How I get my iPad’s brightness below the lowest setting

We’ve all been way too late scrolling on our phone or tablet once or twice. In the pitch black darkness of your bedroom, the brightness might be turned all the way down, but somehow, the screen still feels like it’s singeing your sensitive eyeballs.

I’m guilty as charged under the covers with my iPad. Most weeknights, I’m up writing my manuscript in the darkness of my room at 1AM (when no emails can find me). The darker the room, the dimmer I need the screen — but most of the time, even the dimmest setting still feels like a flashlight lighting up the room.

Fortunately, I just discovered a setting (while trying to turn my iPad into an e-reader) that finally solved this painfully prominent issue. If you’re a nocturnal keyboard warrior like me, keep reading to find out how I got my iPad’s brightness dimmer than even the lowest setting.

Use Accessibility settings to make your iPad’s screen darker

Even dimmer than you thought possible

It’s very easy to manage screen brightness on most modern devices — on Apple products specifically, you can do so within any app on your device by swiping down from the upper-right-hand corner of your screen. This opens Control Center, which has an adjustable brightness bar you can use to control how much light your display emits.

The brighter the space, the brighter the screen needs to be. But when the lights get low, that bright screen can feel like a million suns staring you in the face. It also isn’t very good for your eyes — especially if you’re trying to maintain some semblance of a sleep schedule. In general, I recommend turning the brightness all the way down and then long-pressing the brightness bar in the Control Center to enable Night Shift (warm light filters) and Dark Mode — all of which set up your screen for success in the dark.

But if that isn’t enough, you should take advantage of White Point settings. White Point settings let you adjust the intensity of bright colors on your iPad or iPhone, and at first, it essentially looks like you’re just playing with brightness. During the day, it does that slightly while also giving your iPad a more e-reader-like look. However, the moment you try this in a dark room, you’ll realize that while the color intensity does go down, the brightness follows — and you can go much dimmer than the brightness setting will regularly allow.

Here’s how to access White Point settings:

1. Open Settings on your iPad (or iPhone).
2. Choose Accessibility from the sidebar.
3. Under Vision, tap Display & Text Size.
4. Scroll all the way to the bottom and toggle on Reduce White Point.
5. A slider will appear that you can use to adjust the intensity of colors. Choose the amount that feels right for you.