Can lap suppports reduce the strain of using a laptop on your knees

Published in Laptops +mobile equipment on Wednesday, 24 February 2010
by Catherine Albert  |   Post RSS

Well a recent ergonomic study suggests there may be some benefits to a lap support or lapdesk.

We are all familiar with the stiff or sore neck you get from looking down for long periods with your laptop perched on your knees or in other positions such as those shown below.

Part of the reason is that laptop or netbook computer doesn’t allow you to position the computer so both the screen and the keyboard are in a comfortable position.

If the screen is at the right height and your head isin a comfortably position than usually the wrists or arms will be too high - see A. If the hands and arms are resting down comfortably than the head and neck will be bent too far down to see the screen - see B.

You can see in the diagram below that the shaded red areas indicate strain occurring when using a laptop in these positions

  .

So a lap support or lapdesk has been designed with the aim of improving the posture of laptop users. There are a number on the market and they look like this.

So should you use a lap support or lapdesk. Well the study indicated that using a lapdesk was better than resting a computer directly on your lap but not as good as using a desk.

So I guess that depends what else is available to use and whether you have any exiting problems. If you have an existing neck problem you are probably better trying to find a desk to work from as the strain and discomfort is much less. This is especially so if you are at home and there are tables etc to work from. On the other hand if you have elbow and hand problems and there is no possibility of using a desk than maybe a lapdesk is worth considering.
 

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