Dr. Anne Berends is the founder, CEO and CTO of SunLED Life Science, a health-centered technology startup.
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For far too long, computer screens and laptops have been designed with a singular focus: work output and productivity for the lowest price and cost of ownership. It doesn’t take long to see what this is doing to the workforce: it’s making them stressed, if not downright sick. Almost three-fourths of US employees experience blurred vision, eye strain and dry, itchy eyes from staring at screens. The same study found that nearly 59% of people said it affected their productivity. Deprivation of natural light is also associated with mental health issues like depression.
As the drive for efficiency isn’t going away, it is time to act on the fact that happier and healthier people are more productive. What if our devices become tools to prioritize wellness? Despite all the advice to step away from screens, the reality is that, even in the best circumstances, we spend hour after hour in front of them. We use our computers, tablets, laptops and phones for work and personal lives hour after hour. We look at our laptops and phones when we wake up or first thing in the morning. Unless you become a hermit, screens are here to stay.
This behavior has not only caused stress and eye strain but also created a level of sunlight deprivation we’ve never experienced before the 20th century. The average American adult spends more than seven hours and four minutes per day looking at screens; Gen Z spends nearly nine hours. Most of that time is spent indoors, away from the natural sunlight our bodies need to thrive. A person born in 2025 is projected to spend 21 years looking at screens. Consequently, our bodies and eyes miss large parts of natural sunlight that are absent indoors, such as near-infrared (NIR) light.
Display and OEM (Original Equipment Manufacturer) research and design teams have spent decades perfecting what we see on displays while missing what the body needs. With unprecedented levels of stress and eye strain, it’s time for OEMs to take wellness seriously and adapt. Doing so won’t just make users healthier and happier; it’s also smart business. Here are four places we can start:
1. Stop The Pixel Fixation
For far too long, the display industry has been fixated on pixels, color gamut and aesthetics like ever-thinner bezels. In the race for the highest-quality images, designers worked to optimize brightness, color and efficiency. By omitting near-infrared (NIR) wavelengths present in the solar spectrum, they created a mismatch with our bodies' absorption spectrum. Displays do not emit light in the NIR spectrum, which activates cellular energy production, a process known as photobiomodulation. We must find ways to add this light to displays.
We’ve constantly pushed the resolution on television and computer screens forward—just witness the quick shifts from high definition to 4k to 8k. However, the human eye can no longer see improvements—scientists call it a "resolution limit." Let’s accept that displays look good and instead advance wellness. Display leaders should pivot their priorities from image quality to exposure quality.
2. Design For The World We Live In
As displays become continuous sources of exposure, wellness must become an intrinsic condition. We shouldn’t brush off the side effects of prolonged screen use, and we should encourage people to get away from screens. But as displays become continuous sources of exposure, wellness must shift to an intrinsic condition of design. It’s part of our role as ethical leaders to better design for the conditions prolonged use creates.
3. Displays Should Be Considered Investments In Productivity
Wellness has a trickle-down effect: healthier, happier employees do better work and build better companies. If we design displays appropriately, they are not just IT overhead, but an investment in productivity. Design leaders are part of a paradigm shift. The next generation of CIOs will demand hardware that maximizes their human capital. Displays that help workers stay healthy, maintain focus and reduce stress and eye strain will own the enterprise market.
4. Design Is Good Business
Pivoting to wellness is also a prudent business move for display companies. Laptop and monitor markets are saturated, and new sales will be replacement purchases. Roughly 74% of consumers prefer tech products with health and wellness features; companies that add wellness to their devices stand out in a competitive market, even allowing for a price premium. These next-generation displays will be part of the expanding market for health-conscious technology, particularly as companies integrate better technology to shift wellness from a "perk" to an inherent workplace feature.
For far too long, we’ve looked at a display through a single lens: improve the picture. In 2026, displays aren’t defined by pixels or colors but also by their impact on users’ health and performance. It’s time for us to reconfigure displays to support workers. It is not a "next feature." It’s a design decision for the greater collective good.
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