Whether you suffer from regularly occurring headaches or not we can all relate to the feeling of staring at a screen for too long or walking back out into the daylight after being inside a dim building for a while. Some of us can even relate to how it feels spending long periods of time in an office or classroom and feeling like our internal hard drive has been fried. Well in this blog post we’re going to cover some possible causes of these headaches and give some suggestions as to how you can combat them in your everyday space.
POSSIBLE CAUSES
While headaches are a very common pain point, migraines are more severe and because of this you would tend to believe they are less common. Not so fast! “Migraines are the second most common type of primary headaches and affect approximately 1 in 10 Americans and 10 percent of the world’s population. According to the National Headache Foundation, more than 28 million Americans suffer from migraines…” (https://enlightenmentmag.com/news/lighting-migraines-headaches)
So, yes, migraines are less common than an average headache but 10% of the world’s population is still a huge number! The causation of these 2nd degree head pains aren’t always predictable but there are a few environmental causes that can factor in. “Migraines are not caused by tension, stress, or allergies, unlike other types of headaches. Rather, migraines are caused by changes in the nerves and quality of blood vessels referred to as vasoconstriction and vasodilation. This change in the blood vessels can cause extreme pain – and, often, an aura before migraine onset which can result in sensitivity to light, smell, and sound.” (https://enlightenmentmag.com/news/lighting-migraines-headaches)
3 MAIN FACTORS IN LIGHT SENSITIVITY
Alright alright I’m sure you’re thinking this isn’t a medical blog and just get to the point lighting guy. Well the point is lighting is a huge part of your everyday surroundings and there are 3 main factors that can contribute to heightened light sensitivity and either escalate a migraine/headache or escalate an ongoing one:
Different brightness levels + flickering
Different colored lights in the same space (tubes look white, orange, pink etc.)
Visible mercury spinning inside tube lights
Incandescent/fluorescent lights need to burn in order to emit light and not all of them burn consistently over their lifetime. This can lead to discoloration and unevenness throughout your space which explains uneven brightness levels and differentiated colors in some of the lights. This happens due to burn-out with incandescent/fluorescent bulbs and needs no explanation as to how that would give someone a headache. But just in case you wanted one here is the easiest explanation we can regurgitate to you…
EXPLANATION + CONCLUSION
Your brain and your eyes work in conjunction to be able to relate and register whatever your eyes are picking up. If you introduce different brightness levels and multiple colors of lights your brain has to constantly adjust for this uneven light. The more you can even this light out in your space the less your brain has to work to adjust your eyes to the environment. It’s as simple as that.
In conclusion, LED lights do not burn in order to emit light and so by default you automatically have a steady, consistent light that will last for an entire lifespan of the lights equally. This eliminates discoloring, uneven brightness, and also doesn’t use any mercury in the fixtures. Also, LEDs are the most customizable form of lighting ever and you can put systems in place that allow you to change the colors, tones, brightness and even save you energy while doing so.
That’s it, hope you learned something and be sure to contact STELLUX for any of your commercial lighting needs.
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