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Is Dark Mode Good for Your Eyes? (2020)

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

#201

Post by brigade »

IncRnd wrote: post #196
BeetleB wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> This post seems to boil down to, "I read a summary of one study, so I am confident in telling you all how wrong you are". Most/all of the points were well known back in the days when I used CRT monitors - he's not reporting something new. In fact, reading some of the comments, I'm quite surprised people still believe there are inherent benefits to dark mode. There's not really much research supporting it. It's just…

> In fact, reading some of the comments, I'm quite surprised people still believe there are inherent benefits to dark mode. There's not really much research supporting it. That's actually kind of ridiculous. I don't need to read other's research about dark mode to know how it lessens eye-strain. I have performed the experiment myself with my own eyes.

Just as I don’t need research either to know that dark mode inherently increases eye strain thanks to the afterimages caused by using it for more than a couple dozen seconds at a time. I have my own two eyes after all, and plenty of other eyes across the web agree.

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

#202

Post by IncRnd »

verinus wrote: post #198
IncRnd wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, reading some of the comments, I'm quite surprised people still believe there are inherent benefits to dark mode. There's not really much research supporting it. That's actually kind of ridiculous. I don't need to read other's research about dark mode to know how it lessens eye-strain. I have performed the experiment myself with my own eyes.

err well- anecdotal evidence may be a good basis for a theory that could be validated using an experiment, but it does not suffice to be calling somebody elses' argument ridiculous...

My comment does not mention anecdotal evidence but a person using their eyes to perform an experiment. That is clearly not anecdotal.

It is ridiculous for people with eyes to not use their own eyes except to read studies as to whether their own eyes prefer light or dark. That should be obvious.

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

#205

Post by walterbell »

cole-k wrote: post #179
walterbell wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Instead of a low-effort comment implying that a high-effort summary with zero rebuttals has been conjured out of nothing, please ask any question, about any sentence, for which you cannot find a source on the first page of Algolia/Google after entering the sentence as a query. They have been discussed many times here on HN and there are excellent references in those earlier threads. Alternately, ask the nearest optic…

Perhaps you've read too much into my reply. I'm capable of looking things up in my own time - thank you for your offer to help me, though - I was wondering whether you were summarizing a single source. You made it clear that you were not. I thought I thanked you and moved on, but it seems I've pissed you off. Sorry, guess the curt and literal HackerNewsSpeak is rubbing off on me.

Thanks for the clarification. I wrote the summary because I've not seen those topics covered in a single article. To salvage this sub-thread, here is some related content :)

Dedicated computer glasses for screen distance, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30560500

2018 discussion of computers and eye health, including one point forgotten above—move the screen as far away as practical, to reduce eye stress from extended periods of closeup focus, https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16146106

Yawning/tears for eye lubrication, https://iristech.co/yawning/

Ambient light, pupil dilation and focus, https://endmyopia.org/why-vision-is-worse-at-night-and-on-cl... (this user-contributed article stands alone, the rest of the site is not endorsed by mainstream optometry)

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

#206

Post by aaronbrethorst »

wpietri wrote: post #166
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,…

Could you please tell us more about your bulbs? Like you, I found a huge improvement in mood if I use light cues to help convince my body that I live in an eternal late spring. So far I've used Hue bulbs, as I love their color temperature range and the ease of programming. (For me it helps that a plausible day-night cycle just happens in my house.) But I've wondered if daylight-like lumens would be even better. And H…

My whole house is full of warm Hue bulbs. The handful of Hue lights that are color temperature-adjustable are all set to warm because blue-tinted lights drive me nuts. That said, I use Wirecutter's budget SAD lamp pick set to the bluest setting and maximum brightness for about 20 minutes per day to help me cope with this particularly gloomy Seattle season, and it definitely seems to help. So you may not need to rewire your entire house.

https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/best-light-therap...

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

#207

Post by BossingAround »

IncRnd wrote: post #202
verinus wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

err well- anecdotal evidence may be a good basis for a theory that could be validated using an experiment, but it does not suffice to be calling somebody elses' argument ridiculous...

My comment does not mention anecdotal evidence but a person using their eyes to perform an experiment. That is clearly not anecdotal. It is ridiculous for people with eyes to not use their own eyes except to read studies as to whether their own eyes prefer light or dark. That should be obvious.

> My comment does not mention anecdotal evidence but a person using their eyes to perform an experiment. That is clearly not anecdotal.

It is clearly anecdotal [1] at the very least to everyone else that reads your comment. It is also clearly insufficient to draw any scientifically valid conclusions.

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/anecdotal%20evide...

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

#208

Post by doix »

brigade wrote: post #201
IncRnd wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> In fact, reading some of the comments, I'm quite surprised people still believe there are inherent benefits to dark mode. There's not really much research supporting it. That's actually kind of ridiculous. I don't need to read other's research about dark mode to know how it lessens eye-strain. I have performed the experiment myself with my own eyes.

Just as I don’t need research either to know that dark mode inherently increases eye strain thanks to the afterimages caused by using it for more than a couple dozen seconds at a time. I have my own two eyes after all, and plenty of other eyes across the web agree.

> Just as I don’t need research either to know that dark mode inherently increases eye strain thanks to the afterimages caused by using it for more than a couple dozen seconds at a time.

You've probably got your brightness too high if you're getting after images.

I use darkmode when I'm inside and turn my monitor brightness down. When I'm outside, I switch to lightmode and max out my monitor display. Work for me.

I suspect this is an extremely difficult question to answer until we have a perfect model of humans. Maybe there is some gene/mutation that affects something to do with brightness/darkness. Maybe there is some adaptation that happens after staring at at dark/light mode.

Unfortunately we are extremely far from having good models of the human body :(.

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

#209

Post by steve1977 »

cameronh90 wrote: post #146
steve1977 wrote: post #8

Having astigmatism, I definitely feel like text in dark mode is harder to read than dark text on light background. In regards to eye strain with light mode, what I found important is to match screen brightness to „environmental brightness“ (don’t know the proper term). As a rule of thumb, when I put a white paper in front of a white screen, the screen shouldn’t illuminate the paper more than the other lights in the r…

I have astigmatism too. Dark mode is a bit blurrier, but at least I can't see my floaters.

Fair enough. I also have floaters, but not enough to be disturbing

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

#210

Post by michaelteter »

xigoi wrote: post #191
michaelteter wrote: post #141

The light vs dark mode topic has come up several times on HN in the last few years, and it seems for one group that it is a religious conflict. That group seems especially (and aggressively) vocal in rejecting any observations or opinions from the other side. Each should use what they like, and eyes (and the brains that they depend on) are pretty unique. Therefore, I would not expect any two people to look at the sam…

> Viewers may be in environments with high ambient light. Dark mode, viewed in a very bright environment, can be difficult or even impossible to see if the ambient brightness is very high. Viewers may also be in environments with low ambient light, where staring into a white light is painful. > Video/image compression tends to result in poorer output for lower contrast content Contrast and dark mode are two separate…

> Viewers may also be in environments with low ambient light, where staring into a white light is painful.

I find that turning my phone/laptop/monitor brightness down as needed solves that problem. Conversely, however, I often find myself trying to turn my phone brightness up when it is already at maximum, and sadly I still can't see the content (because the ambient light is too strong).

There is a reason Google Maps switches between light and dark mode based on ambient light sensor. I challenge anyone to use maps in dark mode on a sunny day; there is no device bright enough to make dark mode content visible outside. It would also be absurd to burn so much energy trying to make thin colored lines and text be as bright as the opposite - dark lines on light background.

> Most popular dark themes are low-contrast for some reason, but it doesn't have to be that way.

Probably because viewing the highest contrast dark mode color schemes is more painful than switching to light mode and dimming the monitor.

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