[apothegm]

Yes. The current obsession with high contrast in LED screens absolutely contributes to fatigue. It’s fantastic for sunny locations or for watching films. But absolutely terrible for eye strain when trying to read in the absence of direct sunlight.

I use an app that lets me pump up the brightness and contrast to see clearly when the sun is out but decrease brightness and contrast below even what the monitor thinks is it’s zero-point at night because even that zero point is far too bright.

[CalvinBuild]

100%. The “high contrast” obsession makes sense for daylight and media, but it’s rough for long-form text at night.

I think a lot of the fatigue is absolute luminance and black level, not just contrast ratio. Modern panels often can’t get dim enough (and their lowest backlight still isn’t “dark”), so you end up fighting the display. Your approach of boosting for sun and going below the monitor’s nominal minimum at night is basically what an ergonomic default should do.

Out of curiosity, what app are you using to go below the monitor’s stated minimum?