[hollerith]

The Kindle's light comes from a ring of linear LEDs that goes through a plastic sheet called a diffuser -- same as the light from an iPad. In the iPad the diffuser is behind the image whereas in the Kindle, it is in front of it, but why is that better or "more diffuse"?

>much closer to just having a reading light on

First of all, that contradicts the evidence from my eyes, but second of all, even if it were true, you'd have to persuade me that reading an old-fashion paper book with a reading light is any better at helping me get to sleep at night than reading from an iPad. I'm not buying that one either mainly because a reading light is going to throw more light onto the ceiling, where of course it gets reflected down again, and neuroscientists know (and the Scandinavian tradition "knew" in practice decades ago) that light from the top of the field of vision is more disruptive to sleep than light coming straight into the eye or from the sides or bottom of the visual field.

[tiltowait]

The eReader manufacturers have done a great job of marketing the alleged benefits of their front lights, even though they’re simple LEDs like everything else. I look for any actual studies on the subject every couple of years and come up empty.

(I do prefer an eReader over a tablet, but I don’t think the light is magically better.)

[TZubiri]

"evidence from my eyes"

What are you a peasant?

Everybody knows that the modern scholar obtains information from the world through papers, either from google scholar or from the latest libgen domain.