On a more serious note Carl, if you have a CRT (that is, TV-like, bulky) monitor, you might find that you can improve matters by increasing the refresh rate. The refresh rate is the amount of times per second the picture is drawn; if it is too low, you'll see flicker which for me at least does distract me and cause eyestrain.
Note: not all monitors can handle all refresh rates. If you set it too high, your monitor may be damaged, although recent Windows versions generally won't let you overdo it.
To check/change the refresh rate (AKA refresh frequency): right click the desktop, go to Properties-> Settings-> Advanced-> Monitor and it should be in a drop down list there (if I remember rightly). I find 85Hz works best for me.
Hope that helps
Cheers
Neil