I have a new T410 laptop and ever since I've been using it, I've discovered that my eyes don't stress as much when I adjust the brightness to my environmental lighting. For example, during the day, I can push my brightness to near maximum but as the day shifts into night, I tend to decrease the brightness to match my environment.
Should the brightness of the LCD match my environmental lighting (or is less brightness just less intensive on my eyes)?
Yep. Your LCD brightness should match your environment. Good question!
Adjust the display settings on your computer so the brightness of the screen is about the same as your work environment.
As a test, try looking at the white background of this web page. If it looks like a light source, it's too bright. If it seems dull and gray, it may be too dark.
Also, adjust the screen settings so there is high contrast between the characters and background, and make sure the text size and color are optimized for comfort.
More info here: http://www.allaboutvision.com/cvs/irritated.htm
Try this, it automatically adjusts the brightness of the computer screen based on the time of day.
f.lux...makes the color of your computer's display adapt to the time of day, warm at night and like sunlight during the day.
It's even possible that you're staying up too late because of your computer. You could use f.lux because it makes you sleep better, or you could just use it just because it makes your computer look better.
In visual Ergonomics your foreground colour should be dark and your screen brightness should match with your surroundings brightness.
