Most gamers have done it. You're a few hours into a gaming session and your eyes start to feel tired. Maybe they feel dry, itchy, and that feeling of needing to just shut your eyes for a minute. Perhaps the screen suddenly seems uncomfortably bright.
So, the normal thing to do is to turn the brightness down.Problem solved... right?
Not necessarily.
While adjusting your monitor brightness can make gaming more comfortable, especially if your screen feels excessively bright, and some newer screens nowadays are really bright. When the room is dimly lit, the brightness from monitor and screen can certainly feel overpowering, but brightness is only one part of a much bigger picture.
Eye strain can be influenced by everything from glare and reflections to reduced blinking, prolonged focusing, your monitor position, and simply how long you've been looking at a screen.
So, before you turn your gaming monitor down to 20% brightness and hope for the best, let's look at what's actually happening to your eyes.
Does Turning Your Monitor Brightness Down Reduce Eye Strain?
The short answer is: it can help, but it isn't quite as simple as that.
If you're gaming in a relatively dark room with an extremely bright monitor in front of you, reducing the brightness may make the screen feel more comfortable to look at.
However, isn't automatically better. The College of Optometrists notes that dark mode or night mode may reduce overall screen brightness and improve contrast for some users, but there is limited published evidence to show that this alone reduces eye strain.
In other words, there isn't one magic brightness percentage that every gamer should use.
Your ideal monitor brightness will depend on your display, the game you're playing and, importantly, the environment around you. The goal shouldn't be to make your monitor as dark as possible, but it should be about creating a comfortable viewing environment.
What Actually Causes Gaming Eye Strain?
If brightness isn't solely responsible, why can your eyes feel tired after a long gaming session? Here’s the thing: digital eye strain isn't necessarily caused by one thing. It's usually a combination of things.
Reduced blinking
When you're concentrating on a game, you can blink less frequently.
That matters because blinking helps maintain the tear film across the surface of your eyes.
The NHS advises that prolonged screen time without breaks can lead to dry eyes, and UK eye-care guidelines similarly note that a reduction in blinking during focused screen use may also contribute to dry eyes.
If you've ever finished a long gaming session with eyes that feel dry, gritty, sore, or irritated, reduced blinking may be the reason.
Prolonged focusing
Think about how intensely you look at your monitor during a competitive match. You're tracking movement, reading information, spotting opponents or objects, and constantly processing what's happening on screen. Your eyes are working hard at a relatively close viewing distance for an extended period.
The Association of Optometrists explains that sustained close-up tasks, such as computer use, keep your eye muscles active and may contribute to tiredness and headaches.
Glare and reflections
That window behind you.
The lamp reflecting across your monitor.
The overhead light hitting the screen.
These can all make your viewing environment less comfortable. Glare and reflections can make it harder to see what's happening on screen clearly, potentially encouraging your eyes to work harder.
Your gaming setup
Monitor distance and height matter too.
The College of Optometrists recommends positioning screens approximately 40–75cm from your eyes and below eye level, while the NHS also advises positioning a computer screen just below eye level when dealing with dry-eye symptoms.
If you're sitting extremely close to your gaming monitor or constantly looking upwards at it, changing the brightness alone isn't going to address the problem.
Long gaming sessions
Sometimes the simplest explanation is the most obvious.
You've been looking at a screen for hours. Even a carefully configured gaming setup can't remove the need for breaks.
Monitor Brightness vs Glare: They're Not the Same Thing
Understanding the difference is important.
Brightness is the amount of light coming from your monitor.
Glare is unwanted light interfering with comfortable vision.
They're related, but they aren't the same thing.
Imagine you're playing a game that is quite dim and there's a bright lamp reflected in the centre of your monitor. Turning your monitor brightness down doesn't remove that reflection. In fact, making the display darker could potentially make the reflection even more noticeable.
Instead, you might be better off moving the lamp, changing its angle, or repositioning your monitor to reduce the glare.
Moorfields Eye Hospital specifically advises screen users to watch for reflecting light and to move sources of light that cause glare or adjust the angle of the screen.
That's why simply searching for the best monitor brightness for gaming doesn't tell the whole story. Your wider environment matters too.
Why Matching Your Monitor Brightness to Your Room Matters
Think about the difference between gaming at midday and gaming at midnight.
During the day, your room may be filled with natural light. At night, the same room might be almost completely dark, apart from your monitor and a few LEDs. Yet your monitor could still be producing exactly the same amount of light.
That's why a brightness setting that feels perfectly comfortable at 2pm may feel far more intense at midnight.
Rather than searching for a universal "best gaming monitor brightness", adjust your display according to your surroundings and your own comfort.
If your monitor feels like a floodlight in a dark room, bring the brightness down or introduce some comfortable ambient lighting. If you're struggling to distinguish what's happening on screen because the display is too dim compared with the room around you, simply lowering it further isn't likely to help.
The objective isn't minimum brightness. It's about a comfortable contrast between your display and your surroundings.
What About Gaming in a Completely Dark Room?
This deserves its own mention because plenty of us love gaming in the dark.
It looks great.
RGB lighting on.
Room lights off.
Favourite game running.
However, having one bright dominant light source in an otherwise dark room can create a very different visual environment from gaming in a softly lit space. That doesn't mean you need to flood your gaming room with ceiling lights.
A small amount of comfortable ambient lighting can help reduce the stark contrast between your monitor and the surrounding area. Think less "office lighting" and more of a balanced gaming environment.
Does Dark Mode Help With Eye Strain?
Dark mode has become almost synonymous with eye comfort, but the evidence is more complex than the marketing often suggests.
The College of Optometrists says dark mode may be useful for reducing overall screen brightness and improving screen contrast, particularly when using devices at night. However, it also states that there is little published evidence showing that dark mode itself reduces eye strain. So, if you prefer dark mode and find it more comfortable, use it.
Just don't assume switching everything to a darker mode solves the wider causes of digital eye strain.
Five Ways to Reduce Eye Strain While Gaming
If simply reducing your monitor brightness isn't the complete answer, what can you do?
1. Adjust your monitor brightness for your environment
Don't copy somebody else's settings just because they claim to have found the "perfect monitor brightness for gaming". Remember…
- Their monitor isn't yours.
- Their room isn't yours.
- And their eyes aren't yours.
Set your monitor at a level that feels comfortable in the environment you're actually gaming in, and adjust it as the lighting around you changes.
2. Reduce glare and reflections
Take a look at your monitor when it's displaying something dark.
- Can you see a window?
- A lamp?
- Your room reflected back at you?
If so, try changing the position of your monitor or light sources. Sometimes a small change to your setup can make a surprisingly big difference.
3. Remember to blink
It sounds ridiculously simple but when you're one kill away from winning a round, you're probably not thinking about blinking.
Concentrated screen use can reduce blinking, which can contribute to dry and irritated eyes. Every so often, make a conscious effort to blink fully. Your eyes will thank you for it.
4. Try the 20-20-20 rule
This is one of the most commonly recommended habits for screen users in the optical world.
Every 20 minutes, look at something about 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. It gives your eyes a break from sustained near focusing.
We appreciate that nobody is going to start setting a timer halfway through the final lap of an endurance race or during a competitive match, but the principle matters more than obsessively watching the clock.
Use loading screens, matchmaking, queue times, round changes or natural breaks in play as opportunities to look away from your monitor and into the distance.
5. Have regular eye examinations
Sometimes the problem isn't your gaming monitor at all.
If your prescription has changed or you have uncorrected vision, no amount of brightness adjustment will fix that. Regular sight tests can identify changes in your vision and help make sure you're using the correct prescription where needed.
If you're regularly experiencing persistent eye discomfort, headaches, blurred vision or other visual symptoms, speak to your optometrist rather than simply continuing to change your monitor settings an hoping for the best.
Is There a Perfect Monitor Brightness for Gaming?
This is probably the question many people reading this are wanting an answer for, but unfortunately there isn't a magic number.
You might see people recommending 50%, 30%, 120 nits or any number of supposedly "optimal" settings online.
But monitors vary enormously.
So do rooms.
So do people.
Instead of chasing a number, ask yourself:
- Does my screen feel excessively bright compared with the room?
- Am I struggling to see darker details because I've turned it down too far?
- Are there reflections or glare on the display?
- Do my eyes still feel comfortable after I've been playing for a while?
Those questions are far more useful than copying someone else's brightness percentage.
Why Gamers Need to Think Beyond Monitor Settings
At XP-Pro Eyewear, we've spent the past year speaking directly with hundreds of gamers at events across the UK. One thing we've learned is that eye strain rarely comes down to one thing.
We've spoken with people who game in completely dark rooms.
People surrounded by RGB lighting.
People using enormous displays.
Competitive players sitting incredibly close to their monitors.
Finally, people who spend their working day looking at screens before going home and gaming for another four or five hours.
That's why we've never believed there is one switch, setting or feature that solves digital eye strain. It isn't simply about blocking blue light and it isn't simply about turning your monitor brightness down. It's about thinking about the whole visual environment.
That's also the philosophy behind XP-Pro Eyewear.
Our approach to gaming eyewear is centred around making extended screen use feel more comfortable, using technologies including NanoHex® and QuantumFlare® as part of a wider approach to visual comfort and performance.
However, eyewear is still only one part of the equation. Regular breaks, blinking, sensible monitor positioning, appropriate room lighting and regular eye examinations still matter.
Good gaming habits and good gaming eyewear should work cohesively.
So, Does Lower Monitor Brightness Reduce Eye Strain?
Sometimes.
If your monitor is excessively bright for the environment you're gaming in, reducing the brightness may make it more comfortable to look at but if you're experiencing eye strain, don't assume brightness is the only culprit.
Look at the bigger picture:
- How long have you been gaming?
- Are you taking breaks?
- Are you blinking enough?
- Is there glare reflecting from your monitor?
- Is your screen positioned comfortably?
- Is your room completely dark?
- Is your prescription up to date?
- Are your eyes becoming dry?
Your monitor is only one part of your gaming setup, and your gaming setup is only one part of your visual experience. The best monitor setting isn't necessarily the brightest, and it isn't necessarily the darkest either.
It's the one that creates a comfortable viewing environment for your needs, because when you're three hours into a gaming session, comfort matters just as much as the percentage that appears next to the brightness slider.