LED light bulbs are the future. They're better for the environment and the pocket book. But for some people, certain LEDs lights — particularly holiday lights—are also a problem. They flicker in a way that causes headaches, nausea and other discomfort. Today, we visit the "Flicker Queen" to learn why LEDs flicker — and what you can do about it.Wondering about other quirks of lighting and engineering? Email us at shortwave@npr.org – we might cover it on a future episode!
About 75% of LED monitors give me a headache because I can see or “feel” then flickering. It sucks.
I had a coworker back in the in-office days who had these garbage-ass monitors and whenever I had to pair with him I’d end up with a debilitating headache.
Have you tried a high refresh rate monitor? I doubt you’d see the flickering at 165hz or 240hz.
LCD monitors don’t flicker at their refresh rate. It simply updates the graphics on the panel per frame at an imperceptible speed. The backlight has nothing to do with the refresh, either.
This isn’t true for all of them. Some have a backlight strobing feature that flashes the display at their current refresh rate to reduce motion blur. It makes the strobing much worse at lower refresh rates, though.
I have sensitivity to certain lighting and find amber glasses help me a lot. I don’t know if it’s the same as your issue, but it’s be worth trying. I first tried it with a pair of $10 clip ons I bought at the hardware store. They were meant for highlighting contrast for outdoor activities. One since gotten prescription glasses with amber lenses for work.
Theraspecs have various tints as well! I wear rose-tinted (FL41) lenses that were specifically designed to help with light sensitivity and photo phobia. Since changing to a rose lens, I can make it through a day at work with flourescent lights and through a 2 hour music rehearsal at a school with flourescent lights, whereas that would be exhausting before and cause headaches.