ACTUALLY, my optometrist is aware of the issue. She doesn't have a lot of answers, but there is research being done. She wasn't super familiar with the ins and outs of dithering and whatnot, but she knows that screen flicker of all types causes problems for a growing percentage of people, and LED strain in general. It was a surprise - a pleasant one, to be sure - that a medical professional didn't just go "huh" when I talked about this.

She has me doing hot compresses to reduce eye inflammation, cleaning with hypochlor, and practicing posture - since there's growing evidence that FHP (forward head posture) can increase pressure. My pressure isn't high, but all sorts of stuff is thrown out of whack by the FHP we all take on by virtue of our computer use.

That's great to hear someone is aware of it. What country are you in? Every time I go to a doctor it makes me realize how weirdly educated we (meaning Ledstrain etc.) are on various types of screens, PWM, dithering etc. So far any doctor I've met has literally no concept of different types of technology (not that they would be expected to I guess!)

Interesting on the posture piece of it. I have another therapist who is trying to help (not an optometrist) who focuses a lot of posture. Any eye specialist I've seen hasn't mentioned anything like that. I also don't have high pressure but after seeing @Zodios 's thread I'm going to look more into that.

  • Gurm replied to this.

    I have met several people who had symptoms thinking it was something else but ended up being their screens that caused their migraines, anxiety, depersonalization, etc

    ocean10 yeah it's interesting - I also have tinnitus and it turns out THAT is related to my bad posture also. Lots of increased pressure and inflammation in the skull due to bad posture contributes to a variety of issues. It's all inter-related. TMJ, Tinnitus, Sleep Apnea, even intra-ocular pressure are all controlled by the same nerve cluster!

      moonpie When you say “care to solve the issue” what are you referring to?

        ocean10

        I found out my coworker gets really bad headaches unless he uses dark mode on his OS and applications. Seems to work for him. I wish mine were that simple. Dark mode alone doesn't seem to help me that much.

          Relatives with one experiencing issues with an Apple TV display recently. This relative never had issues with computer displays before in the multi-decades of experience working long hours as software programmer.

          • JJTL

          • Post #11

          Maybe not entirely what you're looking for, but I'm aware of some doctors (optopmologists/neurologists) who have articulated (some) of this issue may relate to the phenomenon of photosensitive epilepsy.

            JTL

            Is that published somewhere that you have seen? I sort of feel like doctors don’t know which direction to go when they hear about this (ie migraines, epilepsy, vestibular issues etc.). Would love to start collecting material to share with doctors since even this issue in general has been completely unfamiliar to every doctor I’ve spoken with. NONE of the doctors I’ve seen have even a passing knowledge of display technology (not that they should be expected to I guess) so it makes it even more difficult.

            • JTL replied to this.

                moonpie

                I’d need to get up to speed on how to use an oscilloscope+photodiode and microscope to do that.

                But sounds like you are talking about a different population of people than where I (and sounds like some others here) fit in. For me I’m not be able to use a “bad” screen no matter how badly I wanted to. I get symptoms pretty much immediately symptoms and they are strong enough that suffering through them isn’t possible.

                  6 days later

                  • JJTL

                  • Post #16

                  ocean10 Is that published somewhere that you have seen? I sort of feel like doctors don’t know which direction to go when they hear about this (ie migraines, epilepsy, vestibular issues etc.).

                  I'm mostly referring to informal conversations I've had with neurologists and other eye doctors in the past ~10 years. Although I believe there has been more scientific research regarding "flicker sensitivity" as of recent.

                    • JJTL

                    • Post #17

                    ocean10 Here is a fairly recent research article on triggers for photosensitive epilepsy, and it mentions PWM integrated with modern displays and the issue of eyestrain

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