On the monitor I had before, things seemed a little darker so I would move up the brightness...until it was up all the way...what was happening was slowly over time..in fact so slowly I barely noticed, the screen was getting darker...finally it was so dark that I noticed I had to take images into a paint program and lighten them to see the details plus the eyestrain and it couldn't be adjusted any lighter or brighter. Note: my monitor was only 3+ years old, but it was on probably at least 80 hours a week, every week for those 3 years. I bought a new monitor... WOW, I was shocked at how light and bright everything was with the settings at less than half... I immediately redid some of my website graphics....LOL Moral of the story...her monitor may be getting old...so most people would probably see it the same as you do, or close....