There’s no simple, one-size-fits-all rule for how high you should place your monitor, but here are some guidelines that should help you decide.

I discussed in a previous post that the preferred line of sight, which connects the eye to the visual target, varies with the object being viewed and its distance from you.  When looking at a monitor screen, your eye will rest about 15⁰ below the horizon.  That’s your normal resting line of sight.  When your head is still, your eyes can comfortably move up and down and side to side by 15° from the line of sight, forming a 30° visual field cone – this is where you can best see without moving your head or straining your eyes. Your screen should fit entirely within that visual field cone.

Thus, you should position your monitor so that the top of the screen is at eye level (and don’t forget to have it centered in front of you).  As a result, your eyes will normally rest slightly below the horizontal line, allowing you to scan your whole screen with a comfortable eye sweep.

But that simple rule can vary based on the size of your screen and even what’s on the screen. If your work has you looking at the bottom half of your screen most of the time (this is not so frequent for the majority of computer users), you may want to consider raising your monitor up, but be careful!  The eyes don’t like to strain and if your monitor is too high you’ll end up tilting your head up which could cause some cervical strain and a royal pain in the neck.

Monitor height also gets a little more complicated when you start wearing bifocals, trifocals or progressive lenses.  The common denominator with these various types of lenses is that more than likely you’ll be looking through the bottom part of the lens in order to read your screen, resulting in a serious case of forward head/chin up posture creating significant tension in the back of your neck.  Solution?  Bring your monitor lower, often as low as it gets.  What you’re trying to do is look through the reading part of your glasses without having to move your head up and down to scan your screen.  Depending on your vision and your correction, this can be challenging to achieve and you may need the help of an outside observer (preferably an ergonomist) to see what you really do with your head when looking at your monitor.   You may also want to consult with your eye care specialist to get “computer glasses” –  single lenses or bifocals (paper reading and computer reading distance).

One last note: For all of you who will end up moving your monitor lower to accommodate your vision, correction and/or task, you may also want to tilt the screen up slightly so that just like when you read a book, your line of sight is perpendicular to the screen.

… and yes, I still have more to say about monitors, so stay tuned.