds to combat eye strain.


I bought a pair of "gaming" glasses (i.e. Gunnars) to help with eye strain and it helped a little bit. Only useful if you don't wear glasses and the majority of your strain comes from looking at the computer screen.

Through law school and 3+ years of biglaw, my eyes have gotten much much worse and I hate wearing my glasses.

Lately I've been trying to print out as much stuff as I can to do markups, etc. and send them to word processing/give to a junior to enter into docs. Bad for the environment but good for my eyeballs.

I had to get glasses my first year on the job because I realized I couldn't see the judges' faces in the courtroom (one day the judge said something and I had no idea whether she was talking to me or defense counsel because I couldn't tell where her eyes were looking). Yay law school!!

I got you all beat. I got glasses in college.

In law school I noticed I was experiencing some eye problems, the doctor said it was eye fatigue and recommended I wear some low prescription reading glasses. Now that I am no longer in law school I actually don't wear them when reading and I have noticed I don't have any eye fatigue problems.

Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

zot1 wrote:I got you all beat. I got glasses in college.

glasses in 5th grade, contacts in 8th grade, coke-bottle thick glasses/insane prescription by the end of law school. winning/nearly blind.

tfer2222 wrote:

zot1 wrote:I got you all beat. I got glasses in college.

glasses in 5th grade, contacts in 8th grade, coke-bottle thick glasses/insane prescription by the end of law school. winning/nearly blind.

I'm definitely okay with you winning this one.

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

Fair. I suppose some marriages are in such bad shape that nothing- even a spouse getting killed working as an attorney- could make things worse...

Voyager wrote:

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

Fair. I suppose some marriages are in such bad shape that nothing- even a spouse getting killed working as an attorney- could make things worse...

I mean more along the lines of how the two people understand their relationship. For example, a biglaw spouse could get lonely or have to deal with a very stressed spouse who lashes out in anger because of the stress. That biglaw spouse could understand that this is temporary because of loans. The biglaw attorney could also understand, yeah this is a problem and I need to fix it. They talk and eventually resolve that.

Or you could have an attorney who's always gone because of work, drinks a lot, also lashes out at spouse. Spouse says hey this is affecting our relationship. Attorney says, whatever. Then yeah someone is gonna leave someone at that point.

Strong relationships understand that not everything in life can be a smooth ride.

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

Fair. I suppose some marriages are in such bad shape that nothing- even a spouse getting killed working as an attorney- could make things worse...

I mean more along the lines of how the two people understand their relationship. For example, a biglaw spouse could get lonely or have to deal with a very stressed spouse who lashes out in anger because of the stress. That biglaw spouse could understand that this is temporary because of loans. The biglaw attorney could also understand, yeah this is a problem and I need to fix it. They talk and eventually resolve that.

Or you could have an attorney who's always gone because of work, drinks a lot, also lashes out at spouse. Spouse says hey this is affecting our relationship. Attorney says, whatever. Then yeah someone is gonna leave someone at that point.

Strong relationships understand that not everything in life can be a smooth ride.

Marriage is tough enough as it is, friend...

Voyager wrote:

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

Fair. I suppose some marriages are in such bad shape that nothing- even a spouse getting killed working as an attorney- could make things worse...

I mean more along the lines of how the two people understand their relationship. For example, a biglaw spouse could get lonely or have to deal with a very stressed spouse who lashes out in anger because of the stress. That biglaw spouse could understand that this is temporary because of loans. The biglaw attorney could also understand, yeah this is a problem and I need to fix it. They talk and eventually resolve that.

Or you could have an attorney who's always gone because of work, drinks a lot, also lashes out at spouse. Spouse says hey this is affecting our relationship. Attorney says, whatever. Then yeah someone is gonna leave someone at that point.

Strong relationships understand that not everything in life can be a smooth ride.

Marriage is tough enough as it is, friend...

I've been married for six years...

Voyager wrote:

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

Fair. I suppose some marriages are in such bad shape that nothing- even a spouse getting killed working as an attorney- could make things worse...

Why did you introduce this weird tangent into this thread?

OP, if your vision is only slightly poor, I've read avoiding eyewear can help prevent further deterioration.

Reading in Law School was intense and more so working in the law. If anyone here has undergone Lasik surgery….how has it worked out?

Toni V wrote:Reading in Law School was intense and more so working in the law. If anyone here has undergone Lasik surgery….how has it worked out?

This is why I try to spend time away from the computer when I can. If I've been working on a brief for a while, sometimes I print it out and look at paper instead.

I haven't done LASIK, but a coworker of mine has. She swears by it. She said it was expensive but she doesn't regret spending every cent on it. Honestly, she's made me consider doing the procedure myself, I'm just too busy at the moment to even think about it.

zot1 wrote:

Toni V wrote:Reading in Law School was intense and more so working in the law. If anyone here has undergone Lasik surgery….how has it worked out?

This is why I try to spend time away from the computer when I can. If I've been working on a brief for a while, sometimes I print it out and look at paper instead.

I haven't done LASIK, but a coworker of mine has. She swears by it. She said it was expensive but she doesn't regret spending every cent on it. Honestly, she's made me consider doing the procedure myself, I'm just too busy at the moment to even think about it.

I've heard it's a bad idea to get lasik young because you might not be able to get it again - does anyone know if that's true?

zot1 wrote: I haven't done LASIK, but a coworker of mine has. She swears by it. She said it was expensive but she doesn't regret spending every cent on it. Honestly, she's made me consider doing the procedure myself, I'm just too busy at the moment to even think about it.

I also knew someone who has gotten LASIK and it has made me really consider getting it done. He had his procedure on a Friday, was perfectly fine by Monday and his vision improved immensely.

I don't really know why I'm holding off so much tbh.

legal work affects lots of things. the least of your concerns should be eyesight strain

Voyager wrote:

zot1 wrote:

Voyager wrote:Legal work has a much larger and worse effect on your marriage....

Meh. It depends on the marriage.

Fair. I suppose some marriages are in such bad shape that nothing- even a spouse getting killed working as an attorney- could make things worse...

Your attitude on everything is oppressively negative. Take a vacation.

Who cares about eyesight legal work will affect your sex life...