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Dark mode is not as good for your eyes as you believe

The shadowy display mode has leagues of fans claiming it helps reduce eye strain, lengthen battery time and improve sleep. But dark mode isn't quite the screen saviour it's made out to be

But beyond style, the widespread roll-out of dark mode has triggered a slew of dubious claims about its proposed benefits, covering assertions that it helps concentration, eye strain and battery life. “In a darkened room, the darker colours of dark mode could be perceived as less jarring and lull people into spending longer using the app,” says Aneesha Singh, professor of human-computer interaction at UCL. A widely circulated 2018 study demonised blue light even further by suggesting it contributed to macular degeneration, but since then this research has been denounced by the American Academy of Ophthalmology for relying on flimsy methods and not taking cells from eyes.

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