Tired eyes from screens and phones
Perceiving Health

Tired eyes from screens and phones

Updated on 9 min read

What makes our eyes tired when using screens or phones?

You probably know the feeling… too long on your phone or at your computer screen, and your eyes feel tired and exhausted.

Our eyes are one with our body and mind. This means we cannot see our eyes as separate from the rest of our being.

Depending on how you feel overall, seeing can feel different too – more strained or easier. That is precisely where something can change.

Finding inner calm

“We see with our hearts” – this is an image, not a mechanism. But it describes something I notice in myself: when I am restless, rushed or tense, I look differently. More narrowly, more rigidly, with more pressure.

That is why, for me, caring for my eyes also means repeatedly returning to myself and finding some distance from whatever is pulling at me.

A rigid, static posture as a cause of tired eyes

When we look at a screen rigidly and tensely, with poor posture, the energy within us cannot flow optimally. That is why we should pay particular attention to our posture.

Putting the 20:20:20 rule into practice

Every 20 minutes at a screen, look at something about six metres away or further for at least 20 seconds.

The original 20-20-20 rule refers to 20 feet – about six metres, not twenty metres. So a window or the other end of the room is quite enough.

Avoiding tunnel vision

Rather than staring rigidly at a detail in front of you with tunnel vision, try always to notice your periphery and the movement around you too.

Creating an ergonomic workspace

You should be able to look at the screen in a relaxed way with good posture. You may need to raise your laptop or screen.

If you sit while working, you could consider using a standing desk. For your eyes to be relaxed, the rest of your body can be relaxed too.

Exercises for tired eyes

Exercises from eye Qi Gong or eye yoga can help us relax our eyes.

Palming

Rub your hands until they become warm. Now gently place your palms over your closed eyes – without putting pressure on the eyeballs – and let the warmth take effect.

A few minutes of darkness and warmth are the simplest thing of all for me after a long time at a screen.

Sunning

Personally, I find this really helpful: turning towards the sun with my eyes closed and feeling the warmth on my eyelids. For me, it is one of the simplest ways to soften again after a lot of screen time.

How I do it: gentle morning or evening sun, never the harsh midday sun. My eyes stay closed throughout. And I only stay as long as it feels comfortable.

Too little three-dimensional depth: use a Bias Light behind the monitor

A screen is a rigid surface of a kind that does not really exist in nature.

One trick is to install a Bias Light behind the monitor, highlighting the three-dimensional depth of your surroundings. Make sure the light does not flicker.

You can also try placing various objects at different depths in front of and behind your screen and including them in your awareness.

Technical causes of tired eyes

There are also technical reasons why a computer monitor, laptop, tablet or phone can quickly tire you out. This is not entirely easy to untangle, and people respond very differently – what bothers me greatly may go completely unnoticed by someone else.

The following section is my own research and experience from many years of screen work, not medical advice about eyes.

Low resolution or a screen that is too small

Depending on screen size, a higher resolution is important. For a 27” screen, for example, 4K or 5K would be optimal (especially with macOS); for 32”, 4K or even 6K. If you use a small laptop screen, you should consider getting an external monitor with a suitable resolution.

Reflections or an overly strong coating

Strong reflections in your screen can quickly tire you out. To reduce reflections, some monitors use a matte coating. However, a poor coating can make text, for example, appear blurry.

A screen that is too bright

If your screen is set too bright, you can first try reducing the brightness. Depending on how bright the room is, a luminance of 100 cd/m² is usually enough for many people.

Blue light

Blue light in the evening shifts the sleep rhythm – this has been well studied. That does not, however, demonstrate that monitors permanently damage the eyes; tiredness is more likely to come from duration, posture and blinking less often. Reducing it still helps me, especially in the evening.

Reducing blue light on macOS

On macOS, you can reduce your Mac’s blue light in settings under Display > Night Shift.

Reducing blue light on Windows

On Windows, you can reduce blue light with the free app f.lux.

PWM flicker: very important to consider

Some monitors, laptops, tablets and phones use Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) to regulate brightness. This makes the screen flicker in a way that is imperceptible to the ordinary eye. Depending on the person, however, PWM flicker can affect us very strongly. It is important to consider PWM flicker when choosing the right device.

This also affects many modern Apple MacBooks, iPads and iPhones, as well as Samsung devices with OLED screens, among others. On notebookcheck.net, you can find a good overview of PWM.

A trick for turning off PWM on modern iPhones (12+) and iPads

There is a trick on iOS that helps with some devices. Whether it works, and how much, depends on the specific model – it does not apply universally, and I have only tried it on my own devices. If you want to know precisely, look up the measurements for the particular model on notebookcheck.

  • Increase the brightness to 100%. On some models, brightness is then no longer regulated by PWM

  • As this is too bright for normal use, now go to Settings > Accessibility > Reduce White Point and increase the White Point reduction to 85 – 95%. This reduces the brightness again.

  • Now go to Settings > Accessibility > Accessibility Shortcut and enable “Reduce White Point” via a triple-click

  • Now go to Settings > Control Center and add Accessibility Shortcuts to your Control Center.

  • You can now simply reduce the White Point or restore the normal setting in your Control Center (swipe down)

OLED dimming flicker

Modern OLED computer monitors can also flicker. One form is OLED dimming flicker, where the brightness fluctuates slightly in the rhythm of the refresh rate (Hz). Some people also respond to this with rapid exhaustion. In this case, unfortunately, your only option is to forgo OLED technology and use a monitor with older IPS technology.

Temporal Dithering flicker (FRC)

Some monitors use a technique called Temporal Dithering (FRC) to display “billions” of colours. This is also referred to as 8-bit+FRC colour depth. When FRC is active, individual pixels flicker very quickly to give the eye the impression of more colours. This can cause tiredness in some people and should be turned off, or you should make sure you have a screen with “true” 10-bit colour depth.

Fixing dithering flicker on macOS

You can disable Temporal Dithering with the free macOS app “StillColor”. If your eyes get tired on your MacBook or Mac, I recommend trying this app!

Fixing dithering flicker on Windows (Nvidia graphics card)

If your monitor uses 8-bit+FRC to display 10-bit colour depth, you can set your monitor to 8-bit colour depth in the Nvidia graphics settings. You probably will not see the difference, but you may feel it!

Panel types as a cause of tired eyes

There are various panel types for screens. This is quite technical, but important to understand if you want to choose the right monitor.

  • TN: Twisted Nematic, very old. You should avoid it.

  • IPS: In-Plane Switching. Most screens still use IPS. IPS monitors have the best text rendering. But wide gamut (many colours), FRC flicker and PWM can cause problems here too.

  • Nano IPS: Like IPS, but faster. There are more reports of problems here.

  • VA: Vertical Alignment.

  • QD-OLED: Quantum Dot OLED. There are particularly many reports of tired eyes with QD-OLED. Possible reasons: the blue OLED layer, the pixel layout, flicker and brightness jumps caused by automatic brightness limiting, the very wide colour gamut and the very high contrast. Then there is the reflective surface: QD-OLED has no polarising filter, you can see yourself in the image, and black looks grey in daylight. Newer models from 2026 have an anti-reflective coating that reduces this.

  • WOLED: White OLED. Better than QD-OLED, but there are reports of tired eyes here too.

  • RLCD: Reflective LCD. RLCD screens do not emit light themselves, but reflect ambient light. This is particularly relaxing for the eyes, but requires the right lighting environment.

  • TLCD: A further development of RLCD that can also receive light from behind. Very good for working outdoors!

  • E-INK: E-INK monitors are very slow, but more relaxing for the eyes.