How to turn on TikTok's dark mode

TikTok's endless stream of short videos is a great way to lose hours that would probably have been better spent on something healthier. As it is, we cling to whatever glimmers of joy we can glean in our free waking hours, chasing quick dopamine hits because they're all we have in our capitalist society.

As such, staying up until 4 a.m. scrolling through TikTok's For You page is your prerogative, and nobody has any right to shame you for it. Even so, it can be jarring to tap through to someone's profile and be met with a blinding white screen, cruelly forcing you back into vivid consciousness. TikTok's dark mode allows you to prevent that from ever happening again, so you can lie in bed peacefully watching dance trends and dog videos until either sleep or work demand you.

Here's how to turn on dark mode on TikTok.

1. Open TikTok.

2. Tap the profile icon in the bottom right corner of the screen to go to your profile.

3. ​​Tap the hamburger icon in the top right corner ("≡"). This will open a popup menu.

4. Tap "Settings and privacy."

5. Under "Content & Activity," tap "Dark mode."

6. From here you can choose between TikTok's dark theme or light theme. You can also sync TikTok's appearance to your mobile's display and brightness settings.

Regardless of which theme you pick, you won't see any change when scrolling through videos on your For You page. Rather, the difference between TikTok's light and dark mode becomes apparent when you navigate to other sections of the app, such as Discover or your profile.