Why does the eye perceive dark UI badly?

Question

User interface

More and more often I see how people recommend switching to a dark UI at night for more comfortable work. Dark IDE themes are a must have for a large number of programmers. And the more I see it, the more often I wonder - is there something wrong with my eyes?
I can't perceive light text on a dark background at all. Eyes begin to ache, taking your eyes away from the monitor, small light stripes repeating lines of text remain visible.
I think the monitor and the environment are correct - a QHD IPS monitor with flicker-free and high hertz, the room is lit with not very bright reflected light (not in the eyes).
Unfortunately, googling turned up nothing. Colleagues, tell me, how are you with this? Is this an individual feature, or some kind of problem?

Answer 1

The quality of perception of text and graphics is made up not only of the palette, but also of other things, such as the thickness of the font lines and so on. Most likely, your problem is that you are somewhat more sensitive (or attentive) to the negative effects of reversal. Accordingly, if you think that you really need a "night" interface for something, you can try experimenting with the color scheme, and in addition to this - with contrast, font size, style, etc. Take a look at how colors are used in GIMP for example:
In the layout of printed materials there is such a thing - "reversal". This is light text on a dark background. And beginners always make a mistake when typesetting this - they just take and set the text color to white and the background color to dark, without changing the font, its size and style relative to the main text of the page (for example, when typesetting a sidebar). You can’t do this - such a sidebar will most likely turn out to be unreadable.
Personally, I never use an inverted interface with a black or almost black background - to reduce excessive brightness, I always use a rather dark gray. The same with the "daytime" scheme - never using a pure white background, always replacing it with a slightly greenish gray, similar to this:

Answer 2

ux.stackexchange cites studies that black on white is easier to read in general due to the fact that the pupil is narrowed due to more light flow, it is easier to focus in people with astigmatism, which is exactly half.

People with astigmatism (approximately 50% of the population) find it harder to read white text on black than black text on white. Part of this has to do with light levels: with a bright display (white background) the iris closes a bit more, decreasing the effect of the "deformed" lens; with a dark display (black background) the iris opens to receive more light and the deformation of the lens creates a much fuzzier focus at the eye.
Jason Harrison – Post Doctoral Fellow, Imager Lab Manager – Sensory Perception and Interaction Research Group, University of British Columbia

I also met the opinion that it is difficult when the brightness of the screen is very different from the background - that is, you still need to adjust to the lighting.

Answer 3

I can’t work in dark themes, maybe I’m not used to it. And the development environment is a working tool for me, not a means of self-expression. Therefore, do not bother with this issue, work in a way that is convenient for you.