Anybody here experience problems with Light and Dark

Page 1 of 1 [ 14 posts ] 

Age1600
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Apr 2007
Age: 39
Gender: Female
Posts: 2,028
Location: New Jersey

04 May 2007, 5:22 am

Like if its completely dark then I walk into a room with the lights all on, I get very dizzy and a headache, and I usually can't walk straight for awhile or even sometimes I fall and can't get back up for awhile. Or the opposite, if its completely bright and all the lights are on, then when I walk into a dark room I get that way also. I thought it was normal, but when I ask alot of NTs, they all say nah my eyes just hurt and I might get alittle bit of a headache otherwise no. Does anybody else have this problem?



girl7000
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 10 Mar 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 659
Location: Somewhere in the Atlantic

04 May 2007, 5:34 am

Yes, I have sensitivities like this.

I don't like the dark at all - I actually sleep with the light on, although I am in my 20s! Without the light, I cannot sleep as my eyes keep straining to see things in the dark (despite the fact that I just want to get to sleep and am not deliberately focusing on anything), and I get anxious as I am trying to see but can't, so I need the light.

Also, when it is dark, my sensory overload for smell and hearing go into overdrive and I need to put the light on to regain some kind of sensory balance.

If I try to read or look at any kind of screen in a poorly lit or dark room, I immediately get pain in my eye area, headache and feel anxious and dizzy and even nauseous.

I also get like this from eyestrain.

I like good bright lighting - preferably natural light and I always like to be in a south facing room (I am in the UK) so that I get light all day - rooms with artificial light only, or with minimal natural light not only cause me to experience the above symptoms but greatly aggrivate my anxiety and clinical depression.

I need lighting to be balanced - so if I am looking at a bright screen, I also need good lighting in the entire room, as well as where I am sitting. Any imbalance in lighting (one corner of the room with the screen is bright, the rest is dark, for example) again causes me the above symptoms.

This is why I can never understand 'mood lighting' (in fact, I HATE mood lighting!) or people turning the lights off to watch a TV programme or film. It causes me to feel ill, to experience pain and to feel very anxious. But when I try to explain this to people, they don't believe me and say I am being fully and spoilt and I should just learn to put up with the dark for everyone else's benefit.



Sopho
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 3 Apr 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 10,859

04 May 2007, 7:02 am

Age1600 wrote:
Like if its completely dark then I walk into a room with the lights all on, I get very dizzy and a headache, and I usually can't walk straight for awhile or even sometimes I fall and can't get back up for awhile. Or the opposite, if its completely bright and all the lights are on, then when I walk into a dark room I get that way also. I thought it was normal, but when I ask alot of NTs, they all say nah my eyes just hurt and I might get alittle bit of a headache otherwise no. Does anybody else have this problem?

I get the exact same thing with walking from a dark room into a light room. I'm not sure about the other way round though, I've never really thought about it much. I think it might be a sensory thing. I also get it when I open the curtains in my room and the sunlight gives me headache/make me feel weird.



unnamed
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 26 Feb 2007
Gender: Female
Posts: 458

04 May 2007, 7:35 am

Bright lights have never bothered me, I know that's unusual for aspies. I never even owned sunglasses until a few years ago. But I've noticed that sometimes when I walk into a dark building from outside in very bright light, or even if I walk from the lit bathroom back into the dark bedroom at night, I feel very weird for a couple of seconds. Almost like a hallucinogenic feeling, I can't describe it. It's kind of creepy. I always wondered whether it was some sort of mild seizure or something.



04 May 2007, 12:00 pm

Is this normal, if you look into the lights and look away, you see all these blue spots and then they go away after a few seconds. When I said normal I mean does it happen to everyone, not just us.


I thought this happens to everyone, I can remember in school, the teacher would turn off the lights when we would watch a video, but after the video, the teacher would turn the lights back on and all the kids would go "Ughh" and some would say the light is bright. I have felt the ame way too but never said anything or reacted to it.

When it's sunny outside, I go in a building and I see all these color spots but then my eyes adjust to the light indoors after a few seconds so all the spots go away. I thought this was normal or is this an aspie thing? It has to be real hot outside for this to happen to me, usually during the summer.



natty
Deinonychus
Deinonychus

User avatar

Joined: 10 Apr 2007
Age: 52
Gender: Female
Posts: 318

04 May 2007, 12:10 pm

If i walk through a patch of flickering light ie sunlight shining through a fence or something like that my eyes close automatically and i get disroeineted and it feels like im upside down , i cant walk properly and stagger about , it is a really horrible feeling.



Fraya
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 21 Aug 2006
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,337

04 May 2007, 2:25 pm

Yeah the spots when moving from light to dark are normal.

If they are causing an epileptic reaction then they can cause dizziness or worse.

Personally going from light to dark isn't a problem but going from dark to light causes severe pain otherwise not a real problem I can usually just close one eye and be mostly ok.



Graelwyn
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 20 Dec 2006
Age: 49
Gender: Female
Posts: 8,601
Location: Hants, Uk

04 May 2007, 6:16 pm

I get disoriented in the dark actually, and I hate it as I do like the night. But I will get dizzy and confused.
I also cannot sleep unless almost all light is blocked out and all noise.
Strip lighting has a bad effect on me also, or specific kinds of flickering light.



FunnyFairytale
Toucan
Toucan

User avatar

Joined: 21 Apr 2007
Age: 45
Gender: Female
Posts: 254

04 May 2007, 6:39 pm

Sunshine doesnt bother me but light inside stores for example does if its bright.I get nausea and fell dizzy.
Where I lived before,there was this store that had this horrible flickering light and I got the same feeling as I wrote about above but much worse.
This was before I had even heard of AS and I seriously thought Id have a seizure if staying in that store.Not that Ive ever had one,it was just the first thought to cross my mind.
It kind of felt like something was trying to pull me backwards,like the back of my head was heavy.
Hard to explain.
Is it possible to get seizures from this?



GoatOnFire
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 22 Feb 2007
Age: 37
Gender: Male
Posts: 4,986
Location: Den of the ecdysiasts

04 May 2007, 9:09 pm

I am very sensitive to bright light. I have almost cat-like night vision though.


_________________
I will befriend the friendless, help the helpless, and defeat... the feetless?


Likho
Velociraptor
Velociraptor

User avatar

Joined: 23 Jan 2007
Age: 34
Gender: Female
Posts: 426

05 May 2007, 12:03 am

I get dizzy only if i stare in extremely dark and lightless space (for example my eyes - i always do that when i look in the mirrorr and i used to even faint from it XD i know it's stupid.) But i have to STARE - not just see - i feel very comfortable with darkness (much more than in natural light) as long as i'm not trying to see something.

Lighthurt my eyes and i used to wear sun glassess al the time but they don't help. I don't like day, i only like rainy days when light isn't so offensive.
I guess it's not only a sensory issue since I'm not so oversensitive to visual stimuli as i used to be (i can even stare at light bulbs - i like they being so shiny and it brings me joy somehow - but it still hurts like hell - i would never thought i would do that, i always hated them. i only liked their sound.) I don't know what it is then...



Lightning88
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 4 Aug 2006
Age: 36
Gender: Female
Posts: 3,890

05 May 2007, 12:05 am

I get a slight headache for about a minute if this happens.



ChrissandraChrissamba
Veteran
Veteran

User avatar

Joined: 31 Mar 2007
Age: 101
Gender: Female
Posts: 1,256

05 May 2007, 12:59 am

likedcalico wrote:
Is this normal, if you look into the lights and look away, you see all these blue spots and then they go away after a few seconds. When I said normal I mean does it happen to everyone, not just us.


I thought this happens to everyone, I can remember in school, the teacher would turn off the lights when we would watch a video, but after the video, the teacher would turn the lights back on and all the kids would go "Ughh" and some would say the light is bright. I have felt the ame way too but never said anything or reacted to it.

When it's sunny outside, I go in a building and I see all these color spots but then my eyes adjust to the light indoors after a few seconds so all the spots go away. I thought this was normal or is this an aspie thing? It has to be real hot outside for this to happen to me, usually during the summer.


I see the colored spots too. I used to think this was normal, but then I asked my mum and she said she only saw light as the natural color it is. She did say though, that when she moves her eyes away from a light, she can still see the spot of light for a few seconds. When I look directly at light, I can see it's natural color for a few seconds and then it turns pink or blue. Sometimes the spots don't go away for a long time and it makes it hard to see other things.



spacedog
Snowy Owl
Snowy Owl

User avatar

Joined: 9 Mar 2007
Age: 53
Gender: Female
Posts: 140
Location: Oklahoma

05 May 2007, 1:03 am

8O 8O As Gizmo said in Gremlins...Bright Light Bright Light :!: