- Edited
Hello everyone!
I'm coming over from this massive Apple thread, where I think a lot of us "met" in the first place:
https://discussions.apple.com/thread/1677617?start=2370&tstart=0 - Eye strain from LED backlighting in MacBook Pro"
That huge thread no longer seems appropriate to follow for this type of issue, as this forum is a much more serious and dedicated resource! I will re-post my last update I made to the Apple thread here, in the case it may help somebody:
I have a partial solution that may help take the edge off with a lot of these symptoms. Since our eyes all hurt, I'll try to condense my findings as much as possible! Here is the tl;dr version:
Symptom Date Range: August 25, 2012 ---> present day
Symptoms:
- Photophobia / light sensitivity
- Aching / cramping eyes
- Tension / visual headaches
- Nausea / motion- or sea-sickness
Occupation: Server Administrator
Average VDU usage per week (work + home): 60 hours
Computer Monitor Used (work & home): Dell UltraSharp U2410
Cellphone Used: iPhone 6S+
Partial Solution: (The following steps likely saved my career in IT about a year ago)
- Reducing brightness from 50% --> 0% (causing maximum PWM flicker)
- Changing color temperature from Standard --> Warm
- Installing f.lux to further reduce color temperature from 6500K --> 5000K
Official Diagnosis: Convergence Insufficiency & Accommodative insufficiency - (made by optometrist)
Suggested Diagnosis: Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome (a.k.a. Irlen Syndrome) - (made by Irlen consultant)
Causation Theory:
I've suffered long enough and gone through enough trial and error to eventually learn a thing or two about what seems to bring on my symptoms. Exposure to an LED backlight will cause a sharp pinching ache in both my eyeballs in minutes or even seconds. It would be akin to turning on your iPhone flashlight and staring directly into it. That's how it feels at almost every brightness level (including 0%). Since the luminescence seems to be rated about the same as my Dell U2410 (CCFL), my causation theory for this is the wavelength of light emitted by LEDs, which is significantly more blue-shifted. My theory is that some of us are sensitive to HEV (High Energy Visible Light), while the majority of the population has no symptoms. This is just my layman theory, and I currently don't have any scientific facts to back that claim up. More clues were gained when I got a "flicker-free" LED monitor from Ben-Q (no PWM), and my issues got worse, even at the lowest brightness levels. That may suggest that pulse-width modulation (PWM) can be a red-herring for some of us out there, but remember that everybody's case is different!
My other causation theory is just pure overuse, plain and simple. That's why I posted my occupation and amount of hours spent on a digital display above. I have noticed that my eyes are sensitive to all forms of light after overtaxing the eyes after excessive reading, whether that is sunlight or a monitor backlight. I have also experienced the same type of eye strain when reading a lot of print, such as studying for an exam, or reading a product manual. Periods of consecutive rest will somewhat improve symptoms, while consecutive days of heavy usage will make the issues resurface. Reading smaller text, like emails or log files, will bring the issues on quicker as well, which is why I suggest enlarging text wherever possible (Ctrl + Mouse Wheel Up)
So those are my two prime suspects at this time: wavelengths of light viewed (blue-light from LEDs), and constant overuse of the eyes in close-work. I can reproduce my symptoms by staring at a bright LED monitor for a few minutes, or by an extended reading session. I did about 2 years of binocular vision therapy to try to help the "convergence insufficiency & accommodative insufficiency", and was eventually able to score good enough numbers to "graduate". I still have the symptoms described at the top, but after the monitor settings changes I did, I can go much longer before those symptoms come on.
Another hint to score in the "overuse" camp is the fact that I developed an RSI (repetitive strain injury) in both wrists in August 2015 from overuse in typing! I'm currently attending physiotherapy for it, but after all this time, it still has not healed up. I have to wear two heavy-duty wrist splints just to type on a freaking keyboard! I'm not sure how many more hints my body can throw at me that I use computers way too much overall! =p
I'll share any more discoveries I find going forward, should they come!