We recently moved to a new house and had to replace every light bulb throughout the house. Only LED lights were available and so that’s what we got. I still had an incandescent bulb in my office lamp but it burnt out last week so I replaced it with one of the new LED ones.
Lord. Have. Mercy.
That thing was only on 30 minutes before I had to shut everything down and go to bed. I seriously thought I was having one of my annual vestibular attacks it was so bad! After lying down for about two hours, everything stopped and I felt normal. So, I got up and started puttering around the house then thought I better go finish what I had started in the office. Went back, turned on that lamp and within 5 minutes I was sick again - but that’s when I clocked that it was the lamp!
The next day, we were having dinner. I had felt well all day but as soon as we sat down at the table to eat, I started feeling like I was on a roller coaster. My husband noticed I had been complaining about feeling sick at dinner time after feeling fine all day - this was the 3rd or 4th day in a row I had done this.
That’s when my dad, who is staying with us while he is undergoing chemotherapy, piped up and mentioned that he had to change the bulbs in the light fixture above the table. I looked up and sure enough, the same bulbs that were in that office were in the light fixture!
We finished dinner without the lights on. My husband managed to find 2 incandescent bulbs in the garage and placed one in my office. But for now, when we have dinner, no lights.
It’s bad enough that shopping is problematic due to fluorescent lighting and such, but now, they’re taking away incandescent lights altogether? What are people like me, who are stupid sensitive, supposed to do?
Is anyone else just as sensitive to lights like me?
Have any of you found alternatives that don’t trigger vestibular attacks?
Sorry it’s so bad @Rita . I still see them on eBay, Amazon, and ACE Hardware. I’m not sure they’ve fully caught up to not selling them. I personally am stocking up on them.
I believe (but am not 100% sure) appliance incandescent lightbulbs (like for an oven) will continue to be sold in hardware stores since you can’t put an LED bulb in an oven. Appliance bulbs will work fine in normal light fixtures, the only downside being they cost a bit more.
LED lights unfortunately trigger me too (I also get symptoms from some computer screens due to PWM flickering). I believe it is due to their squarewave flicker. I hope you can come to tolerate them as shopping centers etc will use them (fluorescents are much more rare now, it’s all LED).
You might also like “Ban Blinding LED” on FB which has extensive topics on this ban (including writing to congress reps), or, LEDStrain.org will also have information specific to LED bulbs and our condition.
Finally, not all LED bulbs are created equal. Flicker Alliance tests bulbs for flicker and tried to come up with ones that are safe. Unfortunately I’ve seen sensitive people also be triggered by the “safe” bulbs but it’s definitely a good place to start if you must have an LED.
This doesn’t help but I bought these a several weeks ago from Walmart from a 3rd party vendor. It turned out to be Spanish language version. Maybe search on Spanish/Mexican located websites?
I’m stupid sensitive, too. Here’s what I’ve done:
Wear migraine glasses - Avulux, Theraspecs.
Wear sunglasses when I have to in stores and restaurants.
Buy only warm tone, adjustable LED with some sort of soft shielding like on the bulb itself or over them. My office has cloth over the fluorescent lights.
Put the light source behind me.
Not care how I look or what anyone thinks about it.