WOW! I just had one of these occur. My second one this year:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillating_scotoma
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Scintillating_zigzag_scotoma.gif

During my lunch break at work today, I went pretty hard on a flight of 200 stairs with a pretty steep incline, 5 sets, and it was also a pretty nice and sunny day. I'm not sure whether I overexerted myself, or if it was the bright sun.

The other time this happened this year was in the spring when the NHL playoffs were on, lol. I drove to my parents house to watch a game and there was a low sun as it was spring at the time. While watching the game on my dad's OLED TV (The same one as I presented here: https://ledstrain.org/d/175-oled-tv-same-issues/91), one of these started to happen halfway in. However, the sun was setting at the time and as very bright over the horizon out of my peripheral vision. I thought the OLED TV had done it, since the jury was still kind of out on it, but I didn't have any LED exposure today. Also, I am usually able to watch a 3 hour sporting event without much difficulty on the OLED TV.

What's strange about these phenomenon is I don't get any headache or ill-effects afterwards. The "attack" is pretty intense and lasts about 20-30 minutes, and then it spreads to the corners and ends. The "Signs and symptoms" describes the issue exactly. I had this very bright flashing squirmy wormy in my central vision after coming back from my Stairmeggon lunch break and grabbing my lunch bag out of the fridge. It was very intense at first, then started to spread to the corners, almost like spreading butter on bread. Once it had migrated more to the corners, my central vision was clear again, and I could read again, but then the peripheral was out. At it's worst point, I'm almost completely blind in one eye for a few minutes (left eye) until it spreads out of the way.

If I recall correctly, I've had these my whole life, even since a kid, but I just thought they were normal and that everyone got them. I must say, although a bit scary, they are one heck of a fascinating phenomenon! Just another oddity to throw into the enigma!

    Interesting, that just proves that many of us indeed may be migraine sufferers with specific triggers. Which kinda sucks, as those triggers right now seem to be in all tech.
    I got checked for Lyme disease, best test there is (westernblot) and interpretd by a friend doctor, its negative, I do not have Lyme, nor have I ever had it.
    The theory on the website about visual center processing being attacked by some virus is still interesting to me. I will finish the visual therapy and see what happens after.

    Harrison Yes, same here, 4 months to see any change, 6 to see possible cure just like with the glasses. Maybe more. I dont care, Ill do it as long as I have to if it helps.

    MagnuM It may be worth getting your eye pressure checked out - I had these symptoms which turned out to be due to high interocular pressure.

    Not saying that's happening in your case, but something to rule out.

      diop

      Hey, measuring the eye pressure is usually done every time you visit an eye doctor in my homeland. It was measuerd many many times and if there was a problem, I'll know that.

      14 days later

      What do you think of this phenomenon: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Photic_sneeze_reflex?
      It makes you sneeze shortly after you are exposed to bright sunlight and then the reflex stops for 24 hours. The theories say the cause may be that the optical nerve is unusually close to the trigeminal nerve (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trigeminal_nerve). Plus a statistical significant part of the "sufferers" have a nasal septum deviation.

      Might this be a valid theory why some (many?) of us react to flicker? Because the optical nerve is unusually close to some other nerve, and so the other nerve gets electrical signals which it shouldn't?
      The German entry of the photic sneeze reflex says sudden brightness causes many action potentials to be conducted over the optical nerve, triggering the trigeminal nerve (which they shouldn't) -> sneezeing.
      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Action_potential: "In physiology, an action potential occurs when the membrane potential of a specific axon location rapidly rises and falls" - which is probably exactly what happens when exposed to flicker.

        KM I've had the sneeze with sunlight problem even before I had this "problem".

        I've heard some studies claim it's related to photosensitive epilepsy, but that could be me remembering wrong.

        martin Write me the state or city where you live and Ill ask my optometrist to recommend someone reliable in that area.

        Hi @martin , I know it is some time now since this was offered but if your optometrist would know a good one in Berlin Germany that would be awesome. Thanks!

        Edit 1 month later: Ok, went to an optometrist close to my place and she also checked for convergence. This does not seem to be my issue. So no need to check for one @martin 🙂

          24 days later

          deepflame I can ask but they are really busy now, its hard for me to even get them to reply to me. But you can write in english here - https://www.vysetreni-zraku.cz/ and they should be able to reply and recommend some place that they trust. If it was a quick check Id go elsewehere. Check the article.

          ryans This is great. Proves that you really need to see someone who does proper testing and that 5
          min examination in an office really wont do.

          I have been doing my exercises half-wrong for the last two months, strenghtening the already strong eye muscles and not the weak ones. I had to start over with half of it and I must say, it really does something even so soon. My camera display since 2 weeks ago when I started does not give me the stinging pain anymore, it changed into a pressure and even that takes longer to develop than before. I hope by the end of the therapy all pressure/pain will be gone. Also the proper exercises give me nausea, headaches, eye pain and when I overdone it, all displays were painful just like when I was exposed only to the painful ones for too long. I am curious how it will progress now.

          In simple terms the exercises are a way of building maximum range of eye motion while maintaining fusion (single image, no double vision) in both convergence and divergence (one is usually overpowered or weak or more combinations). It is like if you cant extend your arm due to wrong muscle tension and do exercises to balance it out.

            martin deepflame I can ask but they are really busy now, its hard for me to even get them to reply to me. But you can write in english here - https://www.vysetreni-zraku.cz/ and they should be able to reply and recommend some place that they trust. If it was a quick check Id go elsewehere. Check the article.

            Thanks Martin, but I think I have "solved" the main problem already. I got new glasses now with blue light filter and less grades that makes focusing close-up easier (I am near-sighted). In addition I got an old laptop that does not dither at all under Windows 7. So I am pretty happy currently and would not need anything in that direction anymore. But thanks a lot for answering!

            a month later

            Hey guys,

            I wanted to come up with a summary of my health topics so far. However I've to say that it is ridiculous.

            So this are my main health problems:

            • eyestrain (of course)
            • bruxismn - grinding my teeth
            • sleeping problems - sometimes I am fully awake after 2hours of sleep - maybe due to the bruxismn
            • ENT Problems, especially breathing truth the right nostril and pain in the right frontal sinus
            • sometimes a high amount of "stress" in the body, especially on heavy bruxismn and bad sleep nights
            • a permanent activated immune system (doctors told me that) - the body is fighting against something

            These problems weren't here at once, they all appeared with a distance of some years, however they seem to be highly connected. Also I know that many of you suffer from the same things as me and as a result I think that we shouldn't see the eyestrain issue as an isolated discomfort.

            So with some extended bloodtest some special doctors told me that my immune system is permanentely working and that the body is fighting against something. However (and thats ridicolous) nobody could tell me so far against what my body is fighting. As a result I am a special case under the special cases who visit this mentionend doctors.

            2 years ago I had two surgeries and they removed my tonsils and corrected my nasal septum. I had a dental brace for 3 years and now I'm doing a special orthodontia therapy in order to correct the bruxism. Also I'm doing my eye excercices (convergence) for 4 months now.

            Only these eye excercices helped a little bit, but not as much as I hoped.

            It is not a hashimoto or any other auto immune disease. A doctor meant that I'm not far away from the chronic fatigue syndrome caused by the Epstein–Barr virus, however this diagnose is some kind of inconsistend between two different tests. Another theory is that there is a foreign material in my body which causes this problems. So maybe I'll doing a Lymphocyte transformation test which can tell me if the composit materials of my dental fillings are problematic.

            This theory came up because the bruxismn started 2 months after I got my first composit dental fillings and the eyestrain occured the first time three-fourths a year after that (I purchased a new notebook). Before that time I never had a bruxismn or such heavy eye problems at all. However it's only a idea and maybe there is another root cause of this.

            So I am pretty sure about that there is a health root cause of the eyestrain which makes us more sensitive to all of the different display and graphcis technologies.
            Some of us have more or less additionally health issues, but there is a big connection.

            • jen replied to this.

              I agree, I would expect it to be along the lines of immune system aggravation leading to brain or optic nerve inflammation. An example of this, giardia, an intestinal parasite, can trigger immune system mediated retinal inflammation.

                Seagull Weird, I was under the same line of thinking when it came to speculating that maybe a parasite could cause some of these symptoms (e.g. bruxism, anxiety, etc). I'm not sure where I'm remembering that potential link from. Take that for what it's worth perhaps?

                  MagnuM

                  You are correct, some parasitic infections are associated with anxiety.

                    5 days later

                    Seagull
                    MagnuM

                    Good point with the parasite.

                    Anyone else is noticing that my mentionend symptoms occur in phases? There are "good"/bad phases and very bad phases where eyestrain is worse and sleep quality is also bad.

                    Yesterday was such a bad sleeping night. If I did not know better, I would say that demons are obsessing me at such nights ;-)

                      martin
                      "Therefore my conlcusion so far is that I really do lack MPOD (macular pigment optical density) in my retina, and my retinas cannot filter out blue light." You should measure to have sure. So you can have sure, or else you could be mesguided. We have to be careful making conclusions, based on simple results. There are multiple variables.

                      I am thinking more and more, that the majority of problems are flickering related. But different kinds of flickering. Some dithering, color flickering, contrast flickering, etc. Some people are troubled by flickering on blue spectrum. So it's the photoreceptors either blue cones or RGPC's ganglion cells that are the sensitive. Maybe people have differente photo-receptors sensitivities. So for some people the blue light problems only occurs with flickering.

                      1- People only affected by flicklering.
                      2- People affected by flickering when blue spectrum is high. (different photo-receptors affected the number 1 group).

                      Do you have any LED display that dont cause you problems? Maybe on LED that dont have any substantial flicker of any sort?

                      MagnuM i dont know about oled tv's, but oled's smartphone, dont really have lower spikes of blue spectrum. They might slighty 10nm right sifhted.
                      What they have usually is more intense green and red intensities spikes. So more balanced.

                      Also maybe OLED's have less flickering. I think that backlights have lots of flickering. Maybe inversion or other related stuff. Maybe
                      OlED dont have that problem.

                      Have you tried IPhone XS or Galaxy S9?

                        I don't know if it that harsh. Depends on people. Its sinusoidal waveform which is much softer then digital waveform.

                        I noticed with my peripheral vision, and it's annoying but I don't feel pain. At least immediately. Never tried watching to OLED for long times.

                        Harrison Ironically enough, I seem to have less problems on less sleep. Maybe my brain is literally working slower and my reflexes to flicker are not as fast! XD

                        • JTL replied to this.
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