The eye problems associated with being a law student. Forum

[Mark Stratford]

So, this is my first post on this forum...hopefully some people will respond to my questions that I post.

This is my situation:

I am currently in my 3rd year at Law School. Ever since I started, the study load has been crazy (of course, you people will know that...) and I often find myself going to bed each night with a headache, due to immense eye strain from hours of reading. I visited my optometrist recently, and she told me I had nothing wrong with my vision. She said she could sell me some low-magnification glasses, to ease the eye strain by magnifying text when I read. These glasses would be quite pricy, I found out.

I thought this through, and I've considered just going to the chemist and getting some cheap glasses from there. I mean, wouldn't this just be the same thing that the optometrist would sell me!

Have any of you people here ever heard of this strategy of wearing low-magnification glasses? Have you ever tried it? Would you recommend it? Do you think it's worth giving it a go?

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

[smaug_]

[El Pollito]

I think a couple of people on TLS have mentioned using non-RX glasses and them being helpful.

[imnottelling]

I walked into law school with terrible vision already. By mid-second semester, I started using some cheap wal-mart reading glasses (that magnify the text at a low level). On days where my eyes feel tired or I am just struggling to slug through, they do help and I wear them at my summer internship all the time.

Also, make sure you are drinking enough water and not too much coffee. That may help with the headaches too.

[chem!]

You can get non-RX reading glasses and they will be fine. The biggest difference is just the quality of the manufacturing materials.

[BVest]

She said she could sell me some low-magnification glasses, to ease the eye strain by magnifying text when I read. These glasses would be quite pricy, I found out.

Custom glasses are always going to be pricey, but low magnification readers (under 2.00 diopters) are readily available at any drug store for under $20. Under 1.00 are often called computer readers.

http://optical.cvs.com/reading-glasses. ... r=PriceLow

BTW, if she refracted you and determined a prescription for you, your entitled to your eyeglasses prescription by federal law (FTC enforces this, it's generally called the eyeglasses rule). From your description, however, it sounds like there probably wasn't a determination of a prescription, and all you need to do is go to the readers section of the pharmacy and start trying on readers. Be sure to bring a casebook.

Lastly, lots of reading does cause temporary and small changes in vision that can result in different prescriptions coming from refractions that are done right for example in the middle of the semester vs in the middle of the summer. For those of us who are nearsighted and wear glasses/contacts all the time, this can be an important thing to know.

[BigZuck]

I think you also should cut way, way down on the reading. I can think of way better things to do with my time in law school than spend hours reading law school books every day. Especially as a 2L/3L, you should probably be keeping the reading to a minimum.

I'm 100% serious by the way, no sense hurting yourself reading dumb school stuff that doesn't even matter. Even as a 1L, if you're reading for hours and hours on end all the time then you're probably doing it wrong.

[It's A Lion]

It sounds like the pace you're currently on may lead to burnout. Perhaps consider the west/lexis case briefs before you start reading? Going in with an idea of what this case/reading is about may help.

[Mark Stratford]

Thanks for your replies

Taking your advice into consideration, I think I will cut down on the reading a bit. I've always been a bit over the top with studying; I'll try to tone it down a bit for now.

I went out and tried some glasses from the drug store, and eventually decided on some 2.00 magnification lenses. I haven't had a chance to study with them yet; I'll post the results soon.

[ilovesf]

It might not only be about glasses, but also about having dry eye. I recommend starting to use eye drops in the morning and in the afternoon to see if that helps. If none of these things work, you could also look into eye moisturizer (I swear it works).

[Mark Stratford]

That sounds interesting; I'll have to give it a go.

[skw]

Be careful with lubricating eye drops if you have ever had migraine. The perservatives (and also some of the active ingredients) can trigger migraine. This happened to me when I was diagnosed with chronic dry eye. After starting drops I had a horrific migraine every 4-5 days for 2 months. Just awful. Thankful I figured out the trigger and switched to single dose drops with no preservative and a different active ingredient, but it was pretty rough going for a while.

[BVest]

If there were even a hint of dry eye, the OD would have found it, believe me. They LOVE writing scripts for that.

Another tip is to follow the 20/20/20 rule: every 20 minutes, look off into the distance of 20' or more for at least 20 seconds. Its mainly recommended for computer eye strain, but it's generally a helpful rule.

[moneybagsphd]

This gif is 180

[Mark Stratford]

I have just been reading for a few hours, testing out my new glasses.

For the first hour of so, I read with the glasses on. It took a bit for my eyes to adjust, but after a while it was quite comfortable and there was no strain on my eyes.

Next, I read for a while without the glasses; I certainly noticed a difference. It was much harder to focus after reading with the glasses on.

Then I went back to the glasses, and BAM, much easier to read.

I am very greatfull that the optometrist recommended this for me to try. I would recommend it to all law students struggling with eye strain. It makes reading for extended periods of time much easier. Go ahead, try it!

[Leprechaun]

I just wrapped up my 1L year and the wear on my eyes was probably the hardest aspect for me. Have already changed prescriptions once in my glasses since I started. Probably doesn't help either that I'm in my 40's and stare at a PC screen all day at work. Significantly curtailed my reading 2nd semester after realizing 1st semester that all the reading was unnecessary overkill IMO. My eyes still strain, but I've got it down to a much more manageable reading load now.

[Nebby]

I'm confused how people reduce their reading load. Were people reading unassigned passages? Or just arbitrarily choosing, “I’m not reading Torts because eyes.”

[BVest]

Aces don't read cases.

[kay2016]

I'm confused how people reduce their reading load. Were people reading unassigned passages? Or just arbitrarily choosing, “I’m not reading Torts because eyes.”

I know that first semester sometimes I would have to read the case multiple times (usually 2) and both times were very thorough reads... I stopped doing that by either reading the case brief/wikipedia for Con Law and then either reading the case thoroughly or just skimming it depending on the class.. Some weeks I just relied on the briefs... I didn't do any worse or any better with this method but it was far easier

[LSATNightmares]

I know I'm late to the discussion, but this was a major problem for me when I started working after college and spent a lot of time in front of computers. First, I'm a glasses wearer, so a doctor gave me a weaker prescription for computer work and reading which helped a lot. Second, I find that staring at computers is worse than reading. If you're doing something like computer research on Westlaw, your eyes aren't moving back and forth as much, and that causes strain. Your goal is to avoid fixing your eyes in one position for two long -- moving them, looking into the distance helps.

Speaking of injuries from spending too much time studying, I also recommend getting a book stand and laptop stand. Late in my 3L year, I started getting neck problems from looking down too much. So invest in good ergonomics when you have a chance to prevent injury. Everyone thinks it's unnecessary until a problem starts, but then it's too late.

[Danger Zone]

You're a 3L. Reading cases is completely unnecessary.