August 20, 2023: Reverse myopia. White lettering on a black background.

August 20, 2023. Today, I also wondered whether it was healthier to read white text on a black background rather than the other way around. In my research, I came across the following insight: during natural vision, both OFF and ON cells in the eye are equally activated. In today's digital age, we spend a large part of the day in front of screens or books, with more OFF than ON signal transmissions from the retina to the brain. This imbalance could lead to the growth of the eyeball. By reading dark text on a light background, the OFF cells were stimulated. To inhibit the growth of the eyeball, I therefore decided to use white text on a black background wherever possible. In my word processing program, where I read and wrote a lot of text, I chose this inverted setting.

In my browser, Safari, I defaulted to the reader view, which displayed only the main text with a dark background and white text. Then I added some exceptions like YouTube and Google, where I not only read but also interacted.

Another advantage of the dark background was that it didn't blind me at night and disturbed my circadian rhythm less.

I also wondered if it would be possible to activate more ON cells through inverted reading, thereby reducing the thickness of the eyeball. If that were feasible, it could potentially reverse my nearsightedness.

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Micro Change: I use white text on a black background on screens where possible to slow the progression of my nearsightedness. This setting also consumes less battery and bothers me less when I read something on the screen in the evening.