Tips for lighting a room.
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Just came across a post saying a computer monitor hurts the users eyes in the morning. The brightest monitor I've come across is only 370 nits for indoor use of reasonable sub $500 price point. It is most likely 1440p, LED lit. I was looking for a brighter monitor, and I doubt anyone has one that bright. Most seem to be around 300 nits, which still is not very bright.
If a computer monitor is hurting your eyes, try going outside -- does that hurt too? Why should a backlit screen be the only thing to do so, is it placebo?
Here is my recommendations for room lighting:
Have at least two windows. It is actually ILLEGAL to be in a room with no windows, because fire hazard. So if you don't have windows in your room, then move your stuff to one that does. If your windows do not face south, then you won't get nearly as much light output, so you can supplement that with bright white LED bulbs.I recommend Philips LED bulbs because they have the best color spectrum so far (according to designingwithLEDs website), and you can get two 60w equal cool white bulbs for daytime use. That will give you about 1600 lumens, which is a good amount of light. You can surely go higher if you want.
Philips doesn't make cool white light above 800/900 lumens a bulb, so you'll have to go to another brand for that. For night time lighting, Philips makes great warm white lights, that get even warmer as you dim, and are known as "warm glow". These are great to use for relaxing, and would be great for side lamps.
I hope this is helpful, nobody should be in a dark room, so dark that a computer monitor outshines the light in the room (edit, in the morning) enough to hurt your eyes. That's just awful!
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Its not illegal to have a room with no windows, how are you going to have a window to rooms that are in your basement or in the middle of the house so that they have no direct access to the outside?
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Bedrooms are required to have two means of escape in the event of an emergency, so you can't have a legal bedroom with no means of egress. More here: http://www.bobvila.com/articles/406-what-makes-a-room-a-bedroom/#.VdI1UxNVhBc
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When I was about 12 years old (I'm 36 now), my parents had a bedroom built for me in their basement. In order to make it legal, they had to build a fire escape window. That meant digging a big window well outside next to the basement wall, and then knocking out that part of the wall and putting a window in. Prior to that, it was just a tiny window near the ceiling.
