While some research has linked too much blue light exposure at night to insomnia, even daytime exposure could be a problem. “There are blue light-sensitive molecules in the retina that help to set our body’s circadian rhythms,” he explains. If the photo-negative look isn’t your thing, Dunaief recommends shifting your screen’s color scheme away from blue and toward the yellow end of the spectrum. Some say it also makes text easier to read. Nearly all devices have an easy shortcut for this inversion setting, which can cut way down on the amount of computer-generated light your eyeballs are blasted with. “There’s no benefit in having it any brighter than it has to be.” You can even invert the colors on your screen so that white backgrounds become black, and black text becomes white. “Bright screens can be irritating, so I recommend turning down the brightness to as low a level as you can use while still seeing things clearly,” Dunaief says. To prevent them, start by adjusting your screen’s brightness. But for now, short-term symptoms-like headaches, eye pressure and dry eyes-are your biggest worries. However, he says that it is theoretically possible we could find out years from now that too much screen-time messes with our eyes or vision. “There is no evidence that eye strain leads to chronic issues or harm,” he says.

Joshua Dunaief, a professor of ophthalmology at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine. And after 10 to 14 hours of screen time in a single day, your eyes can feel like you just rinsed them with sand.įortunately, there don’t seem to be any long-term vision or eye-health issues related to the dry, achy, itchy sensations you feel after your marathon screen sessions, says Dr. If you’re not driving, exercising or sleeping, you’re probably staring at one.

Does lower brightness reduce eye strain