Why should the monitor be placed below eye level?

Question

Health and computer

No matter how much I look for information about it, everywhere they say that the monitor should be below eye level and you need to look a little from top to bottom. At the same time, they remind you of a straight neck, which is difficult to do when looking down and it is impossible not to notice that the posture is gradually sagging. What justifies such a decision, why can't the monitor be placed a little higher, or at least at a right angle, with a look with a straight posture in the center of the screen? I would like to know if there are good arguments in one or another favor, maybe someone knows detailed work from the camp of medicine.

Answer 1

Try to sit up straight and lift your head up a little. You will feel that for this you need to strain your neck a little.
When looking down, on the contrary, the neck relaxes.
If you sit for a long time with a tense neck, chronic problems will come much faster.
Of course, it is better to get up regularly and do a warm-up, but not everyone (almost no one) does this regularly. Therefore, it is easier to make yourself a comfortable place to work, with a good chair and monitor location.

Answer 2

If you think about it theoretically (not scientifically provable, at the level of your own knowledge) ...
The person initially stood up on all fours, straightened his back, increased his viewing height. If you think about your gaze, we rarely look up from the horizon, since the sky is located there, where only a threat in the form of a point can be seen (let's forget about the rare philosophical contemplation of the sky for now). Basically, we need image detail just below the horizon to capture the environment. In the grass below to spot danger or prey. A little further away to pay attention to competitors.
Thus, the eye processes the resulting image mostly from the lower region of its viewing angle. Anatomically, the eye is covered by the upper eyelid (closing from the bright sun and the piercing brightness of the sky). The pupil itself is located a little higher, thus giving the eye a maneuver again into the lower sector. Because of this, it is recommended that the main part of the image of interest be placed below the center (placing the upper part of the monitor at eye level in a straightened state, so that with the least energy consumption, glance along the bottom - as usual, as in nature).
Another thing is that in nature we are constantly moving and changing our gaze, and sitting in a seemingly comfortable position, we delay movements, fixatein the most comfortable conditions, but it still should not be long. The body gets used to the comfort, relaxes, it seems to expend less energy, but the head becomes heavier. A gaze focused at one distance does not give the muscles of the pupil movement, and yet we are always tense in two directions ("flexors and extensors" to quickly correct the condition for the desired change of position). So the muscle gets used to one and the other to press only in one place, pulling the ropes. So only a change of position, or a distraction to another type of activity, can help here.
Take breaks (set a timer for 20 minutes - that's half the lesson):
Stand up, spread your arms to the sides, clench your palms into fists and say "we wrote, we wrote, our fingers are tired." Then shake the brushes to the floor, saying "and now we will rest and start writing again." You can vary your movements.
Place the objects of interest to you at different distances (but within the plane in front of you) and occasionally glance (at the clock somewhere to the side, or back when someone is distracting). And do not take the same type of load as a "rest" (for example, you are tired of working at a computer - do not watch a movie later). In general, adjust your comfort by adding movement to it, since such a frozen monotonous work.
As for me personally, I made a shelf about 120mm high on the table (under the bottom is the keyboard, and on top is the display with its standard stand). There is a slight backlight on the keyboard under the shelf, while the main light falls on the table from above. The chair is raised to the max. The center of the view is on the top of the monitor (I have it quite high, not those narrow and long ones). But still, the ergonomics on the table are terribly broken, and you tend to bend over, reaching for the keys and placing your eyes at the level of the center of the screen, then look down at the keyboard, then look up a little higher, and after another jerk, you lean back in your chair to evaluate the result. But there are a lot of "uncomfortable" locations of distractions when you have to perform miracles of tightrope walking, but that's a completely different story :)
PS I tried to adapt to two screens - a bad idea, if we consider the image as a whole, then this strip in the middle of the screen completely kills all the beauty. Three monitors would be more logical, but it is necessary that they be the same. By the way, an interesting effect feels like if you place a narrow monitor vertically (I tried to figure out how three monitors would look like :) Or two narrow monitors above each other, but they unevenly use the space below the buttons and it turns out to stick together badly, although ... if you turn it over ... I’ll go experiment. Thanks for the interesting question.