I am nobody special…Just an early 50's guy with the 'gift' to be able to see and feel the PWM of all those crazy lights. Always have. Just now they are everywhere. Too bad they try to make me crazy. Which can make my wife crazy, well not so much. Quit my job to stay sane and stay married last summer. So now I pretty much just keep the wood cut, pigs and chickens fed, and garden growing. But it does give me a little more time in the Forge. It was a great relief, (relief) may not be the right word, to find LEDStrain.org.

So, Thank You from Kentucky.

a month later

I am so happy to find this site! I am a 42 year old Project Manager from northwest Pennsylvania. I am generally sensitive to many types of substances and stimuli, but my "relationship" to LED sensitivity is one of the most pronounced and has noticeably affected my life. I work on a computer screen, and I've found that for some reason due to the LED back lighting, certain older model monitors (even WITH PWM!) are tolerable for me with no problem at all, while almost all modern monitors cause significant eye strain and other symptoms within minutes of use: for instance I can use an Asus VS247H-P for Dell P2014HT all day long, but a standard monitor from even 5 years ago like a LG or LG 24MP59HT-P or any gaming monitor like Asus PG279Q causes terrible eye strain. I'm confident this is an LED issue as certain modern LED desk lamps cause the same exact symptoms, and the monitors affect me even if the backlight is on but the screen is black. I am on a quest to find a modern monitor- hopefully a gaming monitor- that is tolerable! I will search the forum and start a post about this topic in case there are any others here who have a similar experience. Thank you for this site! 🙂

    Lauda89 Thank you for the idea! I once expected OLED would be my solution, but a OLED TV we bought was totally intolerable to me, it affected me negatively so strongly I couldn't watch it for even a few minutes and we had to return it. I suspect there are some color wavelengths being produced that I am super sensitive to. I wish I could narrow down the issue better: I'd absolutely love to be able to tolerate an OLED monitor.

    • JTL replied to this.

        Gemsand Well. I do know current OLED TVs use a "WRGB" subpixel so that could be an issue as well.

          13 days later
          a month later

          Location: Vancouver Canada
          Occupation: Interior Designer & Graphic Designer
          Age: 35

          Currently using a 2015 iphone 6S running an older iOS (13.1.2). And an older MSI "gaming" laptop with Windows 10. My eyes love these screens and can stare at them all day long.

          I've tried the X, XS, 11, 12, and 2023 SE phones, and all of these are a no-go. The SE is the best by far but still not good. Someone was guessing that it's the processor chip or iOS causing issues because it's still a (good) LCD screen, so in theory it shouldn't be any different than my 6S on the eyes. But sadly it is.

          Am terrified of the potential concept of no longer being able to potentially communicate to others on my phone and to to do design work in the near future ??? purely due to LED/OLED tech that is harmful to us.

          My optometrist tells me that I "have pupils that allow in more than the normal amount of light". So maybe yours do as well. 20/20 vision. Blue eyes.

          I can't stand LED bulbs in shops and get sick around them. They seem violent & strong to my eyes.

          Skimming through many of these responses, I don't see yet that anyone has created a group to approach Apple or other manufacturers to show that there are many of us who don't deserve to be left behind. We NEED products that work for us, and I refuse to be ostracized from society or unable to work (in the future) due to products not being created to include us.

          The good thing is that if Apple creates a line for sensitive eyes. they can basically charge whatever high prices they'd like since their market (you and I) literally doesn't have a choice. We just want things that we don't get sick from.

          I currently have the iphone SE 2022 and I'd like to trial an earlier version of iOS to see if it helps fix the situation. No clue though if Apple allows us to download older iOS versions. :/

            12 days later

            • Your location

              Portugal

            • Your occupation

              Civil engineer

            • Your age

              48

            • How you first identified you were affected

              When i bought iPhone 12

            • Whatever else comes to mind

              Just shared my experiences in other posts 🙂 Just one more voice to the "movement"

            3 months later

            Good day to everyone. I'm Italian and live in Italy. I'm 27 and work as a student at university.

            How you first identified you were affected:

            I don't know if I'm affected by something, just bought a new notebook, Lenovo legion 5 for precision, after a week I started having headache, eye pain and heating… The problem is clearly the screen of the new notebook. I'm here to learn and try to find a solution to this problem. Thanks everybody for sharing with others

            24 days later

            Hello! I live in the West, work in advertising, and am 40. I first started struggling with the new iPhone 13 line. I noticed in-store I immediately felt sick and headachey looking at them. I got the SE and have been fine (even though I really wanted the Pro)!

            I do have a slight convergence issue that I haven't bothered to correct, because it just doesn't normally bother me enough. Was doing fine with my old MacBook Pro 2015 and Dell UltraSharp of a similar vintage.

            Now, I've upgraded to an M2 air, and have struggled to focus on text on it, hooked up to a 2022 Dell UltraSharp. I tried pairing the UltraSharp to my 2015MBP, and that solves it…but that computer is TOAST and I need to upgrade.

            I'll be throwing down a post in the forum next—thanks!

            24 days later

            Hello all, I am living in the US with a debilitating sensitivity to LED light and to a lesser degree, other types of flickering lights and screens (though they didn't significantly bother me before LEDs became relatively cheap and ubiquitous). I have never been a fan of aggressively bright lights, but it used to be that they wouldn't mess with me if I didn't mess with them, whereas now it is difficult to avoid them.

            I have a long history with migraines and headaches that I was accustomed to just continue working through, as many women do, but when my workplace switched to LED lighting in March 2019 I started getting immediate, sharp pain in my right eye and persistent headaches. I tried using an eyepatch + dark wraparound glasses + large-brimmed hat to cut down on the overhead flickering but enough light would still get through and my right eye would still hurt and my headaches would still prevent me from doing much more than the minimum at my workplace, and when I got home I could basically only sit in a dark room without lights or screens. Even if I took a vacation from all the lights and screentime, it would take weeks for the pain to subside, and it would immediately return within seconds of exposure to LED lighting. I met with many doctors (optometrist, ophthalmologist, primary care, integrative medicine, rheumatologist, neurologist) -- they all said they had never had another patient with these symptoms and couldn't come up with any explanation except that something about the lighting might be a migraine trigger. After transferring to another office that had retained its fluorescent lighting, I discovered that I could no longer tolerate that either (possibly because, as others here have noted, the increasing exposure to LEDs in traffic lights and other sources seems to increase sensitivity to any sort of flickering). I had no choice but to retire at the age of 40 and haven't had luck finding other work because now I also get eyestrain/facepain (as in sometimes my whole face starts to hurt) from using computer screens, even when set to the warmest nightlight mode and dimmed all the way down, plus I have a separate autoimmune condition that makes me sensitive to sunlight (a relief to my eyes after an hour under LEDs, but triggers inflammation in my skin).

            I've learned that having a disability, even an invisible, unrecognized one, means constantly negotiating how you get through each day--can I avoid just the LED lights in the produce section of the supermarket, or do I need to skip the store altogether? Can I navigate these hallways with my eyes mostly closed and minimize my exposure? Can I wear my sunproof hoodie + hat + mask + doubledark sunglasses to the doctor's office, and how can they even tell it's me when I present my photo ID? If I schedule my appointment at this office, at the least busy time, can I get in and out without triggering too much pain? Can I eat at the table with the bright overhead fixture, or is it better to move to the table next to the loud guy with an annoying laugh? How dim can I leave the display settings on this shared laptop without annoying the other user? If I get called for jury duty again, will my new doctor think I'm making things up? Will this new appliance have an overly bright LED display that needs to be covered with layers of tape? Should I even try to attend my grandmother's 100th birthday celebration? How much of this needs to be explained to every person I meet, and how will I be judged if I don't explain? I still consider myself luckier than a lot of people, wouldn't have the luxury of sitting here writing this if I weren't, but at this point I've pretty much given up on going into any other buildings apart from necessary medical appointments (retail stores are out, museums are out, Disneyland is out, I am years overdue for a checkup at the dentist, and even most underground caves have "updated" lighting now), and I've long stopped going out after dark because of the overly-bright traffic lights and headlights, not that there's anyplace to go that isn't already a problem.

            So that's my story, or pertinent parts of it anyway. Maybe it helps you, maybe it doesn't, but I do appreciate knowing that there are more people experiencing similar things out there, all over the world.

            2 months later

            Hi, when I was a child I was sensitive to fluorescent lights, remember times when it was impossible looking at the blackboard during classes, because it was painful. At the same time playing games on Atari connected to 15 inch black and white CRT TV was not a problem for me 🙂

            After couple of years problem passed, but still - for reading books I was changing bulbs in lamps to incandescent, because I've started to see flickering from CFL bulbs. Long starring at CRT monitor was causing mild headache but that was all.

            Couple of years ago I've bought myself Google Pixel 2 XL and then I've experienced what poor quality display can do to eyesight - reading everything on this smartphone is just irritating, I was trying differrent lighting conditions, different screen brightness, different text colour on white, sepia, mid-gray, black backgrounds - there is some difference, but I just have enough of flickering screens and probably temporal dithering. My problem is that I need a smartphone that is respecting privacy, but GrapheneOS is not a solution for me, it's just working on Pixels.

            So here I am, reading all this post, being thankful that my problem is not severe (yet) and searching for privacy-respecting smartphone. Problably only mid-solution is Iphone SE for me.

            For many users here working with screen couple hours a day I can recommend graphic monitors, like Eizo or NEC and colorimeter to make yourself profiles respecting different environment light conditions.

            If you are stuck with flickering display with PWM brightness correction try setting up the brightness to 100%, then lower contrast- for android smartphones for example there is Red Moon app, for computer monitor there are controls in menu - this is temporal solution of course.

            2 months later

            To first answer the thread's guide:

             Location: Central Texas panhandle.

            Occupation: Electronic tech for the tri-state area (residential, industrial, commercial, computers, communication equipment, etc.), owned my own electronics service business for over 30 years, Texas security licensed, serviced security systems for banks up to maximum security state prisons, Dell warranty for confidential state agencies, alternate energy sources (PV and wind), EMF sensitivity remediation for customers, semi-retired into being a lazily-sitting-on-chair web coder. I was a senior aircraft inspector in my younger days. Generally, except for automatic transmissions and jet engines, if a device can fit in a garage, then I have likely repaired, rebuilt, and/or modified a similar device.

            Age: 69 (still feel like I'm 20-something, but the darn mirror disagrees).

            First identified uncomfortable sensitivity to EMF: About 5 years old when feeling the annoyance of a distant telephone microwave tower (about a mile away). The sensitivity to EMF often made it easier for me to service electronic equipment. (No wireless devices of any form are permitted in my home.)

            Of the 2 years of electronics classes in high school, plus 2+ more years of electronics in college and correspondence, I learned almost nothing that was useful for real-world electronics. No volt meter nor oscilloscope is able to detect harmonic EMF fields, but people who are sensitive to EMF fields are fully aware of the fields.

            Some of us have been talking about EMF sensitivity for decades, but since the general public does not believe that EMF fields can have an effect on organic tissue, then I stopped trying to explain. Here in the forum, I will feel much more comfortable being around people of whom themselves have similar experiences as my own.

            6 days later

            Hello everyone!

            I'm chiming in with all the eye strain plagued folks.

            I'm a digital comic artist from Germany, mid 30.

            I've been a rather heavy computer user since my teens, so around 20 years of screen use. In 2018 (I think), my eye problems started. I went freelancing full time and spent way too much time on screens. My eye doctor diagnosed dry eyes, and after months of desperation and not wanting to believe that eye drops will fix the sharp pain, I finally managed it through taking eye drops so frequently that the pain subsided. Nowadays, I take eye drops around 2-4 times/day and it's okay.

            Since around 2019 or 2020, the phases of eye strain started. I went through a couple of new glasses, which actually were too sharp, then on the next one, the angle wasn't right. My current ("eye comfort") glasses finally feel fine. I always thought I just didn't take enough breaks. But now after 5 years and having tried out so many things, that can't just be the only thing. I sometimes feel like I'm making things up.

            Symptoms are:
            - pulling sensation on the eyes which can get really bad
            - tired eyes (for days)
            - brain fog/not being able to concentrate
            - feeling unwell overall
            - sometimes nausea when it gets bad
            - not being able to look at screens anymore

            What I tried and still do:
            - less screen time (I estimate it to be around 6 hours/day including phone use)
            - taking frequent breaks throughout the day (Pomodoro is my best friend, I do 20 min work/6 min break)
            - drinking enough (~2l water+tea/day)
            - sleeping enough
            - 20-20-20 rule
            - low brightness on all screens, making them as comfortable to look at as possible
            - f.lux
            - use screens with no PWM
            - use the Onyx Boox Nova 3 whenever I can (mostly in the evenings for browsing or chatting)
            - pay attention to my posture to avoid neck strain
            - going to the eye doctor regularely, my eyes are fine

            What I tried and am not 100% convinced if work(ed):
            - bought eye care monitor from EIZO (FlexScan EV2480), was nice to look at, but the glare was a straining factor
            - freshly bought an RLCD monitor from SVD (still testing)
            - turned off Cleartype yesterday

            Yet, the eye strain is still there and it drives me nuts. It makes it almost impossible to work properly since I can’t focus on creative work due to being unwell most of the time, and because I can only do so little on the computer every day.

            I’ve spent quite some time reading through forum posts here the past few days, and want to try out these things:

            - Win 7 (I upgraded my PC from Win 7 to Win 10 Pro in September 2020, maybe that’s a culprit? I briefly managed to get my Win 8.1 laptop running today, but it crashed after an hour due to a battery problem.)
            - eye patching

            It sometimes helps to read through your experiences. It makes me feel less alone and not feel so crazy anymore, haha.

            3 months later

            Hello all. Glad to have found this forum.

            Location: Seattle WA area.

            Profession: Retired Patent Attorney.

            Age: 63.

            Problem identification:

            After using a 2012 vintage Toshiba L775 laptop for ten years and having no problems with it, I bought a fairly low-end 17-inch HP laptop in 2022 and rapidly noticed that I'd get headaches, fatigue, and nausea after using it for more than about ten minutes. I initially assumed that the issue was specific to that laptop due to its performance specs; and that I was paying the price for having been frugal. So for a while, I returned to my increasingly obsolete Toshiba.

            I later (2023) bought a Galaxy Book3 Pro360 thinking that the higher quality of this unit would resolve the issue. I was wrong. The above-listed symptoms returned though with somewhat less severity than with the HP unit. The symptoms persisted even after connecting the Book3 to a 24-inch "Eye-care" ASUS monitor only to experience the same symptoms. I note that I have always used and adjusted the blue light filters on the displays I've used so I am assuming that blue light is not the issue. So far the only pattern I can detect is that new monitors, whether native to laptops or external units, have all caused these symptoms, whereas my old laptop and current phones do not.

            For context, I add that, so far, I've not had an issue with any phone that I've used. I'm the Galaxy-Android ecosystem and currently use a Galaxy S21 FE phone.

            Currently Proposed Approach:

            An acquaintance suggested the use of a projector/screen combination to address the issue. I am currently researching various product offerings in pursuit of that approach.

            Any suggestions? Let me know.

            I look forward to participating in this forum.

              6 days later

              Voyager39
              To Slacor:,
              I'm trying to send a private message to a forum admin. Not sure whether I'm doing this right, but hopefully someone will correct me if I'm not.
              I have two questions.
              (1) If the facility exists for notifying me via email of responses to my forum posts, could someone here let me know how.
              (2) I looked for a way to initiate a private message but couldn't locate information on that point. Again, it would be much appreciated if someone here could identify where on the site that feature is located.

              Thanks in advance,
              Voyager39

                  dev