Found a simple trick to reduce eye strain with dual monitors

Last month I finally got sick of my eyes feeling tired after 8 hours of work. I have a 27 inch main monitor and a 24 inch secondary. What I figured out is keeping the secondary monitor at a lower brightness than the main one. I dropped the secondary to around 40 percent brightness and the main at 60 percent. It made a big difference for me, especially when I glance over at email or chat windows. Has anyone else tried adjusting brightness levels between their two screens like this?

2 comments

2 Comments

henderson.kim22d agoMost Upvoted

Ugh, that tired eye feeling after a long day is the worst. I totally feel you on that. I ended up doing something similar with my setup, but I actually went the other way with it. My main monitor is at 50 percent and my secondary chat/email screen is even lower, like 35. It's wild how such a small tweak can make a real difference over the course of a day.

ellis.victor22d ago

@henderson.kim 35 percent on the secondary? That's wild to me, I feel like anything below 40 would be too dim for my eyes to adjust to quickly. I tried going that low once and I kept squinting at my Slack messages like I was reading braille or something. I guess it depends on how close your monitors are to each other and the ambient light in the room. For me the 40 and 60 split feels like a sweet spot where both screens are readable without that harsh contrast. But now you got me thinking maybe I should experiment a little more.