The concept of Home Theater is to recreate the movie theater experience in your favorite room at home. However, that means turning off all the lights as well as retrieving a bag of popcorn and a few Twizzler bags. And some people believe that if you watch TV too often in the dark, it will hurt your eyesight, perhaps even dramatically reduce your vision.
But let me assure you that there’s no evidence that watching television in a dark room will affect your eyesight, even by a small amount. It’s a myth that’s been perpetuated over the years by, okay, let’s say it, concerned parents. They see their kids sitting in a dark room, staring intently at a well-lit TV screen and immediately assume that the contrast of dark and light will somehow diminish their vision. But it’s not true. (There’s actually a scientific study to back this up.)
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That said, however, watching TV in a dark room can cause eyestrain and headaches, more so than if you watch the lights on. The reason is because the light of the TV is the only light in the room and it frequently changes depending upon what’s happening on screen. That forces the pupils of your eyes to constantly adjust and that leads to those headaches and eye weariness.
For example, if you’re watching a horror film, the screen may be semi-dark for several minutes during a particularly creepy scene, but then it suddenly becomes super-bright when the heroine runs outdoors to escape the villain. You’ll feel your eyes widen and then squint because the contrast in lighting is so abrupt. It’s not natural and it’s why you may feel a little uneasy if you stare at an ever-changing screen for a long time.
There are some things you can do to alleviate this.
One, you can reduce the brightness of the screen. Two, you can keep a lamp on at the lowest level to provide some light in the room. Three, you can sit a little further from the screen than you would normally do in a well-lit room.
Or, you can just watch TV the way you currently do — in the dark. If it doesn’t bother you, have at it. It won’t hurt your eyesight. I swear.
This article has left me perplexed. It is claimed, “that there’s no evidence that watching television in a dark room will affect your eyesight, even by a small amount. It’s a myth that’s been perpetuated over the years-” but in the same vein, “the light of the TV is the only light in the room and it frequently changes – that forces the pupils of your eyes to constantly adjust and that leads to those headaches and eye weariness”. Would this then not support that, over time, this constant exposure to frequent adjustments would damage the muscles in the eyes to some capacity? I am not sure that any other muscle in the body experiencing constant “strain” could retain its resilience and experience some form of “damage”. Just stating out of curiosity.