All the pro athletes and life extension people say the most important thing to do always is to get enough sleep. That sleep should be a priority before other stuff. I tend to agree with that, and I know it's hard to get sleep these days. Everyone is so hopped up on various drugs starting from when they wake up (caffeine).
So do that.. it's manageable.. get some sleep when it's nighttime not daytime. LeBron James the basketball player sleeps about 12 hours a day.. night sleep + naps.
Thanks for interesting post. Found some interesting stuff. Let me post my info, maybe it could help someone to identify anything or to find my soulmate haha.
I'm sensitive to:
Not sensitive to:
My overall health variables are:
What makes my symptoms worse:
PS not sure about beer or some other alcohol 
and how it affects me haha.
Thank you for this post. I think stress and anxiety also contributes as one of many factors. Some papers:
Serotonin, stress and corticoids: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/026988110001400203
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780128131466000102
The literature shows that stress effects on the serotonin system are regionally different throughout the brain and are dependent on the type of stress, its duration, the serotonergic marker measured, and individual differences in resilience and genetic background.
On a related note, I recently noticed that when I sleep way too much, I get the same symptoms as when I’m exposed to flickering light (headaches, tinnitus, brain fog). Apparently too much sleep can cause a serotonin imbalance in someone’s brain.
That got me thinking that perhaps, for me, flickering light also causes a serotonin imbalance in my brain. For instance, what if flickering lights somehow triggers serotonin reuptake to occur. According to Google, serotonin reuptake can happen within milliseconds.
There is a study (not on headaches but on Alzheimer's) indicating that flickering lights (at 40 hz) “cause brains to release a surge of signaling chemicals.” So conceptually, the idea that flickering lights can immediately cause changes in serotonin levels in the brain seems plausible.
https://www.news-medical.net/news/20200204/Flickering-light-triggers-the-brain-to-release-signaling-chemicals-that-may-help-fight-Alzheimers.aspx
I have had luck with medications (SSRIs and others) reducing headaches, though I had some negative side effects that were hard to deal with. I found that these medications reduced my symptoms by 80-90%. I previously felt like this was just masking the problem, but I wonder if it is in fact addressing the core of the problem. (I mean, avoiding flickering lights would be best, but that may not be feasible so this may be the next best thing.)
For me, I will do some more experiments with medications that affect serotonin (SSRIs and others) and see what I find.
GregAtkinson Which SSRI's have worked?
I should note that I didn't go on these medications with the intent of reducing my headaches; I went on these medications to help with my insomnia (Nortriptyline), PTSD (antidepressants) and PLMD (Lyrica). It was only after being on the meds for a while that I was like "hey, I haven't been having headaches recently." So I don't think there's a placebo effect. Also, I had a lot of stuff going on in my life, so it's possible that the side effects were actually caused by other issues (PTSD totally rocked my world).
Medications that helped:
I would say that Paxil removed 90% of my symptoms and Nortriptyline and the Trazodone/Prozac combo removed 80% of my symptoms. I honestly don't remember how well Lyrica worked (it was 8+ years ago). But it's pretty subjective, so it's possible that all of them were equally effective.
When I was on the medications, I would still have fairly mild symptoms while I was exposed to flickering lights, but the symptoms would go away very shortly after my exposure goes away. When I'm not on the medications, the symptoms can last for up to three days. I don't know if you can relate to this, but here's one example: I went out for dinner while I was on Paxil and the light bulbs were flickering like crazy and I had some mild symptoms but I was thinking to myself "boy am I going to suffer tonight" because sometimes I don't get bad symptoms right away, but rather I'll get them an hour later and they can last for days. But then shortly after I left the restaurant I felt fine and didn't experience any bad symptoms.
Another example: I have a large ViewSonic monitor that I could use just fine on Nortriptyline but now (not on medication) I get headaches within 10 minutes of using it.
GregAtkinson I am currently taking Bupropion (Wellbutrin) with very few side effects (if any). Effexor is similar, so I wouldn't be afraid of it. However, discuss with your psychaitric provider, because SNRI's and SSRI's work very differently. Paxil and Prozac are both 1st-gen SSRI products. For me, Prozac worked well but the sexual side effects were ... unacceptable ... for my marriage. Paxil turned me into an emotional mess - no daytime sleepiness just amped my emotions to 11 all the time. Lexapro was similar to prozac, I think I liked prozac better TBH. Lexapro was very ... numbing.
But ALL of them reduced my baseline anxiety. Which reduced headaches and made for better sleep. Which improved my eyes. What you're experiencing is not uncommon, I would think.
Lauda89 It would be an interesting thing to try. Note that it's one of the few that doesn't work on serotonin (it works on norepinephrine and dopamine).
Sounds like are symptoms are different but also share some similarities. Headaches aren't typically a major part of my symptoms (they can occur but pale in comparison to everything else). On a bad screen I get symptoms almost immediately (weird dizzy/nausea, ear/head pressure, body warmth, sometimes cramp down my arm and in chest).
I can relate to the extended symptoms after exposure though. On bad screens I'll typically feel "bad" for hours afterwards - sort of improves in a slow but mostly linear fashion. It would be great if I could find something that allowed me to not have ongoing symptoms after exposure.
What kind of doctor are you using to integrate trying all these different medicines?
ocean10 Well, it's been a series of doctors and I can't say that I've had great luck. I've yet to find a doctor that has even heard of my problems, though most of them have been good listeners and willing to try their best.
If you're looking for my advice, I'd say that you have two options:
I forgot to mention that exercise seems to reduce my symptoms after exposure. I typically go running for 30-60 minutes. It is well known that exercise increases serotonin (among other things), so that's a little more anecdotal evidence that my symptoms could be caused by a serotonin imbalance.
Serotonin is inhibitory neurotransmitter that activate parasympathetic system which make pupils constricted and more sensitive to lite.flickering.
Thus @Seagull approach to serotonins make sense.
The other point is oculomotor nerve compression due to pressure - https://ledstrain.org/d/3143-found-the-root-cause-of-my-led-eye-strain-and-an-effective-treatment-plan
