12 ms·

Is there a body of evidence that suggests it is better for our eyes?

loceng 6y ago
If anything there's individual anecdotal evidence - people able to compare for themselves how their eyes feel using an eink screen vs. backlit; "better for eyes" I believe isn't meant in relation to physical effects (which may exist) but primarily for psychological/biological impact - including sleep patterns, etc.
- read_if_gay_ 6y ago
  My eyes used to hurt from staring at my screen. It got a lot better after turning down the brightness to ~15%. With the same strategy I can comfortably read in bed on my iPad with the added benefit of colors and 120Hz. I recommend trying this if eink feels much better to you. Another notable side effect is you might end up going back to light themes.
  - mellosouls 6y ago
    Anybody who thinks a non e-ink screen is comparable even at "low" brightness should try turning the screen brightness down to lower than 15% in a completely dark room and turning the screen away - you will see that you still essentially have a torch in your hands that you are shining constantly in your eyes when reading. I have tried every option with smartphone screens,: low brightness, night light filters, dark themes and nothing short of paper is remotely as free of strain as e-ink hardware.
    - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
      Of course if you're in a completely dark room any LCD is going to be bright. But in that scenario you can't use an eink screen either. The point is if there is some light, you can probably find a brightness setting such that your LCD is emitting about as much light as an eink display will reflect, making them (at least subjectively to me) equivalent.
      - contravariant 6y ago
        Not really, I can read a book using the light of my phone displaying a black screen at minimum brightness. Now OLED _might_ be able to fix things, but manufacturers don't provide low brightness settings for most screens at the moment (even though anything with a LED backlight could have almost arbitrarily low brightness), so I'm not particularly optimistic. The example from that one guy that made a fake painting by matching light levels to a white wall was pretty convincing though, so I think it can be done it just isn't for some reason.
        gnicholas 6y ago
        FYI on iOS you can use the accessibility settings (via the zoom filter, with zoom turned off and darkness turned to max) to lower the brightness beyond the normal limit. I have this setting tied to triple-clicking the sleep button, so I can activate it easily in the morning or late at night.
        gazzini 6y ago
        Thank you so much for this comment. I can’t believe I didn’t know this, I’ve been inverting my colors & sometimes wearing cheap, non-polarized sunglasses at night — no more! I had to fiddle with the settings quite a bit to get a 1x zoom w/ the filter, though.
        gnicholas 6y ago
        This is a very little-known feature. I work in accessibility and have had an iPhone since day 1. But the only reason I know about this very well-hidden trick is that an Apple employee told me!
        johnsoft 6y ago
        >that one guy that made a fake painting by matching light levels to a white wall Do you happen to have a link to this? I remember reading the original post years ago, but I didn't save it and could never find it again.
    - antman 6y ago
      Dark theme works for me, lowering the the brightness doesn’t.
      - WesolyKubeczek 6y ago
        Got OLED?
  - TheCowboy 6y ago
    One common source of eye strain is likely due to our eyes having to adjust to the inconsistent brightness of our workspaces. Another solution you can use instead of or in addition to this is installing backlights and more area lighting. Provide more even lighting coverage throughout the room, and don't compute or watch TV in completely dark rooms. Anecdotally this works for me at least.
- tyler109 6y ago
  Yes there is lots of research: https://www.nvisioncenters.com/education/screen-time-and-your-eyes/ https://www.nvisioncenters.com/education/screen-time-and-you... and https://www.uabmedicine.org/-/eye-health-in-the-digital-age-does-too-much-screen-time-hurt-your-vision- https://www.uabmedicine.org/-/eye-health-in-the-digital-age-...
  - tyler109 6y ago
    https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386252 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386252 (from 2013) talks about LCD vs E-ink, and determines backlit LCD induces eyestrain (as measured by blinks per second and self reported visual fatigue) at a higher level, and that the E-ink Paperwhite has a profile similar to paper.
contravariant 6y ago
I mean there's an industry built on people that prefer it to LCD screens, so while it's hard to say it's objectively better I reckon we can at least conclude that there's a significant group of people that prefer it.
ekianjo 6y ago
> Is there a body of evidence that suggests it is better for our eyes? Is there any body of evidence that working with displays with refresh rates in the 60hz range with improper contrast ratio days after days do NOT damage one's vision?
- Too 6y ago
  Refresh rate on a LCD does not cause flicker the same way a 60hz CRT did. The 60hz here says nothing.
  - Ekaros 6y ago
    Having run my monitor at 29Hz for work laptop, I feel that refresh rate isn't too big deal. Doesn't look as nice, but really makes not much difference for browsing or coding or even teams calls. (Old 27" 1440p DELL where I have to use old HDMI-port as DP or Dual-Link DVI isn't option for main pc anymore, so trickery is needed)

If anything there's individual anecdotal evidence - people able to compare for themselves how their eyes feel using an eink screen vs. backlit; "better for eyes" I believe isn't meant in relation to physical effects (which may exist) but primarily for psychological/biological impact - including sleep patterns, etc.

read_if_gay_ 6y ago
My eyes used to hurt from staring at my screen. It got a lot better after turning down the brightness to ~15%. With the same strategy I can comfortably read in bed on my iPad with the added benefit of colors and 120Hz. I recommend trying this if eink feels much better to you. Another notable side effect is you might end up going back to light themes.
- mellosouls 6y ago
  Anybody who thinks a non e-ink screen is comparable even at "low" brightness should try turning the screen brightness down to lower than 15% in a completely dark room and turning the screen away - you will see that you still essentially have a torch in your hands that you are shining constantly in your eyes when reading. I have tried every option with smartphone screens,: low brightness, night light filters, dark themes and nothing short of paper is remotely as free of strain as e-ink hardware.
  - read_if_gay_ 6y ago
    Of course if you're in a completely dark room any LCD is going to be bright. But in that scenario you can't use an eink screen either. The point is if there is some light, you can probably find a brightness setting such that your LCD is emitting about as much light as an eink display will reflect, making them (at least subjectively to me) equivalent.
    - contravariant 6y ago
      Not really, I can read a book using the light of my phone displaying a black screen at minimum brightness. Now OLED _might_ be able to fix things, but manufacturers don't provide low brightness settings for most screens at the moment (even though anything with a LED backlight could have almost arbitrarily low brightness), so I'm not particularly optimistic. The example from that one guy that made a fake painting by matching light levels to a white wall was pretty convincing though, so I think it can be done it just isn't for some reason.
      - gnicholas 6y ago
        FYI on iOS you can use the accessibility settings (via the zoom filter, with zoom turned off and darkness turned to max) to lower the brightness beyond the normal limit. I have this setting tied to triple-clicking the sleep button, so I can activate it easily in the morning or late at night.
        gazzini 6y ago
        Thank you so much for this comment. I can’t believe I didn’t know this, I’ve been inverting my colors & sometimes wearing cheap, non-polarized sunglasses at night — no more! I had to fiddle with the settings quite a bit to get a 1x zoom w/ the filter, though.
        gnicholas 6y ago
        This is a very little-known feature. I work in accessibility and have had an iPhone since day 1. But the only reason I know about this very well-hidden trick is that an Apple employee told me!
      - johnsoft 6y ago
        >that one guy that made a fake painting by matching light levels to a white wall Do you happen to have a link to this? I remember reading the original post years ago, but I didn't save it and could never find it again.
  - antman 6y ago
    Dark theme works for me, lowering the the brightness doesn’t.
    - WesolyKubeczek 6y ago
      Got OLED?
- TheCowboy 6y ago
  One common source of eye strain is likely due to our eyes having to adjust to the inconsistent brightness of our workspaces. Another solution you can use instead of or in addition to this is installing backlights and more area lighting. Provide more even lighting coverage throughout the room, and don't compute or watch TV in completely dark rooms. Anecdotally this works for me at least.
tyler109 6y ago
Yes there is lots of research: https://www.nvisioncenters.com/education/screen-time-and-your-eyes/ https://www.nvisioncenters.com/education/screen-time-and-you... and https://www.uabmedicine.org/-/eye-health-in-the-digital-age-does-too-much-screen-time-hurt-your-vision- https://www.uabmedicine.org/-/eye-health-in-the-digital-age-...
- tyler109 6y ago
  https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386252 https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24386252 (from 2013) talks about LCD vs E-ink, and determines backlit LCD induces eyestrain (as measured by blinks per second and self reported visual fatigue) at a higher level, and that the E-ink Paperwhite has a profile similar to paper.

contravariant 6y ago

I mean there's an industry built on people that prefer it to LCD screens, so while it's hard to say it's objectively better I reckon we can at least conclude that there's a significant group of people that prefer it.

ekianjo 6y ago

> Is there a body of evidence that suggests it is better for our eyes? Is there any body of evidence that working with displays with refresh rates in the 60hz range with improper contrast ratio days after days do NOT damage one's vision?

Too 6y ago
Refresh rate on a LCD does not cause flicker the same way a 60hz CRT did. The 60hz here says nothing.
- Ekaros 6y ago
  Having run my monitor at 29Hz for work laptop, I feel that refresh rate isn't too big deal. Doesn't look as nice, but really makes not much difference for browsing or coding or even teams calls. (Old 27" 1440p DELL where I have to use old HDMI-port as DP or Dual-Link DVI isn't option for main pc anymore, so trickery is needed)