For a few years I used dark mode because i thought it was better for your eyes; it isn’t.
When in dark mode, you’re looking at an overall darker screen, your pupils will dilate to let in more light, which makes everything just outside of focus very blurry, and gives the text a halo effect. A few minutes will be fine, but anything longer is going to make your eyes begin to strain.
When in light mode, your pupils contract to accommodate for the light, this is how our eyes are supposed to work, this is going to be less straining on your eyes. In low light environments, simply turn down the brightness and apply a night light filter.
If you’re going to use dark mode regardless, don’t use AMOLED unless it’s for saving battery. The contrast between bright white and pitch black is the worst combination. Consider using a soft grey, your eyes will thank you.
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Dark mode actually makes my eyes relax and I feel less prone to headaches and eye fatigue.
Depends what you’re doing. If you’re not doing intensive reading it’s okay. If your eyes are more tired with light mode, it just means the night light filter, or the brightness isn’t adjusted right.
Source?
That was my first thought…
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The source they cite is the AAO and their website has this article which seems to say the opposite.
Edit Wait. No. They cite the AOA which is different? Who comes up with this stuff‽
Ok both groups seem to agree that dark mode is either not bad for your eyes or better. The linked YouTube video isn’t some medical board or anything so I wouldn’t go by them.
What is even more interesting is the little battle between the AAO and the AOA. One being ophthalmologists and the other optometrists.
The former call themselves medical doctors, and outline both terms providing difference between them for easy access.
The latter, optometrists, call themselves doctors as much as possible in the context of medicine but seem to avoid calling themselves medical doctors because they know they arent. The only mention of ophthalmology on the AOA website seems to be in reference to groups that oppose them, which seems biased.
Like optometrists are trying as hard as possible to be considered medical doctors in as many ways as possible without having gone to medical school. Can’t say I care for the AOA or their articles now.
The AOO
The video description links to a Facebook page for the AOA. idk what the AOO might be
It was a joke
For some, maybe. I’m just generally photosensitive, so dark mode = less light = less problem.
If you’re photosensitive, that’s more reason not to be using dark mode. I challenge you to switch to light mode on a low brightness and nightlight for a week and get back to me on how it feels.
I went from reading for an hour before my eyes got sore, to being able to read for about four. It’s a lifechanger.
No thanks, I get enough migraine potential from just when I’m forced to use apps that don’t have a dark mode.
I’m not using dark everywhere I can because it’s cool or because I read some random paper, but because it’s legitimately the only way I can use technology.
If it works for you, then it works, but some research (which you can find lots on both sides) won’t suddenly stop how my eyes work.
No. This is crap.
We’ve been living a lie…
(Not to be that guy, the post just got me curious about it, so i looked up some more details) (Also, i rant a bit, so feel free to not read this)
Although in the article i checked, the American Academy of Opthalmology (AAO) doesn’t specifically mention Dark Mode as something that reduces or increases eye strain, it does mention that lowering the brightness (or setting dark mode in your devices) does lower the amount of blue light that the screen displays, allowing you to sleep better, by not confusing your brain into thinking that it’s still daytime. (Feel free to correct me on this, other places i saw about this mostly cite anecdotes about how well it worked for them, regarding their sleep cycle.)
It does later say that one of the ways to possibly reduce eye strain when using a screen for a long time is by lowering the glare and brightness, by dimming the screen or the like.
So my take would be that maybe a full pitch black/AMOLED theme could start putting more strain into your eyes, the regular dark grey-ish should be right, but eyes differ from person to person so it’d boil down to: Find a middle ground that works for you and doesn’t make your eyes hurt? (Also take some time to let your eyes rest, lookup the 20-20-20 rule in the 2nd article)
(Sorry about the wall of text, i might’ve gotten a bit too into this)
Sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/is-dark-mode-better-for-your-eyes#about-blue-light https://www.aao.org/eye-health/tips-prevention/digital-devices-your-eyes
Tell me about it… Since changing back to light mode after all these years, my eyes have felt a lot less sore in only a few days, its amazing.
That’s fair, i’ve had used a few apps for long periods of time with light mode and it is pretty nice, although i’m biased towards dark mode. Maybe it also has to do with the enviroment around you? Since a dark theme while outside in a sunny day would surely put some strain in your eyes?
I’ve been using the internet a long time before dark mode was a thing. I’ve served my time by dealing with too much white, everywhere, that blinds me whenever it came up suddenly.
Focusing your eyes (and to a lesser extent, adjusting your iris to changing brightness) is like making a fist.
In a day’s reading, that’s happening about 30,000 times. Bit of a strain. What can we do to cut down that number or lessen the amount of muscle-force needed? Keep your irises closed down. Happens in photography all the time. Small iris-openings means a wider depth-of-field. Focused for 1m, with a small iris setting, objects at .5 and 1.5m might appear sharply focused. A really wide-open iris setting, and suddenly only objects at .9 to 1.1m are in focus.
Your eye sweeps the page/screen as you read a line. It’s unlikely that surface is perfectly curved so every letter is exactly the same distance from your eye, so a little focusing might be needed from the left, through the middle, to the right of the line. (That’s where they came up with the 30k estimate.)
So if we could pick an ideal, minimal iris opening to minimize that re-focusing during the scan, wouldn’t it be easier on our eyes?
And how do we get that minimal iris opening? With a brighter average scene. Light mode. Or perhaps “light-ish mode.” As many people have pointed out, extremes aren’t our friends. But we need contrast to read, we just don’t need it to be at 11 all the time.
YMMV. @HousePanther, you might need glasses. Strain=bad, but cyclical strain vs steady-state strain might be worse. You do you, I’m sticking with white or light backgrounds.
That’s why you need to use night light feature which make color warmer
That does work to lower the strain in your eyes (coming a person that has had one in their phone for years now) but as far as i know, that is mostly meant to lower the amount of blue light coming from your display, as to not affect your sleep cycle
edit: typo
Light mode only “clicked” for me when I set my monitor’s brightness all the way down. If you’re getting “flashbanged” turn that brightness down. It helps (or maybe my monitor is just really fucking bright)
Except Discord which somehow manages to have the worst light theme ever created by mankind. I have no idea how anyone can use light mode without going mad. Everything else’s fine.
Thanks, I’ll show this when my pals go berserk about getting “flashbanged”
I fucking hate dark mode so much. Reading for a short period always burns the text into my eyes like staring at a light bulb for too long.
That’s exactly it. If you are reading in dark mode and look away, you can still see the phantom text. Its like staring at the sun and then closing your eyes (don’t do this, its dangerous)
