A lot of us have experienced "dry eyes" as a result of this issue. It's not the cause, in my experience, but a symptom. I personally did have a period of dry eyes, but that is no longer a problem for me - and yet my symptoms remain. So I think that might be a red herring - but I am not a doctor, so maybe it's worth giving it a shot if only to rule it out?
Blue light photophobia, eyestrain, muscle spasms, pain, twitching
5 days later
Sorry and glad to see someone else with the same issue we have. Sorry they are suffering like we are, glad to see it might be getting more common enough to warrant attention
OP, curious if you have any sinus issues. I'm starting to see a definite link between the two. Your sinuses are highly enervated, if inflammation is compression/acting on nerves there is can throw all sorts of things out of whack. I've had three sinus surgeries and he last one made a noticeable different in some LED triggers for me.
Agree on the nightmare of LED's making their way into cars and headlights, head over to lightmare.org there is a petition trying to bring notice to the issue
8 days later
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ensete curious if you have any sinus issues.
Chronic sinusitis here. Never had surgery. Definitely saw a link to eyestrain.
ensete lightmare.org
I had never heard of this, thanks.
Gurm A lot of us have experienced "dry eyes" as a result of this issue.
I have recently been three times to an eye-doctor because of eyelid twitching. I was told I do not have dry eyes. Years ago I was told the opposite and recommended drops. So, I agree with you, eyestrain is not caused by dry eyes in my case.
After a mont of vitamin B12 drops and simple exercises like eye push-ups, my eyes got better. At work I can use various (shared) computers mounting Windows 7 Professional 64-bit (6.1, Build 7601) Service Pack 1, and graphic cards like Intel HD Graphics 4400, NVIDIA GeForce GT 710, Intel HD Graphics 530. There is another PC with Windows 10 Home 32-bit (10.0, Build 17763) and Intel HD Graphics 4000, which looks okay.
More important, I re-gained total control of my MacBook Air (13-inch, Early 2014) with Intel HD Graphics 5000 and macOS High Sierra. I uninstalled the updated Microsoft Office and re-installed the version prior to the eye problems, but I believe that was just a red herring. For unknown reasons, my eyes could hardly stand any artificial light from last November to until a month ago.
I am still very unhappy though. The configuration of my office desk was changed and I am half in the dark, half under a ceiling fluorescent lamp. As soon as I sit at my desk in the morning, my eyelids start dancing. I feel dizzy and unproductive, which generate a lot of anxiety and frustration. In this job I am quite free, so I often escape the office and sit elsewhere, possibly at a window, but this makes my work inefficient. Also, I need to use at my desk a virtual machine with Windows on an iMac 21.5" Late 2013 with Nvidia GeForce GT750M. This screen is quite troublesome, but the strain could come solely or mostly from the ceiling lamp. I will try to block the lamp sensor on a weekend when no-one is around, and see how I do with the iMac. In any case, it is not a permanent solution since I cannot force the person aside me to work in the dark. He has absolutely no issue with the ceiling lamp.
A few considerations/questions.
1) I still have decades to work, but I am skeptic I will see the day that at least lighting will be customizable in the office. I do not see why I should go thru this nightmare daily and even feel ashamed of telling my disturbs, just because most people do not suffer from a similar problem. We can hope that charities like lightmare.org make enough noise, but in my opinion until we have support/ evidence from a medical standpoint, there is no way out.
2) @martin et al. have resorted to optometrist treatment. I read about heterophoria. I sought help but where I am optometrists only sell glasses. The eye-doctor told me to sleep more and work less, and eventually he can inject some Botox to stop the twitching. My question is: if I can use my MacBook Air 10 hours in a row without problem at home, and minutes under the ceiling lamp at work kill me, is it still a problem of eye-teaming, convergence, etc. etc.? I feel dizzy even if I just talk to someone or sit there reading on paper, no electronics. Would the type of exercise @martin has been doing help? "My" push-ups seem to help only for computer-use, but I am unable to build tolerance against "bad" light.
3) In labs and other rooms there is the same type of ceiling lamps except the light is whiter and brighter. Those fluorescent lamps do not bother me. It looks like warmer light was chosen for offices. Can the light color make such a big difference? I always heard blu light is bad, and I have been trying to protect myself with Iris and orange glasses since. How come now that warm light is killing me? Does anyone know if the flickering of fluorescent light strongly depends on the emitted wavelength?
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AGI 3) In labs and other rooms there is the same type of ceiling lamps except the light is whiter and brighter. Those fluorescent lamps do not bother me.
The below goes in the opposite direction. Interesting...
KM
"The red emission from the phosphor has a slow time decay, and so the red light has a low amount of flicker (the red light is integrated over time). The blue emission is very fast and has the most flicker."
http://www.conradbiologic.com/articles/SubliminalFlickerII.html
AGI Yes it can be, and it might not. Unless you get properly diagnosed, its pointless to philosophize about it. How about self diagnosis? I can share some tools with you and how to use them. You need to order a few things but that should not be expensive - Maddox test. It would at least either motivate you to find some proper optometrist, or not waste your time. Feel free to write me an email.
3 months later
Blair Another user mentioned getting an EEG since they think it could be a mild form of epilepsy. By any chance did you have one done when seeing the neurologist?
5 days later
Until I measure the frequency of an eventual flicker...what is the likelihood that low power / warm light generates eyestrain? We are told that blue light is bad, but what if too little blue light is bad too? Also, I read in old threads that some people are bothered by certain colors. I am tempted to ask to replace the "electro bulb" with a "natural" color.
4 months later
I was taken a brain MRI to dig into the eyelid twitching problem. Everything is okay, and no reason for the spasms could be found. I could not get all because of the language barrier, but I think the eye doctor and the neurologist were particularly interested in a potential contact between a nerve and something else. However, such contact does not exist and there is no difference left to right in my brain, although twitching almost only affects my left eye.
When I mentioned external triggers, in particular fluorescent and LED lamps which have been giving me troubles for over an year, I was told to take a break and relax, that there is no scientific evidence modern lighting poses eye/neurological threats.
Not sure whether this exam is more comprehensive than an EEG, I think they look at different things but I felt I have no chance to get further examined unless I change doctors.
AGI I think the eye doctor and the neurologist were particularly interested in a potential contact between a nerve and something else
That's a theory that I have for some time: Optical nerves somehow having contact to surrounding muscles - which they shouldn't. So the muscles (eyes, eye lids, face...) get nerve impulses from the incoming light. Day light = constant input, so not much muscle activity per second. But anything that flickers, even tiny oscillations (temporal dithering, pixel shifting), make the muscles tense over and over. Persisting eye strain caused by just a few seconds of exposure would then be some form of muscle soreness. Giving a muscle the order to micro-move several hundred times a second should lead to fatigue quickly.
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KM One thing at least in my experience is that so long as it's a PWM-free monitor, it should be fine.
On a good monitor a bad device causes symptoms and a good device doesn't, also using a Cloud PC on good system creates issues. I had an MRI a few years ago and results were 100% normal.
It has to be dithering/pixel movement? Also, it's doubtful these effects are present on our 'good systems' and I can watch HD content and read text and everything is sharp and clear. I don't understand the reason to employ dithering, as in my experience it actually makes colors look too saturated and overbearing. I don't believe it dramatically enhances picture quality enough to need it. It now seems to be standard on all modern devices, and I really want to know why this is the case.
An interesting idea, but if the nerves from your eyes were not insulated sufficiently you'd experience some pretty severe visual distortions, if you could see at all. And the connection would work both ways, you'd wiggle your eyebrows and your vision would cut out for a few second.
