If you’re addicted to your phone and/or your computer, you’ve probably wondered if you should switch to dark mode. Maybe by making this change, you felt your eyes soothed, or on the contrary you didn’t feel anything and you wonder if it really helps. The real question is: does this mode have a real positive impact on your eyes? Explanations.
Dark mode against blue light
Several factors come into play when it comes to the brightness of your screens. In the morning, you may like to read news related information, even before sunrise. This implies a dark environment and a white screen. During the day, you might be working on Word, in bright light. And at night, you are surely watching a series on Netflix, in a dark environment and with a dim screen.
These situations act differently on the eyes, and can cause certain pressures. Scientists have often given a golden rule for working on screens during the day: a bright screen, dark text and a bright environment. But that was before the invention of “dark mode” or dark mode. Dark mode, which can be found in many apps and smartphones, is changing your settings to put light text on a black background. Many sites and applications have adapted accordingly. You can, for example, adopt dark mode on Twitter, and Netflix has been giving you white text on a black and gray background for years. It would thus, in principle, protect your eyes from blue light, which is emitted by screens.
Bright white background actually makes it easier to read
According to this study, in the middle of the day and when the surrounding light is strong, dark text on a lighted background is ideal. Indeed, researchers recently discovered that people read more easily and retain more information when text is presented in this way. Light contrast would allow us to see details better, and the authors explain that most readers are used to reading dark colors against a bright background.
Another reason that proves that the white background makes it easier to read is the anatomy of the human eye. The White reflects all the colors of the spectrum, which means that a white screen prevents the pupil from opening to let in more light, which would make focusing more difficult. A rather peculiar element in the human visual system also causes your eyes to overreact when they encounter a bright object against a dark background, which can make it difficult to read white text against a dark background.
And in the dark?
In a dark room, things are not exactly the same. A white screen with black text may cause you to feel some strain on your eyes, although the science is not yet conclusive on this subject. If you think your pupils constrict much more when flooded with strong white light on a basic web page, a study shows that’s not really the case. When comparing different rooms with different brightnesses, we note that the pupil size changes less when people look at a black element on a light background than when they look at light colors on a black background. And, remember, a large pupil means less focus, so even in dark conditions it might be better to read long texts with the black text scheme on a light background.
What this study explains and what the public seems to feel are actually two different things. Before dark mode became popular, gamers were the only ones affected by sore eyes in the dark. They often used special glasses to block blue light, and put on more ambient lights so that the white brightness of the screen was no longer too painful. Now that screens are everywhere in our lives, and we read more and more on our smartphones, more people have also asked what dark mode and technology has adapted.
It is therefore preferable that in bright rooms you configure your favorite sites with the best settings for your eyes: dark text on a light background. Even if the scientific research is not yet complete, using the night mode could possibly help your eyes to suffer less in a dark environment. So change the settings as a precaution, as soon as you feel discomfort in your eyes!
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