TL;DR: I believe pattern glare is causing some of my problems, this matte glass fixed my iPhone 13.
Pattern Glare
I have a severe sensitivity to laptop and phone displays, My journey with laptops (plus current solution) is well documented here.
A post on this forum about Pattern Glare caught my attention a while back as a possible cause. 'Quirks' that I 've had all my life are actually symptoms of this condition. Simple things like:
- feeling dizzy / disoriented whilst walking on a stopped escalator - I get this in a big way and thought everyone did! In actual fact the repetetive striped pattern of the escalator is causing my brain to react in some way:
- walking over this striped mat at my local shopping centre:
- sitting with a flickering candle at dinner, for example, can trigger a migraine in me
- and I even get issues with a table mat that has a striped pattern on it
Since realising this I have started realising my brain getting triggered by repetitive patterns all over the place. The movement my eyes feels near-identical to the feeling of not being able to focus properly on an unusable screen - they jitter and feel uncomfortable.
I believe that this may have something to do with my condition, and ultimately it has potentially thrown up a solution for me that I believe is worth sharing.
First Phone: iPhone 13 Pro
I purchased an iPhone 13 Pro and initially thought it was great. I used it continuously for a few days, and suddenly I had the same old spiralling migraines and nausea. Left eye pain, neck pain and all the trimmings. This got returned.
Second Phone: iPhone 13
A couple of months later, and I decided to pick up an iPhone 13 (not Pro). This time:
I immediately put this matte screen protector on it
I started very gently - 10 mins at a time for a few days
I gradually built up my time on the phone over a week
I used the phone flawlessly for months without issue, before I irrepairably broke it.
Third Phone: iPhone 13
6 months later I could afford to buy another iPhone 13. Again, I immediately put a matt screen protector on it, but of a different brand as the one I had previously used was no longer available.
I put this Techgear one on, which by the specs seemed identical.
I started getting continuous migraines, nausea and eyestrain again, despite everything else about the iPhone 13 being the same as my previous one.
I tweaked every setting, and really tried to push through as I refused to believe that there could be any hardware difference in the phones.
Eventually, after 2 weeks I bought a new matte screen protector as a last-ditch effort, and immediately my eye strain ceased and after a couple of days my migraines were gone, no matter how much I use the phone.
It looks different to the Techgear ones, it's more matte, and also slightly fuzzier somehow.
I'm several months in now, and have no issues - I almost still can't believe it!
Working Theory
My working theory is that for me, something to do with Pattern Glare is giving my brain serious issues on non-working setups, including all Apple devices.
The repetition of the pixels is causing my brain to freak out, eyes to jitter, muscles to spasm and ultimately a migraine is triggered.
Perhaps if the repetitive patterns of the pixels are disrupted enough by a anti-glare / privacy / matte screen protector, it no longer causes me issues.
I noticed someone on this thread (post #280) that had the same situation except with a Macbook Pro, so I'm gearing up to try that at some point.
It's at least given me some hope for a universal solution so I hope it helps someone else.