Light Sensitivity

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If I am in a dark room in the daytime and the windows have half open blinds the light coming through the blinds will make me dizzy and sick. Teachers use to get pissed everytime we watches a film on the projector or a film strip they had to leave the blinds down or open. When I was in the ICU for my congestive heart failure I drove the nurses nuts telling them to keep the blinds close or open and never half open. Strobe lights make me dizzy and nauseas as well. I also have problems with direction sense. I found this out when I was in a rollar skating rink when I was a kid when they turned off the regular lights then replaced with strobe lights without warning. Luckily my friend's mom saw I was having a problem with the lights so she had to escort me to the wall. The flashing lights on police cars or ambulances hurt the back of my eyes as they whip pass. My friends use to laugh when I put my head down in an attempt not to see them go by. Cars high beams at night if the cars go in rapid sucession just about drives me insane.

I have a question. I know that I'm sensitive to light, but would itchy eyes also be a part of that? I have always thought the itchiness was due to some kind of allergy, but I've noticed that when I have my sunglasses on while at the computer, the itchiness goes away. The thing is, I don't know if it's possible for light to cause itchiness. That seems odd. Is it because of the light, or just a weird coincidence?

Are they dry as well?

What kind of monitor do you have? What kind of lighting?

Yes I struggle to open my eyes when I leave my office. I also really struggle to concentrate with all the headlights driving in the dark.

I'm not sure. Eye drops don't help at all though. Cold compresses help temporarily, but then I thought, "Hello, there's no light when I have a compress on my eyes."

I have an LCD monitor now, which seems to cause less eye strain than my old CRT. I usually keep the lights in the room off, because they are CFLs, and just open the curtains during the day.

Yeah, my old CRT did a number on my eyes. This new LCD is easier to look at, but someone else on this thread I think said that LCDs are basically backlit by fluorescents?

I'd leave my lights off but I can't touch type in the dark.

I quite understand doing that with CFLs (they're horrible) but it's important to make sure that the screen isn't the brightest thing you're looking at.
That is, the room or the area near the screen should be reasonably well lit otherwise the effect of looking at (what's now) a relatively bright light source will be the same as oncoming headlights on a car. It's a contrast thing more than an absolute brightness thing.
I have a desk lamp near my screen which is pointed up at the wall near and behind it, so there's a fairly light background which also helps create a well-lit working area.

Some are, but newer ones would more likely be lit by LEDs, and those would be running off DC with no flicker at all.
Also, those backlit by fluorescent lights would have them switched at a much higher frequency than domestic fluorescent lights so there would be no flicker. (well, technically there is, but it's several tens of thousand times per second instead of 60 (USA) or 50 (UK) times per second)

Ah, that is definitely the case when it's dark. I guess I should go buy some bulbs this weekend then. Thanks for the info.

I just checked and my monitor is CFL-based. But maybe getting better lighting for the room will help anyway.

I really do need a new monitor.

Yeah. CFL is just a fluorescent lamp running at a very high frequency - but the crap CFL quality is 'lost' because of the colour-generating stuff it shines through.
Flat-panel screens are generally very good these days, and far better than CRT screens which could very easily be accidentally set up incorrectly so they flickered horribly.

This was mine until a friend told me how to fix it.

Oh, the headaches.

I think I need to stock up on incandescent bulbs in preparation for the ban. The last time I had a CFL bulb was pretty bad (and I didn't even realize why )

I'm not 100% sure if I have sensory issues with light due to AS.

I keep all my curtains and blinds closed...but that's more to do with the fact the curtains are so cheap and thin it makes difference, I do feel the light when I go outside but that may just be due to keeping blinds and curtains closed...or due to problems with headaches...or being English and not used to sunshine.

I do wish I could wear sunglasses, the sun does really bother me at times...but then the headache from the weight of glasses on my nose, and the fact I look awful in glasses, is worse.

God yes. I worked with computers for years and lost count of the number of screens I tweaked - and consequently relieved people of their mysterious headaches.

The sale of 100W incandescent bulbs was stopped some time ago here and I missed out on a panic buying session.
Everywhere now has heaps of evil CFLs.
There are halogen lamps though, which just drop in place of incandescents and they're dimmable. Halogen lights have an excellent colour quality too and since they're basically incandescent lamps, there is no flicker issue.
Not that cheap, unfortunately, and tend to die quicker than ordinary incandescents.

maybe try glow in the dark labels for the keyboard that way you could type in the dark.

The problem isn't that I can't see the keyboard. It's that I can't see my hands. I'm touch typing, but I keep track of my hands through peripheral vision. I've been gathering mounting evidence that I have serious proprioception issues, and this typing in the dark thing may or may not be one.

Glow in the dark labels might still work, could be worth a try.



My last incandescent died in a week. I was quite put out. Usually they last for at least a few months. Current is much better.

Halogen sounds like an option, although, yeah, pricey.