[alin23]

I always thought that staring at monitors with blinding brightness is what causes retinal damage, not just blue light specifically.

That's one of the reasons I created Lunar (https://lunar.fyi): because having to lower the brightness of the monitor throughout the day, using its hard to find buttons, was such an annoying endeavor.

I’ve always used f.lux and now Night Shift simply because I like warm colors. I have all LED bulbs and strips in my house adapt automatically to <3000K after sunset just because it gives me a sense of warmth and coziness.

But now, thanks to your comment I stumbled onto the “intense red light” cult. I had no idea about this effect, I thought all intense light is bad for the eyes. But I hope someone tries to reproduce this study. Usually, bold claims like these can be the effect of cumulative small errors in the study process.

[unicornporn]

> I always thought that staring at monitors with blinding brightness is what causes retinal damage, not just blue light specifically.

Just curious, did it ever occur to you how much more blinding even a cloudy day outside is? Adjust cd/m2 to roughly match the ambient brightness of the room, that's general ergonomic advise.

[alin23]

I did some programming around light sensors calibrated to match human eye sensitivity, so I’m very much aware that outside sunlight (>50k lux) is much brighter than a monitor backlight (<1k lux measured at a distance of 30cm).

But I can stay outside in very bright sunlight for 12 hours (which I did 6 days a week before college while working in agriculture with my parents) and not have a headache or feel my eyes tired afterwards.

That’s contrary to what the monitor backlight does to me when staring at it even 6 hours at a time.

Not blinking often enough is probably the biggest cause, you are kinda forced to do that when reading/writing code and have to consciously make a decision to blink more often.

Focusing your mind very hard on the task is also probably a big cause of this and unrelated to light intensity or energy.

But having the monitor backlight adapted to the ambient light is what helps me the most to end up in a relaxed state after I finish working. I know it’s not something that will work for everyone, unlike most blue light filter ads going on nowadays about solving your sleep and vision problems.

I think using low brightness screens/bulbs/strips may have also increased my light sensitivity, because now I can’t stand a normal TV blasting its light into a dark room, or >1000lumen overhead light bulbs or staring at my phone in the dark without having the brightness all the way down (and sometimes using Reduce White Point).

[copperx]

It always seemed to me that these "blue light harms your eyes" proponents had never spent a day outside.

[formerly_proven]

FWIW some people don't adjust the brightness on their screens at all, that's where a lot of complaints about headaches and such come from.

[nebula8804]

Have you heard of these new e-Ink PC monitors coming out of China? They seem like a promising niche use case for computing without the eye strain.

[1]: https://www.amazon.com/Dasung-Paperlike-Front-Light-Touch-Mo...

[krrrh]

Wow. If anyone else found this intriguing and wasn’t aware of this this product category was emerging, their demo video is pretty impressive [0]. I’m balking at $1100 for 13.3”, but if they could get the price down a bit these would be great second screens for writing and email. I’d need minimal color support for coding, but that would also sell like hotcakes.

Edit: wow, they have a 25” monitor set to retail for $3k. Come on early adopters, get this price down for the rest of us!

[0] https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vnUACe8Bsyg

[KingMachiavelli]

My understanding is that the cost of sink is due to the patent holder keeping licensing costs high which keeps it niche. i.e e-ink is expensive so it is rare so it is expensive.

TBH at this point I have no idea why you need e-ink out side of low power situations. Quality VA panels have great contrast and viewing angles. OLED is even better.

At the prices e-ink displays are, a OLED screen would be more versatile and probably just as little eye strain (just use low brightness).

[nebula8804]

OLED screen don't seem to be happening for Computer monitors. Probably burn in issues. Dell introduced and quickly discontinued one model. Plus e-ink has no backlight whatsoever, yes OLED on a terminal screen can probably come close but i'm not so sure it is the same. e-ink is just in a class of its own. Was hoping Qualcomm Mirasol went somewhere or maybe Pixel Qi but alas nope. Still holding out hope for ClearInk. It might be the display that kills e-ink and becomes the magical display that everyone gets.

[1]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=51JaR7KTeKs

[2]:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ivauOg4FvpI

[3]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zjJ2-cdhwMQ

[gambiting]

At the moment there are several laptops with Oled panels and more are coming, so either the burn in problem is solved or not an issue in sufficiently long term. In fact car manufacturers started using OLEDs for the built in infotainment screens, and those famously sit and display the same image for hours at the time - sounds like it would be a poor choice for an OLED but clearly not.

[nebula8804]

Actually you are right. I'm sorry I totally forgot about that Samsung Galaxy Chromebook and there were a few more. My mind was thinking more of Desktop PC monitors as that is what the DASUNG is. Seems like a few options in the 27-32 inch are trickling out like the new LG monitor. Suspiciously it seem out of stock as soon as it launched, this is what happened to the Dell OLED. (EDIT: seems like other stores still have stock so disregard this) But yeah in the ~13 inch range there are a few laptops. There still seems to be some fundamental problem.

I have heard of talks that Apple is investing heavily into microLED and the next big tech and skipping OLED for Laptops/next gen Monitors. That might be where the rest of the PC industry heads as well.

[nebula8804]

Maybe if you are REALLY good at convincing people, you can sell this to your health/eye insurance company as a necessary health related tool that should be covered under insurance. :D