Blocking Out Blue Light to Resolve... Headaches?
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Do you use your computer in a very dark room with your monitor's brightness set very high? That can easily cause headaches all on its own.
Another thing that is causing headaches these days is the flicker from some LED monitors.
Therefore, I believe that f.lux can help, but I feel that in this case it might be more of a band-aid type of solution.
I think that headaches might possibly also because by other things, like dehydration.
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@TwoCables I use my computer mostly at night, full brightness(usually). I always have a light on in the other room(it's a soft light because my eyes are very VERY light sensitive and the normal lights in the house are just too bright for my taste), so it's not a dark room, but it's not a bright room either. It's definitely not dehydration, hah. I definitely forget to eat sometimes, but I always have a glass of something or other that I drink from all night(juice, coffee, Kool-Aid, soda with lots of ice cubes, really whatever's handy). I definitely feel less strain on my eyes using f.lux. (Eye strain is what I think causes 90% of my frequent headaches, though I can't get it confirmed by a doctor yet.)
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Just as an experiment, can you reduce your monitor's brightness instead by a LOT? I mean, so that it's a lot more blended with the brightness of the physical objects immediately surrounding the monitor.
When the monitor is the absolute brightest thing in your field of vision, it can cause problems. If it's not much brighter than a white sheet of paper in front of you, then it's going to be much easier to stare at. I'm just thinking that it would be nice to have color accuracy and comfort instead of yellowness and comfort.
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How well do you hydrate yourself with water each day?
Let's start with the basics. Sorry, TwoCables already mentioned this.Also, how often do you walk away from the screen and give your optical nerves something natural to look at (like outside light)?
One more thing, on the hydration part--you said you have "anything" to drink that's handy (and I feel you like mentioned "at night" is when you drink these things) like coffee, cold soda, Kool-Aid etc. These drinks are PACKED (maybe not kool-aid) with sugar, and that will give you energy.
I would say it's then much harder to fall asleep, if you have all this sugar in your body to process. You'll then not sleep as good, so I would recommend flavored water as a start, then when you're ready, go to regular water.
If you could, I'd like to know the brand and model of your monitor, either look in the on screen menu, or search the physical outside of the monitor for this information. You say you leave it on full brightness, this seems to be because you're seeing PWM (pulse width modulation) which is the LITERALLY turning on and off of the backlight rapidly. You'd keep it on full brightness to avoid that.
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Yeah, I guess if you don't have a "flicker-free" LED monitor, then that could be a culprit too.
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@SimplyMadxx For whatever it's worth, I've found that bright light gives me huge headaches when I have jet lag (either social jet lag, caused by staying up too late, or real jet lag from crossing time zones).
I really love the orange UVEX glasses for about $8 from Amazon, if you're having a circadian timing/ light related headache you'll know right away if you put them on and the headache vanishes. They're great for when you're traveling and can't dim the room lights.
Also for me, a strong bright dark cycle seems to help. Sleeping enough hours and regularly helps me a lot. I've even stopped wearing dark sunglasses during the day, just normal corrective contacts for UV protection.
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@lorna said:
@SimplyMadxx For whatever it's worth, I've found that bright light gives me huge headaches when I have jet lag (either social jet lag, caused by staying up too late, or real jet lag from crossing time zones).
I really love the orange UVEX glasses for about $8 from Amazon, if you're having a circadian timing/ light related headache you'll know right away if you put them on and the headache vanishes. They're great for when you're traveling and can't dim the room lights.
Also for me, a strong bright dark cycle seems to help. Sleeping enough hours and regularly helps me a lot. I've even stopped wearing dark sunglasses during the day, just normal corrective contacts for UV protection.
I'm glad that corrective contacts exist for UV protection because one thing that's bad in our world is sunglasses. Even though we have super fancy sunglasses that block out all the harmful stuff and do a very good job at it, it still comes in through the sides and enters our dilated pupils.
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Post deleted for promoting products - @DaphneL if you experience discomfort using f.lux you should definitely stop using it.
@lorna
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@lorna I think this is a different cause. From what I read, I though the person said they have eye strain from long periods of screen time. They also said that f.lux was helping, not causing the strain.
I suggested a program that gives reminders to look away from the screen about every 20 minutes for at least 20 seconds.
I'm not recommending it against f.lux but in conjunction.
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@lorna I never speak ill of F.lux. My eye strain has been caused by blue light or long term use of digital devices. I gave my approval to your program already. Just because I mentioned a pair of glasses, you are angry and blaming my point. I should say, F.lux lost a user due to your inappropriate service. Why are you running this forum? Isn't it for communicating freely?
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@DaphneL forum rule: posts that promote products from other companies may be deleted. This forum is for supporting f.lux, not for marketing products from other companies.
