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Comment by s_y_n_t_a_x | Hacker News Reader

Seeing as we're talking about something that relates to eyestrain, I don't think we can discount how the GP feels.

If you don't feel well you likely aren't going to perform well. If your eyes hurt, you are going to want to stop working. If I had to stare at a bright white screen all day, I wouldn't get the task done because it hurts my eyes. Common sense.

Yet another study where it's trying to trump opinion with a study. You can't be wrong if you prefer dark mode/light mode, it's subjective. A study is going to have a real hard time proving one is "better" than the other and we certainly shouldn't take the results on faith.

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Even if dark mode "feels" better that still doesn't imply it actually causes less eye strain. Without data it's possible OP's choice could be driven just by aesthetic preferences and they don't realize it.

I don't see in the study linked in the article where it attributes light mode to more eye strain.

I found where blue light causes eye strain, and it most certainly does, I immediately notice the difference when using a blue light filter on my monitor, but you can have both dark mode and a blue light filter enabled.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6020759/

Anecdotally, dark mode causes my eyes and my partner's eyes less strain.

You can notice by how dry and red they get, as well as the headaches, it's not rocket science.

EDIT (reached my post limit)

@shawnz: No, the light physically hurts. It's immediate. It's not because of the aesthetics.

You measured the dryness/redness of your/your partner's eyes after trying dark and light mode? Or is it just that occasionally you or your partner get dry/red eyes and the most memorable association was using light mode beforehand (and it's memorable because you don't like the aesthetics of it)?

I don't think this is "rocket science" but that doesn't mean it is handwavingly obvious either

What's a post limit? I've never encountered such a thing.

As much as, probably more than, aesthetic preferences, I would posit that there are many environmental differences which are difficult to completely control for. Screen type and configuration, ambient light level, light source positioning, how often the user look away from the screen (completely away from work, or just onto other media to read from a page for instance), etc.

Having said that I think my preferences are mainly, if not entirely, aesthetic. Dark-on-light terminals feel weird as do light-on-dark documents/spreadsheets - that can't be anything other than just what I'm used to.

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