Programmer's Light

Take it from a programmer who wears glasses and works in front of a LCD screen for about 80% of the day that the light in the room can be A. Counter productive and B. Damaging to the eyes and cause head aches and a number of other unnecessary problems.
My boss, the douche, is mandating that we keep some lights on in the office, however he is the only one, literally who thinks we should have the lights on. So left to our own devices, my co-workers and I started loosening ballasts against his wishes because the fucking asshole doesn't understand how hard it is to see your screen under hard light.

So that being said, here are a few tips for making sure you don't hurt your eyes:

1. Turn off the lights when staring at your monitor.
2. Use a desk lamp with a cool bulb, usually a blue hue, to do desk work
3. Change your backgrounds to white on black, it is more soothing for the eyes.
4. Wear sun glasses when out doors, especially if you wear glasses already
5. Do not try to look at a screen that has glare on it or too much light on it. This is hurtful to your eyes.
6. Adjust your monitor's settings or even your video card's settings to get the right color, contrast, brightness and gamma combination.

People don't realize that glasses magnify light and cause discomfort to the eyes, so too much light can be very uncomfortable. If you wear glasses, you have more of a say than people without them in my opinion. Ignore people who make fun of you for having a white on black background, when you feel the benefits in your eyes, you won't care what others say.

Make sure to sit closer to your screen, if you are squinting to see your screen there could either be too much bright light or you are too far away from your monitor. Never strain your eyes for a long period of time, it is damaging to your eyes.

Your screen emits a lot of light, so you are just hurting your eyes if you are forcing yourself to focus on something too hard. With a white background you are essentially staring into a 100 watt light bulb. If you do not believe me, the turn off all of the lights in a room and move a laptop in there with any color background and see how it lights up the room. You are staring into that, so don't be stupid, adjust the light appropriately.