If your eyes often hurt and you suffer headaches, your iPhone might be the culprit. Eye strain from digital displays is one of the big downsides of today's widespread smartphone use.

But don't worry. You don't need to get rid of your iPhone; at least not yet. Your iPhone is equipped with several features to help reduce your risk of digital eye strain. Let's take a closer look at some useful features to reduce iPhone eye strain.

1. Turn Dark Mode On

Having your iPhone on Dark Mode allows you to view your display better in low-light environments without straining your eyes. To turn it on:

  1. Go to Settings > Display & Brightness.
  2. You’ll immediately see options for Appearance. Select Dark.

However, it’s understandable if you want to switch back to your iPhone’s regular appearance during the day. You can either switch it manually by choosing Light or allow your iPhone to automatically change its display appearance:

  1. Select the Automatic option under the Light and Dark option.
  2. Tap Options and choose to have it automatically turn on from Sunset to Sunrise or set a specific time by tapping Custom Schedule.

You also have the option to use apps for your iPhone that offer dark mode support.

2. Try Smart Invert

Aside from the Dark Mode, you can also make use of Smart Invert to reduce eye strain. Unlike Classic Invert, Smart Invert does not reverse the colors of images, media, and apps that already use dark mode. To enable it:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility.
  2. Tap on Display & Text Size.
  3. Enable Smart Invert.

That's all it takes. You may love or hate this mode; personally, I love how certain UI elements like the Control Center transform with it.

Note: The screenshot on the right does not capture how the iPhone display looks when the Smart Invert option is turned on, except for the buttons.

3. Reduce Transparency

The Transparency setting in iOS lets you control the opaqueness of the background for certain UI elements. Disabling this not only makes the text a bit more legible but also reduces blur in the background.

The improved legibility and decreased glare will lessen the effects of digital eye strain while using your iPhone.

Here's how you can toggle the transparency option on your iPhone:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility.
  2. Tap on Display & Text Size.
  3. Toggle Reduce Transparency on.

4. Use Reduce Motion to Avoid Vertigo and Eye Strain

The Reduce Motion option is aimed at helping people who suffer from vertigo and motion sickness. As a side effect, this feature also helps curb digital eye strain to a certain extent.

When turned on, certain screen effects change. The parallax effect, where the display moves slightly when your iPhone is tilted, is turned off for one. Other animations and effects are also turned off.

Also, the smooth gliding effect as you swipe will be turned off and the zoomed-in and zoomed-out interface will be turned off.

To enable Reduce Motion:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility.
  2. Choose Motion.
  3. Set Reduce Motion on.

If you want to retain the message and video preview effects, toggle the corresponding switches for Auto-Play Message Effects and Auto-Play Video Previews on.

However, if you don't prefer the effects and videos to automatically play, like the app video previews on App Store as you scroll or the message effects your friends send you, you can turn these off using these two options.

5. Reduce OLED Flickering

Apple introduced OLED displays from iPhone X up to current models, except the iPhone 11. An OLED display comes with numerous benefits, but it has a dark side as well. Many of these displays flicker at lower brightness levels, which can end up causing eye strain and headaches in some cases.

You can solve the OLED flickering problem by keeping your iPhone's brightness level above 50 percent. However, this solution is not practical, as even 50 percent brightness is too much during nighttime.

Instead, you can minimize OLED flickering using the Reduce White Point feature. This feature reduces the intensity of bright light and eventually the overall display glare. To toggle it:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility.
  2. Tap on Display & Text Size.
  3. Toggle Reduce White Point on and select the strength of the feature.

6. Use Night Shift

Night Shift is another popular way to reduce eye strain. It automatically adjusts your display's colors to warmer hues after nightfall, reducing the amount of blue light.

Researchers have found that blue light messes with our sleep cycle.

Thanks to the shift to warmer hues, the overall tax on your eyes also drops with this feature. The best part is that you can set Night Shift to automatically kick in after sunset and turn off after sunrise. To do so:

  1. Head over to Settings.
  2. Tap on Display & Brightness.
  3. Select Night Shift.
  4. Toggle Scheduled and set custom times if you aren't happy with the default options.
  5. Set the Color Temperature by adjusting the slider.

7. Schedule Downtime

There's no escaping the fact that digital screens cause eye strain over prolonged usage. One way to tackle this is by restricting your exposure to your iPhone screen.

Your iPhone has a Screen Time feature that includes a Downtime function. This lets you schedule time away from the screen and set time limits for individual apps. It's a good idea to wean yourself off gradually so you don't get frustrated with this.

To do so:

  1. Go to Settings > Screen Time.
  2. Tap Downtime.
  3. Choose Every Day if you want your iPhone to remind you daily or Customize Days to choose specific days and customize the scheduled downtime per day.
  4. Tap From and To and specify when your scheduled downtime will start and end.

Another good way to reduce your screen exposure is by taking control of iPhone notifications that are not important or can wait until later.

8. Enable Reading Mode in Safari

Late-night browsing sessions are the most painful. The glare from bright web pages on the backlit display ends up causing eyestrain.

Thankfully, Safari offers a handy Reading Mode, and you can tweak it to reduce eye strain. To activate Reading Mode, tap the text editor button (aA) on the left side of the address bar, then tap Show Reader View.

This theme setting should help protect your eyes from straining.

9. Adjust the Screen Brightness

Having your screen display brighter than your surroundings can strain your eyes too. To lessen eye strain and other effects like headaches, red eyes, and blurred vision, your screen’s brightness should match the level of the light in your surrounding.

To adjust your iPhone’s brightness:

  1. Head to Settings > Display & Brightness.
  2. Adjust the slider to dim your phone’s brightness levels.

If your iPhone supports it, you can also activate True Tone which adapts your screen's white balance based on your current ambient lighting condition. To activate it, simply turn on the True Tone option under the slider for brightness level.

10. Increase Your Display’s Contrast

Sometimes, the small texts and dull colors hinder us from distinguishing images or text from the background.

Boosting the contrast helps the foreground become more distinct from the background, making it easier to perceive. To increase your display’s contrast:

  1. Go to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
  2. Turn on Increase Contrast.

11. Make Text Larger and Bold

Aside from increasing the contrast, you can also make the system text larger and bold with your iPhone’s Accessibility features.

Doing so affects all the system text on your iPhone, including built-in apps. Some third-party apps might also adopt the display if they support accessibility features.

To do this:

  1. Head to Settings > Accessibility > Display & Text Size.
  2. Turn Bold Text to On.
  3. Tap Larger Text and move the slider below to adjust the text size to your preference.

12. Zoom Your Display

You can also change your iPhone’s display view and zoom in a bit to show larger controls. However, because the display will be larger, less content will be displayed compared to the Standard display.

Here's how to do it:

  1. Head to Settings > Display & Brightness.
  2. Scroll to the bottom and tap View.
  3. Choose Zoomed, then tap Set in the upper right of the screen.
  4. A popup menu will appear. Tap Use Zoomed.

Still Suffering? You Might Need More Help

Ideally, you should be able to reduce eye strain caused by your iPhone by using the tips above. However, if eye strain persists, it's time to consult an ophthalmologist. It's quite possible that you're suffering from uncorrected vision or have another underlying eye problem.

Subjecting your eyes to exercises like eye rolling, frequent blinking, and focusing on distant objects should prove helpful as well. Nonetheless, it's best to reduce your screen time and try not to use your iPhone too much.