Apart from Flux (via the removal of the blue wavelength) having some evidence for being good for not disrupting the circadian rhythm, I find the other claim of the computer screen in a dark room being an “excellent way to kill your eyesight” a hyperbole that has been purported from a variety of sources with no evidence to substantiate the claim.

Can anyone point to a peer reviewed study that shows a measurable decrease in eyesight due to staring at a screen with no ambient lighting vs with ambient lighting?

I’ve done some very cursory search on www.scholar.google.com but could find no such studies (perhaps I just suck at coming up with good search queries…):

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&q=bright+screen+in+dark+room+on+eyesight

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=computer+monitor+on+eyesight&hl=en

https://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=effects+of+staring+at+computer+display+on+eyesight&hl=en

I did find a high level study on ocular symptoms caused by long term staring at computer displays, but it makes no mention as to the brightness of the screen and the contrast thereof with ambient brightness:

http://www.surveyophthalmol.com/article/S0039-6257%2805%2900009-3/abstract

In fact, in the abstract:

However, the major contributor to computer vision syndrome symptoms by far appears to be dry eye.

I’m very skeptical of the claim that looking at a screen in the dark is somehow worse for you than if you were to look at it with well lit ambient light; but this is a claim that I hear with some regularity…