• Introduction

  • Blue light photophobia, eyestrain, muscle spasms, pain, twitching

martin Thank you. I have noticed my gender puts me in the minority here. Hopefully that female energy can contribute some beneficial yin to all of the yang. 😉

This is all quite fascinating to me.. If I recall, both Neuro-opthamologists did a great deal of testing which did take an hour or so each time, however I'm going to look into this further by looking through my records as well as calling each office. If these tests haven't all been done, this is obviously a crucial step towards a diagnosis, which may have been overlooked. I would not be surprised.

i'm glad you're getting some relief with the therapy. What kind of specialist is he? I'm located in LA so surely there are some decent specialists in the area.

I agree, the new forms of lighting are causing a lot of issues for various reasons, and some of us are obviously... much more affected/sensitive to it... And that would be most righteous if your guy ended up writing about this.

      Blair Hi! I'm Mike from Hungary, a 30 years old Electric Engineer / SW developer. My ledstrain smyptoms started 7 years ago, when got a new laptop with LED screen. Several eye doctors said that nothing wrong with my eyes. Tried many flicker free LED monitors, f.lux...etc. none of them helped. I finally found a solution: I strongly recommend the old CCFL backlit monitors, like MagnuM said. After switching to a CCFL monitor 4 years ago, my very serious ledstrain symptoms disappeared. Monitor recommendation: HP ZR24W ( you may find used ones ).
      CCFL have a warmer white, less blue in the spectrum, and the PWM is much softer because of the slow on-off switching of the CCF lamp. Unfortunately this CCFL backlight is obsolete tech, most of modern/future LED monitors/phone screen triggers my symptoms again. 🙁

          Blair when I’m working on set, the production monitors they have which broadcast a live feed of the actors while they are shooting the scene, seem “different” to me.

          If you could find any information about these "production" monitors I'd be interested.

              I have had this issue with LEDs/CFLS for 10 years. Recently I have found SCT orange glasses that I ordered off Amazon to be the best defense against LEDs. I have to tape up the sides so no flicker gets into my eyes. I always have to wear a hat so light doesn't get me from the top down. Recently my work just changed my computer to Windows 10 and my eye strain issues have started again. Most likely due to dithering. Flicker free CCFL monitor if you can find over. E ink maybe flicker free OLED phone but again probably a crap shoot finding a phone that doesn't cause eye strain. I can use a Yotaphone 2 with no eye strain issues. Plasma TV works for me with no eye issues. One thing I learned recently is usually older plasma TVs have screen burn so they cause me eye strain. 2013 and 2012 are usually good years to find and they are cheap now.

              Blair my specialist is an optometrist whos doing a phd in biophysics and also working in research in optometry. Therefore hes really interested in weird cases. He does his business with his lab in a small town, as he is not about selling and commercial optometry, therefore he would not be competitive enough in larger cities. He teaches people in his own field that dont even believe my condition exists and would send me to see a psychologist instead. He also has the same issue as me, but with different manifestation. Ophtalmologits especially have no idea about this, or consider it irrelevant. My neurologist who diagnosed me with migraines and said theres nothing to be done also had no idea. Ive seen some very educated doctors at the top of their field.
              So if you dont find someone in LA, dont worry.
              The whole idea is to test for eye-teaming, which is disturbed by modern light, OS updates, display tech, certain apps even... why nobody knows, might be different in each case.

              I did more detailed desc. in this thread - https://ledstrain.org/d/369-my-possible-solution-treatment-and-progress-so-far/90

              Also the pain you feel may often be referrential, so if its above your eyelid it can still be from a completely different eye muscle.
              Let me know how it goes🙂

                Soreeyes

                I'm also curious about this and happy to contribute my stats. I'm Caucasian (German and Dutch descent), mid 30's, female, light blue eyes.

                I don't recall updating my pc. I have an hp laptop (not sure how to find out the exact model info) and it's running windows 8.1, which I find irritating to use and miss XP. I have installed several updates over the years but as far as I know, no correlation to the sudden light sensitivity. The tv I used to use (which is now sitting in my dad's garage somewhere) was some type of flatscreen Vizio, no updates applicable.

                I agree, it is comforting to know there are others struggling with this issue, as much as it sucks to live with, and I hope we can all find solutions to our individual cases in time.

                  Gurm

                  Interestingly, I wasn't as picky (nor as tech saavy to know what you're referencing above) but I did always prefer my brightness on the lowest setting. Not that it hurt my eyes or caused strain before that fateful day in 2015, but I just found extremely bright screens unnecessary and unappealing. So it seems there was a predisposition there. I used to spend hours in front of the computer with no issue.

                  Exactly the same for me, it went from fine to suddenly intolerable. I also used to sit on the couch with my ex and listen to movies with my eyes closed. It's now been so long since I've sat down and relaxed in front of a television, I don't even bother trying to listen to things. Most television screens bother me to the point that I can see the brightness with my eyes closed, and behind glasses.

                  It does seem that if I'm using my phone too much, my tolerance diminishes. If I've slept well, I can check my phone for a few minutes (with fl-41 glasses, brightness low, night shift on, and plenty of natural fill light in the room) As the day drags on, I find my eyes becoming more strained when checking the phone. I do occasionally wear TrueDark glasses at night if I need to use the phone after sundown. They supposedly block 100% of blue light and are meant to help with circadian rhythm. They do help, however I can't use them for things like shopping under florescent lights, nor does it seem to fix the strain issue. I tried wearing them at the airport recently, and it just makes everything too trippy.

                    tomek This is interesting to me that the fruitarian diet helped you. I'm willing to try anything at this point.

                    I'm also starting to shop for a new(er) car, and am aware of the LED dash lighting, as well as the screens in the center of the dash, which causes a huge issue for me, I first realized this when I had a rental car. It wasn't too bothersome during the day, but at night, nightmare indeed. I ended up wedging the rental car agreement in front of the screen so I could get to my destination. So I'll only be looking for an older car with no screens or offensive dash indicators.

                    It's a shame they are forcing the LED lighting on you in Poland, so sorry to hear this. I'm seeing much more of it in the US as well. Although my eyes do seem to tolerate overhead LED better than florescent (probably due to the flickering). Thankfully, I can light my home with soft lighting that appeals to me. In fact, it was one of the deciding factors when I moved recently- a newer apartment had been renovated with all LED fixtures. I just couldn't take the harsh, white brightness of them, and moved into an older house. It seems technology is literally hurting us, guys 🙁

                      MagnuM
                      Thank you SO MUCH for this information!! I want to see if older monitors are easier on my eyes. It makes a lot of sense that they would be. I have noticed certain tv screens seem brighter and more bothersome, and I'd be curious to find out which are backlit with LED as opposed to florescent. I know florescent store lighting causes me more eye muscle pain, twitching and migraines than LED lighting, but it may not be the same when it comes to screens. I know that my Samsung Galaxy seems to strain my eyes horribly, and I'll get a stabbing/aching pain while using it briefly (weirdly sometimes hours after, like a delayed reaction). This is similar to when I tried various projectors. It seemed somewhat tolerable with some fill light, but about an hour after watching a half hour of something (with glasses of course) I'd get a terrible stabbing pain in my eyeballs. I got the iphone SE a little over a year ago because the screen didn't seem to bother me as much as the android screen. I'm wondering if one uses LED and the other florescent?

                          Blair I believe almost all phones are LED backlit, but I might try taking apart some old broken phones from around 2005-2008 (pre smartphone era) to confirm if I ever can find them and have the time 🙂

                            ryans Hmm, I'm hoping it doesn't come to that. If so, I forsee lots of old movie watching in my future! I do like black and white movies, although yes, for anything newer or social media, it's definitely not the same.

                            My laptop is a refurbished HP I got on eBay maybe 4 or 5 years ago. It's the Notebook - 15-r231cy TouchSmart. I am running windows 8.1. I've never cared for this windows 8 OS. XP was my fav. It seems going old school is the way to go. What kind of phone do you use? I'd like to try using an older device and see if that helps. I loved my blackberry back in the day. My only concern is the apps running extremely slow. The main things I use my phone for are navigation, email and social media, but I do have a fair amount of apps on my iphone, all of which I use on occasion.

                            Quinine calms down the twitching I experience when I've had to work under florescent lighting without my glasses. It unfortunately doesn't do anything for the muscle pain, but I definitely recommend it to anyone experiencing twitching from florescent exposure or eyestrain/overuse.

                            And yes, I have been checked for thyroid issues multiple times, the results are always normal, and the lyme test was negative.

                              metalmike Thank you!! I have been compiling notes/lists with all of the recommendations from everyone. I'm definitely going to look for the monitor you mentioned. I'm finding this forum to be so amazing and helpful. I cannot express how much it means to me to get all of your responses. I feel like I've found my tribe! And sorry, off topic but Mike, does your screen name mean you listen to metal? \m/ 😉

                                  JTL my show has been on hiatus since November but we are back this month. I'm going to look into it and will report back.

                                    welcome! lots of new insights & overlap with other folks symptoms/triggers:
                                    'production monitors' is a helpful clue on a rabbit trail we're on already.

                                    Quinine is new & interesting- (finally) ordering some now. [some crazy side effects fyi: change in color perception(!), not effective when taken with magnesium, interferes with different meds (https://www.rxlist.com/qualaquin-side-effects-drug-center.htm#overview)]
                                    Most of us arent bothered that much by fluorescents.
                                    I just read that goat's milk (which i can tolerate) has A2 casein vs A1(cow's- which i cant).
                                    Have you taken the colorblindness tests with the little dots? https://enchroma.com/pages/test

                                      reaganry Doesn't mean much when the GPU is the "weak link", finding monitors without FRC/dithering is trivial, it's the GPU that's the large issue.

                                          JTL OMG you have to make a sticky with the new regedit dithering fix for windows. i just did it and it's amazing! immediately it feels just like linux- hopefully it will be good long term. i wonder how hard it is to make a switching app..

                                          • JTL replied to this.

                                              reaganry Which registry fix? Which GPU? I'm confused.

                                              I tried the dithering options with my 1070 under Linux and didn't seem to make a difference.

                                                  dev