6 ms·

Anecdotally, I can pretty reliably trigger a migraine by staying up 2-3 hours later than normal staring at a normal LCD screen. With flux/redshift on, that doe

Anecdotally, I can pretty reliably trigger a migraine by staying up 2-3 hours later than normal staring at a normal LCD screen. With flux/redshift on, that doesn't happen. Blue light may not be keeping me up, but it definitely fucks my brain up in some complicated way.

rosstex 7y ago
Same, my eyes completely stopped hurting at night when I switched to flux, permanently.
- thrownblown 7y ago
  similarly, after switching my tv,gaming rig,work laptop,phone to twilight/flux/redshift/night mode for several months, I find going without at night to be uncomfortable almost to the point of pain. my ex-wife found them to be too dark and painful to her eyes.
  - shrimp_emoji 7y ago
    I've found no difference after ~2 years of going (pretty deeply) red on all my devices and suddenly going back to filterless every now and again. I can't believe how blue it looks, but then I adjust. I continue to redfilter out of neurotic superstition. Like maybe we'll all have a macular degeneratory epidemic in the future because blue light was our generation's asbestos or cigarettes. Have you seen the new Blade Runner? They have yellow lights everywhere. Pretty sus, imo.
DenisM 7y ago
Did you adjust for brightness?
- slavik81 7y ago
  I only turn on night mode when the brightness on my Pixel is already at its minimum. It would be nice if I could turn the backlight even lower instead. In complete darkness, even the dimmest setting is unnecessarily bright. It seems like the ability to further reduce all light (including blue) would be a clear improvement, but I assume there's a reason why the minimum is what it is. Is there some sort of hardware limitation on the minimum brightness of the backlight?
  - hathawsh 7y ago
    I agree, the lowest brightness on Pixels is still too bright. I used to use the "Lux" app to reduce the brightness even more, but IMHO Lux has so many buggy features that it's not worth the trouble. I just want a manual slider. Are there any simple Android apps that can manually reduce the brightness beyond the minimum?
    - slavik81 7y ago
      There are apps that filter all colours equally, but it's not nearly as good as reducing the backlight brightness would be. When 0-255 is remapped into 0-127 (or lower), you're inherently going to start losing the ability to distinguish colours. Unfortunately, you lose contrast a lot faster than you lose brightness via that method, so it's not very useful. I wonder if a physical filter for the screen might be the simplest method.
quickthrower2 7y ago
This could be placebo. Anything related to sleep or headaches there could be a psychological factor ie because you “know” blue light is bad it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.
- OGWhales 7y ago
  I used flux for a long time and thought it was only relevant for sleep. I found myself using it more during the day as it hurt my eyes less and as a result I also got migraines and headaches less often. Could be a total coincidence or even still placebo, just sharing my anecdote.
  - eikenberry 7y ago
    I also started using redshift (linux equiv to flux) several years ago and gradually used it more, even during the day, as I also found it seemed to help mitigate migraines at least to some extent and it just generally reduced my eye fatigue.
    - hathawsh 7y ago
      I have a shortcut on my KDE desktop that runs this command: /usr/bin/redshift -O 3500 -b 0.7 It instantly makes the screen easier to look at, no matter the lighting conditions. I also have a command to revert to normal color: /usr/bin/redshift -O 6500 -b 1.0 Curiously, "redshift -O 2700 -b 0.7" is less comfortable than 3500K because it's too yellow. I think what bothers me about screens is heavy saturation in any color.
      - sharedfrog 7y ago
        You can also use `redshift -x` to reset to the default.
  - ishjoh 7y ago
    this was also my experience, so we can now consider it anecdata ;)
jagannathtech 7y ago
can confirm. tools like flux and smart light that warms the colours after sunset saved my sleep quality.
hhjj 7y ago
I think everytime you mess with your sleep pattern you may get some headache (oversleeping especially). Also blue light helps to mess your sleep (getting asleep later). Anyway that's how it works with me.
ObsoleteNerd 7y ago
I have life long (since puberty) chronic insomnia and regular debilitating migraines (every couple weeks), both of which require a variety of ongoing medications, and I can honestly say removing blue light as much as possible and reducing brightness to the minimum that’s still practical, on every electronic device I own, has transformed my life. I used to get headaches using my computer or phone unless it was in daylight, and couldn’t use any screen late at night, but these days it’s no problem at all. If I’m in a hotel or somewhere where I can’t change the brightness/colours then I get more headaches again. It absolutely hasn’t cured me, and I still have both issues, but there has been a noticeable increase in quality of life and ability to use screens at night. Our screens are way too bright because it looks good for marketing purposes. You get used to very low screen brightnesses very quickly, even on your TV, and whether it’s blue light or just brightness in general, I definitely think all these bright lights shined into our eyeballs at close range are doing damage.
- mleonhard 7y ago
  I used to have migraines. Then I learned how to relax the muscles in my neck (with meditation). Now I can cure my migraines in about 5 mins. I told my doctor about it. She said yep, nowadays they treat migraines with botox injected into the tensed muscles. Like much of medicine, it treats the symptom rather than the cause. I believe that the root cause of most migraines is emotional tension. I wish you peace and freedom from anxiety. The bright lights don't cause your migraines. You think they do, so you start to stress out. Then your body's automatic response to stress causes the migraines. Multiple-chemical-sensitivity is the same. I had that, too and cured myself with knowledge and stress reduction techniques. This knowledge is the cure.
  - Cougher 7y ago
    "I believe that the root cause of most migraines is emotional tension." Do you have data to support such a statement? If not, please stop before it spreads. And I don't mean some casual nod of agreement from people.
  - acupofnope 7y ago
m11a 7y ago
I'd second this to some extent. I've been using f.lux (and now the default Night Shift in macOS/iOS) for years. I don't remember if my eyes hurt normally, but I can say that if I now turn it off at night my eyes hurt, I strain and get a headache after a while. It may just be because I'm used to the colours now. I don't think it has helped my sleep patterns much, though, it's only reduced eye straight for me. Using a computer (or a phone) beyond a certain time usually kills my sleep regardless.
deleted 7y ago
[deleted]
PerfectElement 7y ago
I practically stopped having headaches once I started using blue light blocking glasses. Not only at night, but when I first wake up too, specially if it's still dark.
scotty79 7y ago
Try if you can trigger a migrane if you stay 2-3 hours later than normal on lcd screen, but do neck excercises every 15 minutes of that time. I thought I had hunger headaches but after some epiphany it turned out that I was not eating for many hours when I was at my computer and when I was at my computer my neck suffered (painlessly) from lack of movement and that (not the hunger) triggered headaches. I'm doing 24h fasting with no ill effects. Also when headache is building up when I'm at my computer I can make it go away with some neck excercises instead of suffering for hours.
thewhitetulip 7y ago
Same. When I don't have Flux on, I can't sleep for hours After I started using it, I sleep like a baby even when I use Mobile/Laptop just before sleeping. This software has changed my life.
Barrin92 7y ago
is this a normal screen late at night in a dark room or a normal screen late in a well-lit room? Because the combination that provokes headaches and eyestrain for me is a bright monitor in a dark room.

rosstex 7y ago

Same, my eyes completely stopped hurting at night when I switched to flux, permanently.

thrownblown 7y ago
similarly, after switching my tv,gaming rig,work laptop,phone to twilight/flux/redshift/night mode for several months, I find going without at night to be uncomfortable almost to the point of pain. my ex-wife found them to be too dark and painful to her eyes.
- shrimp_emoji 7y ago
  I've found no difference after ~2 years of going (pretty deeply) red on all my devices and suddenly going back to filterless every now and again. I can't believe how blue it looks, but then I adjust. I continue to redfilter out of neurotic superstition. Like maybe we'll all have a macular degeneratory epidemic in the future because blue light was our generation's asbestos or cigarettes. Have you seen the new Blade Runner? They have yellow lights everywhere. Pretty sus, imo.

DenisM 7y ago

Did you adjust for brightness?

slavik81 7y ago
I only turn on night mode when the brightness on my Pixel is already at its minimum. It would be nice if I could turn the backlight even lower instead. In complete darkness, even the dimmest setting is unnecessarily bright. It seems like the ability to further reduce all light (including blue) would be a clear improvement, but I assume there's a reason why the minimum is what it is. Is there some sort of hardware limitation on the minimum brightness of the backlight?
- hathawsh 7y ago
  I agree, the lowest brightness on Pixels is still too bright. I used to use the "Lux" app to reduce the brightness even more, but IMHO Lux has so many buggy features that it's not worth the trouble. I just want a manual slider. Are there any simple Android apps that can manually reduce the brightness beyond the minimum?
  - slavik81 7y ago
    There are apps that filter all colours equally, but it's not nearly as good as reducing the backlight brightness would be. When 0-255 is remapped into 0-127 (or lower), you're inherently going to start losing the ability to distinguish colours. Unfortunately, you lose contrast a lot faster than you lose brightness via that method, so it's not very useful. I wonder if a physical filter for the screen might be the simplest method.

quickthrower2 7y ago

This could be placebo. Anything related to sleep or headaches there could be a psychological factor ie because you “know” blue light is bad it becomes a self fulfilling prophecy.

OGWhales 7y ago
I used flux for a long time and thought it was only relevant for sleep. I found myself using it more during the day as it hurt my eyes less and as a result I also got migraines and headaches less often. Could be a total coincidence or even still placebo, just sharing my anecdote.
- eikenberry 7y ago
  I also started using redshift (linux equiv to flux) several years ago and gradually used it more, even during the day, as I also found it seemed to help mitigate migraines at least to some extent and it just generally reduced my eye fatigue.
  - hathawsh 7y ago
    I have a shortcut on my KDE desktop that runs this command: /usr/bin/redshift -O 3500 -b 0.7 It instantly makes the screen easier to look at, no matter the lighting conditions. I also have a command to revert to normal color: /usr/bin/redshift -O 6500 -b 1.0 Curiously, "redshift -O 2700 -b 0.7" is less comfortable than 3500K because it's too yellow. I think what bothers me about screens is heavy saturation in any color.
    - sharedfrog 7y ago
      You can also use `redshift -x` to reset to the default.
- ishjoh 7y ago
  this was also my experience, so we can now consider it anecdata ;)

jagannathtech 7y ago

can confirm. tools like flux and smart light that warms the colours after sunset saved my sleep quality.

hhjj 7y ago

I think everytime you mess with your sleep pattern you may get some headache (oversleeping especially). Also blue light helps to mess your sleep (getting asleep later). Anyway that's how it works with me.

ObsoleteNerd 7y ago

I have life long (since puberty) chronic insomnia and regular debilitating migraines (every couple weeks), both of which require a variety of ongoing medications, and I can honestly say removing blue light as much as possible and reducing brightness to the minimum that’s still practical, on every electronic device I own, has transformed my life. I used to get headaches using my computer or phone unless it was in daylight, and couldn’t use any screen late at night, but these days it’s no problem at all. If I’m in a hotel or somewhere where I can’t change the brightness/colours then I get more headaches again. It absolutely hasn’t cured me, and I still have both issues, but there has been a noticeable increase in quality of life and ability to use screens at night. Our screens are way too bright because it looks good for marketing purposes. You get used to very low screen brightnesses very quickly, even on your TV, and whether it’s blue light or just brightness in general, I definitely think all these bright lights shined into our eyeballs at close range are doing damage.

mleonhard 7y ago
I used to have migraines. Then I learned how to relax the muscles in my neck (with meditation). Now I can cure my migraines in about 5 mins. I told my doctor about it. She said yep, nowadays they treat migraines with botox injected into the tensed muscles. Like much of medicine, it treats the symptom rather than the cause. I believe that the root cause of most migraines is emotional tension. I wish you peace and freedom from anxiety. The bright lights don't cause your migraines. You think they do, so you start to stress out. Then your body's automatic response to stress causes the migraines. Multiple-chemical-sensitivity is the same. I had that, too and cured myself with knowledge and stress reduction techniques. This knowledge is the cure.
- Cougher 7y ago
  "I believe that the root cause of most migraines is emotional tension." Do you have data to support such a statement? If not, please stop before it spreads. And I don't mean some casual nod of agreement from people.
- acupofnope 7y ago

m11a 7y ago

I'd second this to some extent. I've been using f.lux (and now the default Night Shift in macOS/iOS) for years. I don't remember if my eyes hurt normally, but I can say that if I now turn it off at night my eyes hurt, I strain and get a headache after a while. It may just be because I'm used to the colours now. I don't think it has helped my sleep patterns much, though, it's only reduced eye straight for me. Using a computer (or a phone) beyond a certain time usually kills my sleep regardless.

deleted 7y ago

[deleted]

PerfectElement 7y ago

I practically stopped having headaches once I started using blue light blocking glasses. Not only at night, but when I first wake up too, specially if it's still dark.

scotty79 7y ago

Try if you can trigger a migrane if you stay 2-3 hours later than normal on lcd screen, but do neck excercises every 15 minutes of that time. I thought I had hunger headaches but after some epiphany it turned out that I was not eating for many hours when I was at my computer and when I was at my computer my neck suffered (painlessly) from lack of movement and that (not the hunger) triggered headaches. I'm doing 24h fasting with no ill effects. Also when headache is building up when I'm at my computer I can make it go away with some neck excercises instead of suffering for hours.

thewhitetulip 7y ago

Same. When I don't have Flux on, I can't sleep for hours After I started using it, I sleep like a baby even when I use Mobile/Laptop just before sleeping. This software has changed my life.

Barrin92 7y ago

is this a normal screen late at night in a dark room or a normal screen late in a well-lit room? Because the combination that provokes headaches and eyestrain for me is a bright monitor in a dark room.