Give Your Eyes a Break: How to Choose the Right Background Color for Your Laptop

You’ve been working for the entire afternoon and your body is feeling it. Your eyes are itchy and dry, you have a horrible headache, your neck and shoulders are sore, and you can’t even look at a source of light without cringing.

These are all symptoms of eye strain. You can reduce it and give yourself a bit of relief by changing the background color on your computer. So, what’s the best background color to reduce eye strain? 

Many would argue the answer is dark mode. It’s a mode that displays white text on a black background. Keep reading to find out if it actually works.

The Problem with Blue Light 

Your computer screen gives off something known as blue light. Blue light can be beneficial during the day because it can make you more attentive and improve your mood. Blue light has a dark side, however. 

It has the ability to disrupt your sleeping patterns. So, if you use your computer right before bed, you may end up tossing and turning throughout the night. 

Long exposure to blue light can also give you symptoms of eyestrain. If you don’t try to lower your exposure, it can cause retina damage over time. Many will argue the best way to cut out blue light is to switch your phone up to dark mode. 

Switching to Dark Mode

Dark mode is a setting that’s available across multiple devices. It switches your display to show white text on a black background instead of black text on a white background. 

It has a lot of advantages such as preserving your phone battery and reduced screen glare. It also limits your exposure to blue light but does it fight against eye strain? 

The answer is yes and no. If you’re sitting in a low-lit room, dark mode can stop your eyes from straining as much to read the text on your computer. Other times, this mode isn’t as beneficial. 

The light text on the dark background will cause your eyes to dilate. When your eyes dilate, it reduces your vision sharpness. This will make it harder for you to see the fine details on your screen which can cause computer eye strain and blurred vision.

You can check this out if you want to read up on dark mode a little more. 

The Best Color Combo for Eye Strain 

The absolute best background color combination is going to be black text on a white background. This is sort of the default setting that your eyes are used to looking at because white reflects every single wavelength in the color spectrum. 

It won’t cause your eyes to dilate so you don’t have to strain to see the text on your computer screen. You don’t necessarily have to use black text on a white background. As long as the background is a light color and the text is dark, you’ll be good to go. 

The Worst Color Combo for Eye Strain 

The worst color combo is actually the black background with the white text. While dark mode does get rid of the blue light problem, it causes a brand new one by making your eyes dilate. 

Since your eyes are working harder to absorb more light, the letters on your screen may start to sort of bleed into the background.

Dark mode is fine for scrolling through your phone right before you go to bed at night but as far as using it on your work computer goes, it’s a bad idea. 

Further Ways to Prevent Eye Strain

So, if both dark mode and blue light cause digital eyestrain, how do you prevent headaches and watery eyes? There are a couple of tricks that you can try out that doesn’t involve changing your background color. 

Use the Right Lighting 

When using your computer, it’s a good idea to keep the light intensity in the room to a medium. Close the curtains when it’s bright out. You also should avoid working in an area that uses fluorescent lighting. 

Fluorescent lights also give off blue light so you’ll be getting a double whammy if you’re working at a computer. Put a low-light lamp on your desk and use that as a light source instead. 

Get Rid of Glare

The next thing is getting rid of glare. Try to avoid rooms with a lot of reflective surfaces such as white walls. If you can’t avoid working in a place with white walls, invest in getting an anti-glare screen to put over your computer or purchase anti-glare glasses. 

Anti-glare glasses eliminate glare and improve your vision which will reduce eye strain. These lenses also make your glasses look pretty cool. 

Purchase Blue Light Glasses 

If you want to reduce the amount of blue light you’re exposed to throughout your day, invest in blue light glasses. These glasses have special lenses that can filter out and block blue light. 

You can get these glasses in prescription or non-prescription depending on your needs. 

The Best Background Color to Reduce Eye Strain and Stop Headaches

Have you been getting a lot of headaches at work? The reason might be due to eye strain. You might be able to reduce this strain by changing your computer background colors. 

Many would say the best background color to reduce eye strain is black. While dark mode can help to some degree, it’s a bit situational. It might be better for you to keep your computer the same and invest in gear to reduce blue light and glare. 

Are you looking for more ways to keep yourself comfortable at work? Check out our blog daily for more articles like this one. 

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