Table of contents:
- Why do hands hurt when typing?
- Carpal tunnel syndrome
- Trigger finger
- Repetitive strain injury (RSI)
- How to deal with hand pain due to frequent typing
- Get in a sitting position
- Position your wrist straight
- Stretch
- Compress the finger
Do you often work and do activities in front of your laptop or computer to type? Without realizing it, typing too often can cause sore hands. The parts that often hurt are usually the wrists and fingers because they become the support when working at the laptop. Here's how to deal with hand pain when typing.
Why do hands hurt when typing?
Before knowing how to deal with it, you need to know in advance why your hands often hurt after typing too many times.
Jobs that require frequent typing, such as a writer or journalist, often result in pain in the wrist and finger area. How could this happen?
Quoted from the Cleveland Clinic, orthopedic surgeon, Wiliam Seitz explained that the pain and soreness is due to joint problems in the wrist area.
In addition, pressing the keys on the laptop too often repeatedly can also cause pain in the fingers.
Wrist pain can also be related to the network of nerves that run from the fingertips to the neck.
This is what makes fingers, wrists, and neck often hurt when typing too often so that we need a way to deal with this condition.
In addition, there are several diseases that cause sore hands after typing for too long, namely:
Carpal tunnel syndrome
This is a syndrome that occurs due to disruption of the middle nerve (median nerve) due to pressure on the wrist.
This condition causes pain and weakens the muscles in the wrist. This occurs due to compression or compression of the medial nerve in the hand
The characteristics of carpal tunnel syndrome are hot hands, tingling in the area of the thumb, index finger and middle finger. Treatment can be through drugs, physiotherapy, to surgery.
Trigger finger
This is a painful condition in the finger, such as a stiff finger when bent or when you want to straighten your finger. If the trigger finger is severe, the finger may become locked in a bent position, making it difficult to straighten it out.
Repetitive strain injury (RSI)
RSI or repetitive strain injury is a condition of injury to muscle or other nerve tissue in the body due to repetitive actions for a long time.
This usually happens to people who work in the front repeatedly. Hand pain conditions when typing need to be handled with the right way to handle it.
How to deal with hand pain due to frequent typing
Too often typing often makes your hands hurt, how can you handle it so as not to interfere with your daily activities? Here's the explanation.
Get in a sitting position
Quoting from the Cleveland Clinic, adjust the sitting position and distance with a computer or laptop. Make sure you work with a table that is suitable for work. Adjust the monitor, mouse, and keyboard according to your height and body size.
Make sure you sit in a comfortable upright position. Avoid slouching or leaning too much forward, as this can make your spine and wrists hurt.
Position your wrist straight
Another way to deal with hand pain from typing is to position your wrists straight while typing.
Make sure that your wrists and arms are not tilted down or up when typing. The position of the wrists and arms should be straight with the elbows.
Stretch
Every hour or two, stretch your body, fingers, and hands. For example, you can stretch out your arms and stretch to the right and left.
You can do this stretch every 15-20 minutes, so that you don't keep sitting in front of the laptop.
Compress the finger
Quoting from the NHS, the way to deal with hand and finger pain when typing is to compress your fingers with ice.
You can store an ice cube in a towel, then place it on the sore finger for 20 minutes. Do this regularly, every two to three hours.
This is one way to deal with hand pain when you are or because you type too often.
If this method does not work, consult a doctor for further examination.