Becoming photo sensitive?

[katie45]

An eye doctor told me that many eye conditions are showing up in individuals at a much younger age than decades ago; and the cause: computers! He said that when we spend an inordinate amount of time staring at a computer monitor we don't blink as much as we should, our eyes dry out, and the constant focus/re-focus our eyes are required to perform.

He said that we have to train ourselves to take frequent breaks away from the computer, plus remind ourselves to blink more often while using the computer.

[chiroptera]

Originally Posted by NewHavensFinest

Is it possible to develop this over time?

When I was in my teens the sun never bothered me, never wore sunglasses, never had trouble with bright sunny days.

I am 26 now but this started happening when I was around 21. Sometimes I cant look around without squinting and I always wear sunglasses when Im driving or when its a nice day.

I work outside on houses too so Im always in the sun, looking up and working.... On bright colored houses like yellow or white, sometimes just looking at the white siding really brings pain to my eyes and I cant look at it.

Driving against the sun is unbearable too.


What do you guys think?

Ditto ditto. Never bothered me until my 20s; by the time I was 30 and now at 55 I wear sunglasses on all but the dimmest days. No meds and I have dark brown eyes.

My optometrist says I have "dry eye" (don't produce enough natural tears for lubrication) and suggests using eye drops on a regular basis. He says the light sensitivity is related to that.

And what Katie said about excessive screen time; I do recall him mentioning that as a cause for poor eye health too.

I also work outside on houses (painting contractor) and wear tinted readers or sunglasses...I get a bad headache if I don't.

[NewHavensFinest]

Yes I took the computer screen idea into consideration a while ago. I even have a program on my computers called f.lux: software to make your life better which changes light output throughout the day. This helps me a bunch, when I turn the software off I can tell how insanely bright the monitor is.

With eye drops, they always sort of bugged me out a bit... in the sense that the product is a "liquid crystalline" and scratches your eyes, a weird superstition if you will.