8 ms·

Because of the way your eyes work. If it is bright, your pupil will be shrunk, to not be blinded by the luminosity. When it is dark, your pupil will be opened w

Because of the way your eyes work. If it is bright, your pupil will be shrunk, to not be blinded by the luminosity. When it is dark, your pupil will be opened wide up. It is this principle that camera apertures are based on. Now if you have your pupil wide open in a completely dark environment and put a 100% brightness screen at ~10cm of your eyes, what do you expect will happen ? Our eyes are made for nature, that means day and night, now we have technology that is akin to a handheld sun and you use this at night at 10cm of your face, our eyes are simply not equipped to handle this.

Ntrails 8y ago
My phone (unlike my PC, or a TV) is smart, and thus dynamically alters brightness based on ambient light. It's pretty cool and certainly mitigaets the above somewhat
- rory096 8y ago
  At least on my phone (LG G5), the lowest brightness setting is still incredibly bright in an otherwise dark room. I use Twilight[0] to dim it further, though unfortunately Google changed Android so it can't affect the soft buttons. (Which is fine for almost all apps because the soft button bar is black, but of course Chrome changes it to white with no way to fix it.) [0] https://twilight.urbandroid.org https://twilight.urbandroid.org
  - mywacaday 8y ago
    Thanks for prompting me to go back and check the settings on the Darker(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mlhg.screenfilter&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mlhg.scree...) looks like it now dims the soft navigation buttons
  - doh 8y ago
    iOS is the same. Even on the warmest setting and lowest brightness it's still very bright. Unfortunately, there is no app to do anything about it like there is on Android.
    - graeme 8y ago
      You can go further by reducing white point in accessibility settings. The colour filters there also go beyond night shift.
      - doh 8y ago
        Interesting. I was on grayscale for last couple of months, but didn't know I can reduce the white point also. Will try.
    - walterbell 8y ago
      You can configure iOS Home button triple-click to invert the screen, so it's white text on a black background. There is a "Smart Invert" option so that photos are not affected.
      - doh 8y ago
        I'm on X so no more Home button, but good suggestion. For last 9 months I had my phone on grayscale, which was nice, but still a bit high for my taste.
      - r00fus 8y ago
        You can also apply an accessibility filter to increase the darkness in iOS. I have this mapped to a triple home-button click and use it all the time (after reading to kids etc) https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-dim-your-ios-screen-with-an-accessibility-setting-trick/ https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-dim-your-ios-sc...
    - Tyr42 8y ago
      There is a setting, so I can tap three times with three fingers each time top open a menu and set a filter, and I choose low light mode It's not the easiest mode to find, but works.
  - verall 8y ago
    I recommend, instead of Twilight, to use Lux[0]. It has many settings and lets you completely set your own brightness curve, with "negative" brightnesses that darken your screen with an overlay included. Also lets you adjust color temp, of course. The free version had all the features I needed. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassisi.luxlite&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassis...
- stephengillie 8y ago
  My TV, a Toshiba Regza, has dynamic brightness. It works very well as my primary monitor.
rgrove 8y ago
Hmm. If I've been in the dark for a while and then pick up my phone, the brightness hurts my eyes for a moment until they adjust to it. When I put the phone down, it takes a moment before I begin to be able to see things in the dark room. Doesn't that indicate that my pupils were initially dilated in the darkness and then constricted when I began looking at my bright phone? I wonder how significant the difference is between pupil dilation while looking at a bright phone in a dark room and while looking at a bright phone in a bright room.
- asdkhadsj 8y ago
  If it is the delay in dilation that causes the damage, I imagine it's exacerbated by constantly changing dilation as well. Ie, if I'm staring at my phone in the dark, I rarely keep focus on it. I often glance to the left or w/e, thus causing the screen to appear too bright again. Same for laptop-ing in the dark. I often find myself looking at keys, or thinking off in the distance, or w/e.
  - lphnull 8y ago
    serious question: Why do people like to do work or leisure in pitch black rooms? Don't you feel clumsy, sleepy and uncomfortable when everything is dark? How can anybody go more than 10 minutes without needing to use vision to interact with their surrounding environment? I personally can't have the lights off even if I'm watching a movie. Maybe because I was raised without TV, I can't sit still for more than 20 minutes watching entertainment before I feel the urge to do something productive like wasting time on the internet.
    - asdkhadsj 8y ago
      > serious question: Why do people like to do work or leisure in pitch black rooms? I prefer low light, not pitch black. Generally speaking I want my monitor to be the main focus. Same for TV; if I care about the viewing experience I dim the lights. I might even prefer pitch black honestly, but due to the reasons being discussed, the contrast is just too great. > Don't you feel clumsy, sleepy and uncomfortable when everything is dark? Nope > How can anybody go more than 10 minutes without needing to use vision to interact with their surrounding environment? Not sure, tbh. I imagine it has to do with not wanting to interact with the environment most of the time. Ie, what am I going to do with my banister? It's just sitting there.. why do I need to interact with it? Most of my house is the same way. If I'm doing X, rarely do I need to interact with the rest of the house or room. Does it bother you that there are things behind your head that you can't see?
rconti 8y ago
Interesting; when I got 2 new pair of eyeglasses last month, again I fell for the usual "buy all the coatings" spiel. I didn't much understand what they were, but I was told one causes refractions that bother some people. I absolutely notice a blue refraction from car headlights when driving at night. I keep thinking I'm seeing a police light from somewhere. It's fine, just interesting. Well, after looking at a few lens coating websites, and realizing my lenses reflect blue light back at me if I have a light source to reflect, they're obviously blocking blue light -- cool! I've never been much for f.lux style color shifting, I HATE the obviously inaccurate colors. I also wonder if we'll find that some of these technologies don't work nearly as well as a blue filter, and that perhaps the light just LOOKS less blue. But I'm sure glad to have glasses that now block some blue light. Also, it validates my desire to keep the blinds open at work; I have LOTS of light coming into my cubicle area. Sometimes it's even a bit annoying but keeping my pupils small should help.
- Brakenshire 8y ago
  Isn't blue light important in the mornings for keeping the circadian rhythm aligned? I thought you were supposed to avoid it in the evenings only. Probably it'd be fine for you if you're getting a lot of light, but might be bad if you don't.
  - deleted 8y ago
    [deleted]
- jt2190 8y ago
  > I absolutely notice a blue refraction from car headlights when driving at night. I think some ultra-bright headlights are actually slightly blue.
  - mrguyorama 8y ago
    Especially with the move to LED headlights, car lights have gotten significantly "colder" in color temperature
  - rconti 8y ago
rndmwlk 8y ago
That only happens for, what, less than a second before your eye adjusts? It's not like your eye knows it's day or night, and the pupil stays fixed.
athenot 8y ago
The same happens with computer screens. Most offices are under-lit (or over-lit but only if ALL your UI has a dark background). To get a feel for this, point your cell phone at your desk area and take a picture (without HDR enabled). If you can't take a picture without over– or under–exposing the screen or the wall, then your setup is putting strain on the eyes.
- foolrush 8y ago
  This is absolute quackery. Your camera's cell phone barely manages to hold approximately eight stops of latitude. Blowing out that pathetic dynamic range has no grounding in relation to any notion of "eye strain".
  - athenot 8y ago
    > Your camera's cell phone barely manages to hold approximately eight stops of latitude That's precisely what makes it a decent tool for detecting lighting imbalance. Just because our eyes mask the issue with high perceptual dynamic doesn't mean it's not straining them.
    - foolrush 8y ago
      Eight. Stops. Is. Not. High.
niceperson 8y ago
Would using a kindle at night have the same effect? It's light is kind of yellowish (I think)
- baq 8y ago
  My first gen Paperwhite is most definitely blue, it's obvious at low brightness. Don't know about later models.
- jonhendry18 8y ago
  Probably less so because it's reflected off the e-ink screen surface and probably diffused a bit that way.
  - niceperson 8y ago
    Right. Also the illumination is at the bottom of the screen and hence indirect, whihc might reduce it further.
dsr_ 8y ago
... but I don't put a 100% brightness screen in front of my eyes at night. Do people really do that? Don't they know how to adjust brightness? Indoors, I use about 30% brightness. As the day gets dimmer, that slides down to about 25%. If I'm reading something in bed, I start at about 10% and as my eyes adapt, go down to 1%. When I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open, I take that as my signal to go to sleep. Am I ridiculously unusual?
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
- JoshCole 8y ago
  It can be beneficial to suppose a perfectly spherical cow. You aren't unusual for trying to prevent your eyes from being harmed. If you were, an article which helps inform on the topic of eye care would not be popular.
- anonytrary 8y ago
  This isn't weird at all. I'm jealous of your 1%. The default low on my phone is maybe like 5-10% (I don't know how to check this), and it feels crazy bright when I'm in bed.
  - saagarjha 8y ago
    What phone are you using?
  - mohn 8y ago
    If you're on Android, I recommend Screen Filter[1] which will draw a semi transparent overlay on top of nearly everything (depending on the phone and/or OS version, it might not dim the status bar, bottom navigation buttons, lock screen, etc.). I use it a lot when reading at night, because the lowest brightness setting on my phone is also too bright for dark-adapted eyes. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor
    - 8y ago

Ntrails 8y ago

My phone (unlike my PC, or a TV) is smart, and thus dynamically alters brightness based on ambient light. It's pretty cool and certainly mitigaets the above somewhat

rory096 8y ago
At least on my phone (LG G5), the lowest brightness setting is still incredibly bright in an otherwise dark room. I use Twilight[0] to dim it further, though unfortunately Google changed Android so it can't affect the soft buttons. (Which is fine for almost all apps because the soft button bar is black, but of course Chrome changes it to white with no way to fix it.) [0] https://twilight.urbandroid.org https://twilight.urbandroid.org
- mywacaday 8y ago
  Thanks for prompting me to go back and check the settings on the Darker(https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mlhg.screenfilter&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mlhg.scree...) looks like it now dims the soft navigation buttons
- doh 8y ago
  iOS is the same. Even on the warmest setting and lowest brightness it's still very bright. Unfortunately, there is no app to do anything about it like there is on Android.
  - graeme 8y ago
    You can go further by reducing white point in accessibility settings. The colour filters there also go beyond night shift.
    - doh 8y ago
      Interesting. I was on grayscale for last couple of months, but didn't know I can reduce the white point also. Will try.
  - walterbell 8y ago
    You can configure iOS Home button triple-click to invert the screen, so it's white text on a black background. There is a "Smart Invert" option so that photos are not affected.
    - doh 8y ago
      I'm on X so no more Home button, but good suggestion. For last 9 months I had my phone on grayscale, which was nice, but still a bit high for my taste.
    - r00fus 8y ago
      You can also apply an accessibility filter to increase the darkness in iOS. I have this mapped to a triple home-button click and use it all the time (after reading to kids etc) https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-dim-your-ios-screen-with-an-accessibility-setting-trick/ https://www.techrepublic.com/article/pro-tip-dim-your-ios-sc...
  - Tyr42 8y ago
    There is a setting, so I can tap three times with three fingers each time top open a menu and set a filter, and I choose low light mode It's not the easiest mode to find, but works.
- verall 8y ago
  I recommend, instead of Twilight, to use Lux[0]. It has many settings and lets you completely set your own brightness curve, with "negative" brightnesses that darken your screen with an overlay included. Also lets you adjust color temp, of course. The free version had all the features I needed. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassisi.luxlite&hl=en_US https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.vitocassis...
stephengillie 8y ago
My TV, a Toshiba Regza, has dynamic brightness. It works very well as my primary monitor.

rgrove 8y ago

Hmm. If I've been in the dark for a while and then pick up my phone, the brightness hurts my eyes for a moment until they adjust to it. When I put the phone down, it takes a moment before I begin to be able to see things in the dark room. Doesn't that indicate that my pupils were initially dilated in the darkness and then constricted when I began looking at my bright phone? I wonder how significant the difference is between pupil dilation while looking at a bright phone in a dark room and while looking at a bright phone in a bright room.

asdkhadsj 8y ago
If it is the delay in dilation that causes the damage, I imagine it's exacerbated by constantly changing dilation as well. Ie, if I'm staring at my phone in the dark, I rarely keep focus on it. I often glance to the left or w/e, thus causing the screen to appear too bright again. Same for laptop-ing in the dark. I often find myself looking at keys, or thinking off in the distance, or w/e.
- lphnull 8y ago
  serious question: Why do people like to do work or leisure in pitch black rooms? Don't you feel clumsy, sleepy and uncomfortable when everything is dark? How can anybody go more than 10 minutes without needing to use vision to interact with their surrounding environment? I personally can't have the lights off even if I'm watching a movie. Maybe because I was raised without TV, I can't sit still for more than 20 minutes watching entertainment before I feel the urge to do something productive like wasting time on the internet.
  - asdkhadsj 8y ago
    > serious question: Why do people like to do work or leisure in pitch black rooms? I prefer low light, not pitch black. Generally speaking I want my monitor to be the main focus. Same for TV; if I care about the viewing experience I dim the lights. I might even prefer pitch black honestly, but due to the reasons being discussed, the contrast is just too great. > Don't you feel clumsy, sleepy and uncomfortable when everything is dark? Nope > How can anybody go more than 10 minutes without needing to use vision to interact with their surrounding environment? Not sure, tbh. I imagine it has to do with not wanting to interact with the environment most of the time. Ie, what am I going to do with my banister? It's just sitting there.. why do I need to interact with it? Most of my house is the same way. If I'm doing X, rarely do I need to interact with the rest of the house or room. Does it bother you that there are things behind your head that you can't see?

rconti 8y ago

Interesting; when I got 2 new pair of eyeglasses last month, again I fell for the usual "buy all the coatings" spiel. I didn't much understand what they were, but I was told one causes refractions that bother some people. I absolutely notice a blue refraction from car headlights when driving at night. I keep thinking I'm seeing a police light from somewhere. It's fine, just interesting. Well, after looking at a few lens coating websites, and realizing my lenses reflect blue light back at me if I have a light source to reflect, they're obviously blocking blue light -- cool! I've never been much for f.lux style color shifting, I HATE the obviously inaccurate colors. I also wonder if we'll find that some of these technologies don't work nearly as well as a blue filter, and that perhaps the light just LOOKS less blue. But I'm sure glad to have glasses that now block some blue light. Also, it validates my desire to keep the blinds open at work; I have LOTS of light coming into my cubicle area. Sometimes it's even a bit annoying but keeping my pupils small should help.

Brakenshire 8y ago
Isn't blue light important in the mornings for keeping the circadian rhythm aligned? I thought you were supposed to avoid it in the evenings only. Probably it'd be fine for you if you're getting a lot of light, but might be bad if you don't.
- deleted 8y ago
  [deleted]
jt2190 8y ago
> I absolutely notice a blue refraction from car headlights when driving at night. I think some ultra-bright headlights are actually slightly blue.
- mrguyorama 8y ago
  Especially with the move to LED headlights, car lights have gotten significantly "colder" in color temperature
- rconti 8y ago

rndmwlk 8y ago

That only happens for, what, less than a second before your eye adjusts? It's not like your eye knows it's day or night, and the pupil stays fixed.

athenot 8y ago

The same happens with computer screens. Most offices are under-lit (or over-lit but only if ALL your UI has a dark background). To get a feel for this, point your cell phone at your desk area and take a picture (without HDR enabled). If you can't take a picture without over– or under–exposing the screen or the wall, then your setup is putting strain on the eyes.

foolrush 8y ago
This is absolute quackery. Your camera's cell phone barely manages to hold approximately eight stops of latitude. Blowing out that pathetic dynamic range has no grounding in relation to any notion of "eye strain".
- athenot 8y ago
  > Your camera's cell phone barely manages to hold approximately eight stops of latitude That's precisely what makes it a decent tool for detecting lighting imbalance. Just because our eyes mask the issue with high perceptual dynamic doesn't mean it's not straining them.
  - foolrush 8y ago
    Eight. Stops. Is. Not. High.

niceperson 8y ago

Would using a kindle at night have the same effect? It's light is kind of yellowish (I think)

baq 8y ago
My first gen Paperwhite is most definitely blue, it's obvious at low brightness. Don't know about later models.
jonhendry18 8y ago
Probably less so because it's reflected off the e-ink screen surface and probably diffused a bit that way.
- niceperson 8y ago
  Right. Also the illumination is at the bottom of the screen and hence indirect, whihc might reduce it further.

dsr_ 8y ago

... but I don't put a 100% brightness screen in front of my eyes at night. Do people really do that? Don't they know how to adjust brightness? Indoors, I use about 30% brightness. As the day gets dimmer, that slides down to about 25%. If I'm reading something in bed, I start at about 10% and as my eyes adapt, go down to 1%. When I'm finding it hard to keep my eyes open, I take that as my signal to go to sleep. Am I ridiculously unusual?

deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
JoshCole 8y ago
It can be beneficial to suppose a perfectly spherical cow. You aren't unusual for trying to prevent your eyes from being harmed. If you were, an article which helps inform on the topic of eye care would not be popular.
anonytrary 8y ago
This isn't weird at all. I'm jealous of your 1%. The default low on my phone is maybe like 5-10% (I don't know how to check this), and it feels crazy bright when I'm in bed.
- saagarjha 8y ago
  What phone are you using?
- mohn 8y ago
  If you're on Android, I recommend Screen Filter[1] which will draw a semi transparent overlay on top of nearly everything (depending on the phone and/or OS version, it might not dim the status bar, bottom navigation buttons, lock screen, etc.). I use it a lot when reading at night, because the lowest brightness setting on my phone is also too bright for dark-adapted eyes. [1] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.haxor
  - 8y ago