Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020) • Hacker News Board

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#151

Post by ramraj07 » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:04 AM UTC

alpos wrote: post #87

ramraj07 wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Quoted post unavailable.

Your tone and overconfidence is the only techbro thing going on here. You really think you've read enough on this or that there's even been enough study of the topic for you to know with any certainty at all how someone else's eyes are working for them? Pure hubris. All the data you can read doesn't mean a damn thing for Hosteur's personal experience. Neither you nor anyone you have read has studied that person's eye…

This topic does seem to rile up techbros a lot lol. Maybe tied with “mechanical keyboards make me more efficient” said by people who barely type 200 words a day.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#152

Post by wincy » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:14 AM UTC

_8j50 wrote: post #147

wincy wrote: post #94

I was a big believer in dark mode for a long time, until I started trying to reduce my SAD symptoms during the winter time. I read this blog post here [0] after seeing it on HN, and ended up buying 28 100W equivalent bulbs and a 500W equivalent corn bulb. I get a pretty decent amount of light in my home office now, and light mode is essential on my workstation or it's almost impossible to even SEE anything on screen,…

That's so many 100w bulbs, do you wear sunglasses indoors or soemthing? Very interesting.

They’re actually 13W or so? I use a 7-way splitter on 4 bulb slots made for higher watt incandescent bulbs. That helps a lot, then use a corn bulb I bought that uses 100W and puts out 10,000 lumens. It still only gets the room to 7,000 lux, which is less than a bright day. My Lux meter clocked 50,000 lux streaming through the window in October!

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#153

Post by wincy » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:17 AM UTC

kitsunesoba wrote: post #114

wincy wrote: post #94

I was a big believer in dark mode for a long time, until I started trying to reduce my SAD symptoms during the winter time. I read this blog post here [0] after seeing it on HN, and ended up buying 28 100W equivalent bulbs and a 500W equivalent corn bulb. I get a pretty decent amount of light in my home office now, and light mode is essential on my workstation or it's almost impossible to even SEE anything on screen,…

The monitor brightness struggle was something I encountered first a 3 or so years ago when I moved into place with big windows that got a lot of natural light during the latter half of the day, even in the winter. Garden variety 250-350 nit displays really struggle with that kind of light, even if it's indirect and the screen in question is matte. 400-450 nits I've found is about the minimum for universally usable di…

This has absolutely been my struggle since upgrading my lighting. It’s also so difficult to find data about how bright a monitor actually is! I bought some 1440p “gaming monitors” that I think are around 450 nits, and these are just barely bright enough for my newly lit up office.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#154

Post by bombcar » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:17 AM UTC

_8j50 wrote: post #147

wincy wrote: post #94

I was a big believer in dark mode for a long time, until I started trying to reduce my SAD symptoms during the winter time. I read this blog post here [0] after seeing it on HN, and ended up buying 28 100W equivalent bulbs and a 500W equivalent corn bulb. I get a pretty decent amount of light in my home office now, and light mode is essential on my workstation or it's almost impossible to even SEE anything on screen,…

That's so many 100w bulbs, do you wear sunglasses indoors or soemthing? Very interesting.

It’s nothing compared to the brightness of outside (even on a cloudy day) unless you stare directly into the soul of the corncob.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#155

Post by optymizer » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:23 AM UTC

If there's one thing I got tired of doing over two decades is changing settings. I switch machines often enough, so I just use the defaults.

Eclipse: light mode Android Studio: light mode. IntelliJ: light mode VS Code: dark mode Text editing: light mode vim: dark mode (depends)

Windows cmd: black background MacOS terminal: white background, unless I bother to launch a Pro themed window. Linux (Ubuntu): black terminal, white FreeBSD: black

Whatever is there. The only customization I do is I manually edit my .vimrc and dump settings from memory.

My eyes are doing fine, no glasses so far.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#156

Post by wincy » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:24 AM UTC

sneak wrote: post #129

ezconnect wrote: post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I actually dont understand why other people can work in a dimly lit space and having dark mode on their monitor. It make feel so lazy and gloomy.

Not everyone's bodies work the same. Working too long in a brightly lit room makes me extremely tired. The only way I can work long hours is in simulated twilight.

For me it’s an issue of seasonal depression. I get really agitated over the weeks and months of it being drab during the winter months, until I feel severe cabin fever in January or so and my mental state gets really, really bad, like “I’m going to book a flight to Miami and leave right now everything else be damned” sort of crazy. It’s not really a fun time.

I don’t mind working in a dark room, but if I do it for weeks at a time I’ll start to have problems if I’m not getting bright lights at other times (which during winter there aren’t many opportunities for).

It also has the hilarious added effect of totally blowing out my laptops webcam and making me look like I have an angelic halo of light atop my head.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#157

Post by Onewildgamer » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:24 AM UTC

I didn't like dark mode since the beginning, it was too much effort on my eyes. During the day, the room is well lit, why do we need a dark mode at all. And when it is night, we probably shouldn't be working. Or at least switch on the lights, we wouldn't want a dark mode then.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#158

Post by wolpoli » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:33 AM UTC

Dark mode became popular in part because interface designers have decided to move away from the Windows 9x era black text on grey background theme to dark grey text on white background, causing the screen to become fully white and thus very bright.

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#159

Post by Sunspark » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:39 AM UTC

I like dark mode very much these days even during the daytime because I find staring at a bright white screen runs the risk of triggering a migraine. Dark mode screens don't do that.

The contrast between pure white backgrounds and pure black text is too stark and causes greater eyestrain when it's directly transmitted light as opposed to reflected light. Displays in light mode that are reflective do not have this kind of strain because their background is more silvery.

Turning down the brightness on a display is not really the solution because most displays use pulse width modulation so you are just exchanging brightness for flicker and strobing effects.

I pose you this question, when it comes to paper, do you enjoy reading books that are printed on pure white paper which has had optical brighteners added to enhance the effect, or do you prefer a softer natural ivory or linen colour? Perhaps light gray? If so, then why should your screen be pure white?

Re: Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

#160

Post by lostNFound » Mon, Dec 12, 2022, 4:39 AM UTC

sooheon wrote: post #148

apmee wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bit of a long shot, but I don't suppose you'd happen to know where to find that post or what it was called?

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-018-28904-x Proposes that black on white text stimulates a pattern of expression in visual system that may contribute to myopia: > Using optical coherence tomography (OCT) in young human subjects, we found that the choroid, the heavily perfused layer behind the retina in the eye, becomes about 16 µm thinner in only one hour when subjects read black text on white background but a…

Careful there you got the conclusion other way around.

You said WoB contributes to myopia.

Your own source says WoB inhibits myopia.