How to check if your evening lighting is too bright

Why the usual way fails

Eyes are a poor judge of brightness because they adapt so quickly to whatever light is around them. A room that felt glaring when you walked in can feel fine five minutes later, which makes it hard to know if a change helped. Bulb boxes list lumens and colour temperature, but those describe the bulb, not how much light reaches the spot where you sit. Phone light meter apps exist, yet holding a phone up in different corners every night is the kind of chore most people drop after two tries. And the question you actually care about is relative: is tonight dimmer than last night, and is the reading corner brighter than the sofa?

How WristLux helps

WristLux reads the ambient light sensor in your Wear OS watch and shows a live lux number, so the measuring tool is already on your wrist when the evening starts. It has an evening mode alongside the general, desk, reading and other modes, which makes it easier to judge a reading in that context. You can hold one reading while the live meter keeps going, then compare the sofa with the dining table. The last value you saved also sits on a Tile and a watch face complication, so you can glance at it later without opening the app.

Step by step

1. Open WristLux on your watch after dark and switch to the evening mode.
2. Sit where you usually spend the evening and keep your wrist still and facing up.
3. Hold the reading so the number stays on screen.
4. Turn off one lamp or dim the main light and watch the live meter change next to the held value.
5. Walk to the other seats in the room and compare each one with the held value.
6. Save the setup you like and check the Tile on later evenings to compare.

Tips

• Measure from the same seat with your wrist in the same position each night. The reading moves with wrist angle, shadows and even a sleeve over the sensor, so a fixed routine matters more than the exact number.
• Walk slowly around the room once with a session running. The minimum and maximum show you where the bright hotspot and the darkest corner are, and the average gives you one number for the whole room.
• Change one thing at a time, like a single bulb or lampshade, and take a reading before and after. Two changes at once make it impossible to tell which one made the difference. Keep a short note of the numbers on your phone or a sticky note if you want a record across a week.
• Remember the Tile shows the last reading you saved, not a live value. Open the app for a fresh number whenever you have changed the lights.

Questions