Ergonomic keyboards for carpal tunnel syndrome – why I’m a big fan

Ergonomic keyboards never used to rank too highly on my list of things I should find out more about. But that was before I started getting symptoms of carpal tunnel syndrome. In case you aren’t aware, carpal tunnel syndrome occurs when the median nerve in your wrist has pressure exerted on it. This pressure can occur for a wide variety of reasons. Mine seems to have been caused by frequent typing – I am a full time writer so I use the keyboard most days. Although if I do a lot of physical jobs with my hands I find they ache a lot the next day as well.

Anyway I did try using an ergonomic keyboard once before. It was given to me to try out by someone else and to be honest I didn’t get on with it at all. It was an old model and a very severe ergonomic keyboard design as well. If you were to split your keyboard down the middle and turn the two halves so they were at right angles to each other, the result would be about the same as the keyboard I was given to try!

I thought they were all the same – and that was a big mistake.

Then two weeks ago my partner bought me one. I was sceptical at first, largely because of the bad experience I’d had trying to type with the previous one. But this one was a lot less severe and I found it very easy to use. Sure, there were a few spelling mistakes in the first couple of hours, but then I was using it quite happily. It was a gradual curve and it was therefore a lot more subtle than many of the other ergonomic keyboards I’d seen in the past.

In all honesty I am now a HUGE fan of ergonomic keyboards. I can vouch for the fact that my hands ache a lot less than they did before. Sometimes the pain would wake me up at night, it was that bad. But not now: in the space of two weeks my hands have vastly improved and it is all thanks to the ergonomic keyboard I could not do without.

If you suffer from carpal tunnel syndrome it is definitely advisable to get medical advice before doing anything. But an ergonomic keyboard will help you to help your hands – and after all, if you are a writer you will want to take good care of them because they will earn you your money for a long time to come!

My main piece of advice though is to take a good look at the wide range of ergonomic keyboards you can get. The first one I tried wasn’t right for me, and it nearly put me off trying other ones. I am not a proper touch typist so a keyboard like that wouldn’t have worked for me anyway. If you are self taught look for something with a more gradual curve as you will likely find it easier to use.

In addition to this you really don’t need much of a curve to notice the easing of the pressure on the median nerve in each wrist. After just two weeks I have noticed a huge difference and I am so glad I got my ergonomic keyboard. I wouldn’t buy anything else now and I highly recommend it for anyone else who may be suffering with carpal tunnel syndrome too.