Most devices we use today, from smartphones to laptops, allow us to use dark mode. While proponents claim it can reduce eye strain and save battery life, this setting might not always be the best choice for everyone.
What is Dark Mode?
Dark mode is a display setting that changes your device’s color scheme from the traditional white/light background to a darker one.
It’s different from night mode, which adds a warm, usually yellowish or reddish, tint to the screen and reduces brightness. Most importantly, night mode also reducesblue light, which can affect your productivityand sleep patterns.
If you don’t follow a “no phone in bed rule,” enabling night mode is a greatway to improve your sleep hygiene. You can usually even program night mode to activate automatically at a certain time of day.
In comparison, once you activate dark mode, you can expect a uniformly dark color palette across your device’s interface in place of the light background unless you manually change it back.
While dark mode might seem like somewhat of a modern trend, it was, in fact, present in some of the earliest computers. These machines displayed green text on a black screen. It was only in the 80s that white screens that displayed black text (similar to the appearance of dark ink on paper) became common.
Decades later, dark mode is all the rage again, thanks to its perceived benefits and aesthetic appeal. You can evenswitch to dark modeon Pinterest, Chrome,and other individual apps for a consistent user experience.
Dark Mode Might Not Reduce Eye Strain Significantly
A lot of people believe setting their phone and individual apps to dark mode will immediately reduce eye strain. Undoubtedly, eye strain is a common issue, especially as most of us spend a significant part of our days glued to our screens.
The idea that changing a simple display setting on our phones can provide a quick fix is certainly enticing but also overly simplistic, to say the least.
Although dark mode might help relieve eye strain in low light conditions where the phone’s bright display is the only light source, it doesn’t do as much in a brightly lit environment. In fact, using dark mode on a bright day actually forces your eyes to work harder to focus, which might lead to more eye fatigue.
If you’re concerned about eye strain, using dark mode during the evening (when lights are typically dimmer) might help. However, during the day, it’s best to default to light mode. Also, position your device at or below eye level to prevent eye strain.
How Dark Mode Impacts Readability
Think it’s easier to read with dark mode on? That might not always be the case. Think about it; we’ve evolutionarily adapted to see dark objects against lighter backgrounds. This means your phone’s white background should not affect your readability.
Researchers with the Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society foundin a studythat the use of positive polarity, i.e., light mode, improves perception of detail. Likewise, anotherstudyfound that positive polarity makestext more legible than negative polarity.
It’s also worth noting that people with astigmatism might struggle to read text in dark mode due to the halo effect, which causes bright text against a dark background to appear blurry.
Given that one in three people might have astigmatism, a significant portion of the general population could be experiencing less-than-ideal reading conditions when using dark mode on their devices.
It Doesn’t Always Save Battery
One of the main selling points for dark mode is that it can help save your device’s battery life. Considering how much we rely on our phones for everything from drafting work emails to listening to the latest podcasts, it’s easy to see why anything that claims to extend battery life is a huge draw.
However, while dark mode can indeed lead to battery savings, this benefit only applies to phones with OLED and AMOLED screens.
If you have a device with an LCD, where a back panel illuminates all pixels, switching to dark mode will not affect battery life. So, before you make any changes,check whether your phone has an AMOLED or LCDscreen.
Even with OLED and AMOLED display devices, you’ll likely only notice a significant difference if your light mode brightness was set at 100% previously. On the other hand, if your phone’s brightness was set at 30% to 40%, as is the case by default,researchersfound that switching to dark mode only increased battery life on average by up to 9%.
These savings are negligible enough that most users will not notice a difference when switching to dark mode. In fact,several otherproven and tested tipscan help extend battery life on an Androidphone or iPhone. These strategies might work better if you want to increase your battery life.
It Doesn’t Cut Distractions Either
Unless you use aspecific Android app to help you stay focused and avoid distractions, switching from light mode to dark mode isn’t going to make a significant difference. All dark mode does is change the visual theme of your phone, but it doesn’t silence notifications or make it easier for you to multitask.
If you’re looking to maximize your productivity without installing apps,particularAndroid features canhelp minimize distractions. For instance, you can use Focus Mode or the Do Not Disturb mode to work without interruptions. You’re better off trying these settings than expecting Dark Mode to help significantly with distractions.
When You Should Use Dark Mode
Now, all this is not to say you should never use dark mode on your phone or other devices. If you’re in a dimly lit room, enabling dark mode on your device could minimize glare and make the text easier to read. A dimmer display setting, whether dark or night mode, is also helpful if you’re sensitive to bright lights.
Additionally, if you’re concerned about your device’s battery life and use a phone with an OLED or AMOLED screen, switch to dark mode to see whether it makes a substantial difference. Since you can always switch back, there’s no harm in experimenting.
