White letters on black is hard on my eyes too. I have the text foreground, set to a shade of burnt-orange-yellow, which stands out nicely from the black, but the contrast is muted so it's easier to visually grab. The only white entities I see, are empty checkboxes, and they burn my eyes when I stare at them. My links are lightblue and purple.

The white on black problem must come from the high frequency edges of the transition from high levels of photons(white) to no photons( pure black ).