My migraines have but one trigger - working on computer. First I get vicious pain in both my eyes then the pain spreads into my brain. Then I get the rocking sensation.Any suggestions other than to stay away from computers?
Hi,
Can totally sympathise with you, I suffer from the same as do many - my pain spreads in the same way. I can’t tolerate more than 10 mins on a computer without feeling motion sick, which in turn triggers migraine.
Whilst there is no interim solution as such until your brain irritation is under control I do find that projecting an image, onto a material screen helps a lot. For instance I couldn’t play on my ps3 at all on my tv, this was in part due to the brightnes, screen material and the distance between me and the tv. Even if I sit on the armchair closer to the tv and watch a film it has the same effect. I now often project an image onto a screen then shrink it so that there is a big black border around the edge. This will help your brain realise that it’s the screen moving and not you.
You can pick up a cheap projector and screen for this and it may get you out of trouble.
I actually find text in a magazine difficult as well so not just screens, the combination of text on a screen is a killer.
Thanks for the reply cockrel01. I only find computer screens difficult. Reading printed materials seems to have no effect on me.
Many LCD/LED computer monitors use a technique called pulse-width modulation to dim the screen. This technique causes the screen to flicker, often at a rate between 120-200Hz. You can’t visually see it, but this flickering can trigger migraines in people who are sensitive to it. I seem to be quite sensitive to it.
The even worse news is that a lot of flatscreen LCD/LED TVs use this same technique now.
I’ve replaced my monitors with ones that don’t use PWM and I’ve set up my TVs to not flicker (many TV’s will not flicker when the backlight is set to full brightness) but it is tricky to test for this. You can read about it on the internet if you search for pulse width modulation.
Hi Jamie,
I’m sure this could be a trigger for some but from my experience changing screens to a non-flicker Ben Q unfortunately didnt help at all. In fact due to the screen being bigger it made the issue worse, perhaps due to more of my field of Vision being taken up by the bright moving screen.
It’s very frustrating but I cling to the hope that people have got past this issue when the migraine is controlled.
Computer screens are evil. Ruined my eyesight, gave me astigmatism, causes migraines. I wonder if the damage done to eyes can be reversed or not.
Cockrel, if you are having issues due to a larger screen and motion, that does sound like a different issue. My particular problem never included any kind of motion sensitivity. It was a rocking vertigo that was triggered almost exclusively from using computer monitors or specific lighting situations.
Only a small percentage of people have migraines triggered by flashing lights, but for those that are, PWM-type monitors are absolute hell.