How to Change Monitor Brightness

Eye strain is the most common physical issue that afflicts regular computer users and can lead to permanent vision damage. The brightness of a display is the biggest factor determining the comfort level and vision safety of the users, whether they’re on a laptop or a desktop PC, and specifically is the biggest factor that contributes to chronic eye strain. Below, we’ll show you how to adjust brightness on your monitor for maximum comfort and safety even for long work sessions.

We’ll run through your general options for native monitor controls, though they can vary considerably from model to model. 

Eye Strain, Brightness, and Workspace Lighting

Eye strain is the most common issue facing people who spend long hours in front of displays, regardless of the work they’re doing, and while other monitor settings such as contrast, gamma, hue, and vibrancy can play a role in contributing to user eye strain, brightness is the single biggest factor.

Regular excessive eye strain can lead to serious long-term vision issues, in addition to contributing to sleep issues and headaches, so understanding how to properly set monitor and display brightness is a crucial part of setting up a healthy, productive workspace, whether it’s in an office, at home, or in a cafe.

Keep in mind that while brightness plays a big role in eye strain, other elements of the display can be adjusted to improve the overall impact. Find out more in our how to change monitor settings article. 

Monitor brightness and room light

What many regular computer users, unfortunately, don’t know is that the light levels in your workspace and the brightness settings of your display work in conjunction with each other. A display that is bright enough compared to a room’s light to constitute its own light source is too bright and will greatly increase eye strain. Conversely, a display that’s too dark compared to the lighting of your workspace will also contribute significantly to eye strain.n

The rule of thumb to follow, then, is that the brightness of your display should be set to match the general brightness of your workspace, so that the display is not brighter than the brightest light source in the room, and isn’t significantly darker.

Default settings and guidelines

All external displays come with native controls that function completely apart from the operating system of your PC or Mac desktop, while on laptops, the display is controlled from the operating system. The options available to you on external display controls can vary considerably from model to model, but the primary settings will always be brightness and contrast.

Generally speaking, default settings on a monitor’s native controls have brightness and contrast both set to 50 (the middle setting). This is often a good place to have it, since many offices have similar light levels, but remember that the brightness of your display should match the lighting of the room- if the monitor itself is bright enough compared to the room’s lighting to constitute its own light source, it’s too bright. Adjust accordingly until the screen’s brightest whites are no brighter than the primary light source in the room. Contrast can then be adjusted to compliment brightness, to ensure that blacks are deep and rich and whites aren’t washed out, and overall so that text is easily readable. If you have windows 10 then you will notice that it is different and you ought to know how to change monitor brightness on windows 10.

Nighttime settings on Mac and PC

Another useful setting that both macOS and Windows have in common is a nighttime setting that further reduces eye strain and sleep issues by removing a certain (adjustable) amount of blue light from the display’s spectrum.

• In Windows, Night Light can be accessed by entering “Night Light” in the search bar (either with a mouse click or by pressing the Windows key). Use the on/off tab for manual function and use the slider to adjust the strength of the setting until it’s both comfortable and not too dim. You can also set it to automatically turn on and off on a specific schedule.
• In macOS, choose the Apple menu and click on System Preferences, then Displays, and you’ll find the Night Shift tab. As in Windows, you can turn it on and off manually, and use the slider below to change the strength (“warmth”) of the setting, or you can set it to automatically go on and off at sunset and sunrise based on your localization, or to specific hours.

While these are useful tools for fine-tuning brightness and hue throughout the day, keep in mind that a display that’s too dim for your workspace will also increase eye strain.

F.A.Q.