I spend more time in front of a screen than I should. There aren’t many ways around this when I write articles, do extensive research, and test-drive Android phones for a living. It’s a fun job, but the constant itch in my weary eyes tells me something has to change.
That’s why I’ve been searching for ways to make the screen on my Samsung phone less tiring to look at. Over the past few weeks, I’ve tested all of its modes and settings that could reduce eye strain. Here’s what worked for me and what did not. Spoiler alert: Some of the tweaks did the trick, while others had the opposite effect.
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5
Increasing text size and contrast, changing the font
Making text clearer and easier to read
Since I have good eyesight, I did not expect this to make a big difference, but it did. Increasing the font size by a couple of notches had an effect I immediately felt. I could read long paragraphs of text more quickly and with less effort. While I was at it, I changed the system font to Gothic Bold, which also helped.
On the downside, I found out that not every app is optimized to work with larger font sizes. Instagram posts show only one or two words of text before hiding the rest behind the “more” button. The text size setting does not affect games and some widgets, while notifications fit fewer words before clipping the message. Also, the UI loses much of its visual appeal when paired with a bold, chunky font. Still, I kept the new settings, and I won’t go back.
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4
Enabling Eye comfort shield mode
Would a blue light filter reduce eye strain?
Eye comfort shield is the fancy name for Samsung’s blue light filter. When turned on, the mode activates automatically at night. You can also have it on all the time if you prefer. I kept it active all the time, aiming for maximum effect. However, that effect didn’t occur, or at least I did not notice any difference beyond my display’s skewed color accuracy. Despite its name, Eye comfort shield didn’t keep my eyes from getting as tired as usual.
I’m not saying the mode doesn’t do anything. Excessive blue light exposure can disturb your sleep cycle by blocking the natural cues our bodies use to tell when it’s time to rest. It also increases the chance of negative health effects developing over time. However, its impact on eye strain was negligible in my experience. It helps that today’s displays are less bluish and more color-accurate than a decade ago, when blue light filters became popular.
3
Setting strict screen time limits
Less screen time, less eye strain
Spending less time staring at a screen should be an effective way to reduce eye strain. That’s why I set strict time limits on the non-essential apps I use the most, such as Instagram, Reddit, Chrome, and a few games. For YouTube, I set the app to remind me to take a break every 30 minutes.
To enable reminders to take a break in the YouTube app, go to the You tab, tap Settings > General, and activate the Remind me to take a break toggle.
This helped, but not in the way you’d expect. Forcing myself to use my phone less made me spend more time at my laptop. This wasn’t ideal, but using a bigger screen, which was further away from my face, was less tiring for my eyes. Plus, I experienced fewer distractions, such as games and social media, which gave me a slight productivity boost and made it easier to take breaks away from the screen. I use my phone less, and mostly when I have to.
2
Enabling Dark mode made things worse
Not the results I expected
Dark mode is in most popular apps and operating systems. It brings several benefits. It prolongs battery life and the display health on devices with OLED screens while increasing contrast to improve readability. I expected it to reduce my eye strain, yet that didn’t happen.
Dark mode has the opposite effect on me, whether I use my phone or my laptop. If I spend time looking at white text on a black background, a faint halo appears around the letters, making words more difficult to read.
After looking into the topic, I discovered an explanation. Light mode causes our pupils to contract, which improves focus, much like a smaller aperture does in a camera. In contrast, dark mode makes our pupils dilate to absorb more light, and this dilation gives the eye a shallower depth of field.
Many people swear by dark mode and its effectiveness, especially at night or in a dark room. However, my experience suggests that white text on a black background isn’t for everyone. If you’re like me, perhaps a more effective way to reduce eye strain could be to lower the screen brightness.
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1
Tweaking the brightness settings
An excessively bright screen can’t be good for your eyes, especially at night, and Dark Mode is not a silver bullet. In my subjective opinion and personal experience, a light theme at low brightness works better to reduce eye strain.
There are several ways to do this. Newer Android phones, many of which can get ridiculously bright, support adaptive brightness. It adjusts the display’s intensity depending on the surrounding light conditions and according to your preferences. If you tend to set your brightness lower or brighter than the automatic level, the software will adapt. Some apps, such as Amazon Kindle, have their own brightness slider, which can override the phone’s settings.
If you read at night before bedtime, adjust the brightness slider to make the screen dimmer and easier on your eyes.
Additionally, you may find an Extra dim toggle in your Samsung Galaxy phone’s accessibility menu or on your Google Pixel after the Android 16 update. Switching it on makes the screen significantly dimmer, going below the minimum brightness level. The downside of this feature is that it reduces outdoor visibility, so I don’t recommend keeping it on all the time. You can toggle it on or off manually with a shortcut, such as holding the volume up and down buttons for three seconds.
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What actually helped the most: developing healthy habits
After tinkering with my phone’s modes and settings for a couple of weeks, I realized that there is no life hack, shortcut, or trick that magically reduces eye strain. Not in my case, at least. Changing some settings had an effect, but nothing was as impactful as looking away from the screen from time to time.
My eyes get tired in front of a display, not because of blue light exposure. It’s because screens make us blink less often and stare for too long, leading to dryness and irritation. It’s also a problem when we look at them from too close or at odd angles, as this strains the muscles and could hurt the eye’s ability to focus.
If you’re in a position like mine, try some discipline. Don’t use your phone in bed in the morning or evening. Try the 20-20-20 rule. Take a 20-second break every 20 minutes by looking at something 20 feet away. Reduce the time you spend on time-wasters, like games and social media. Reducing screen time as much as possible could be the best way to give your eyes the treatment they deserve.
