#effects of light sensitivity

[my-autism-adhd-blog]

Autism and Sensitivity to Sunlight

Neurodivergent_lou

[cheriekos]

god rewatching arcane season one and these science bitches keep those labs SO dark for no fucking reason i KNOW one of them gets chronic migraines. why is it so dark all the time??? huh??

[wewerebornsextuplets]

the sun is a deadly laser

[clairaworlds]

Pro tip if you have light sensitive migranes:

Ware eyeliner, I'm serious, ware dark colored eyeliner or some other dark color arround your eyes. I go with a fairly heavy look, applied liberally with wings that could take off, or some other extra details for fun. It reduces the glare from the sun, and ive found it makes the sun bother me less when I have an ocular migrane.

It dosnt do a whole lot, and if you don't already ware eyeliner it might be too much effort for the effect, but I started waring eyliner more often recently and I have noticed a difference. It might be becuase I'm the most insanly light sensitive person I've ever met so even a SMALL reduction in glare makes a big difference but it's worth a shot.

[21stc3nturyd1gitalb0y]

not sensory seeking, not sensory avoidant, but a secret third thing (both at the same time)

[rabbitindisguise]

Oh my way to get stabbed 27 or more times >:3c

[casterisks]

ugh. i hope they are working on that fix

i don’t usually post about forsaken but i’m genuinely avoiding playing because getting trip mined by taph as killer made me super dizzy and made my eyes hurt :(

i’ve seen it get set off if you’re too close as survivor too, agh.

i had epilepsy mode enabled because the same exact thing happened with 1x flashing on screen (never had that issue before until then)

[gemglyph]

I think my two week long headache is starting to get to me. Anyone have headache advice?

[midnightparsley]

Trivia - Beta-carotene

Beta-carotene is a nutrient that promotes skin regeneration and aids in keeping the skin smooth.

[Beta-carotene rich foods]

Carrots Spinach Pumpkin Mango Cantaloupe Mandarin Orange

You're already more than beautiful enough but it never hurts to give it a try

[grasstimes]

Ouhg the cluster headache loops

[hyunpic]

[rielzero]

This will probably not go anywhere, but since this is my blog I wanted to talk about this for a bit. Just a rant.

I LOVE games like God of War / God of War Ragnarok and Horizon Forbidden West- The graphics are beautiful and everything is gorgerous.

The issue is however- because these games have hyper-realism as an aesthetic, the lightning behaves similarly- Especially flashing effects.

I have severe light sensitivity. I wear special glasses when I go outside, when playing games, I wear blue-light glasses to help relieve them as well.

Unfortunately with how much more games aim to look realistic, so do their lights mimic effects that bother me much in real life. And there’s no way to turn it off. I don’t want to play in color blind mode because I am not color blind. I want a way to tone down the brightness without everything in the game becoming hard to see.

I don’t know how to explain this except of describing more of an example; Cyberpunk 2077- I cannot get into it because the neon, reflections, and high textured and colorful atmosphere puts my brain in overdrive mode and I can’t play it for more than 15 minutes without having to put my head in my pillow because my eyes hurt so much. Blue light glasses do not help at all.

I call this ‘’colorgore’’ or ‘’brightgore’’ Because of this, I can’t even get into the game at all. I don’t care for it.

Horizon Zero Dawn, Forbidden West and god of war, ragnarok are different because the stories pulled me in right away. The only downside is that after a good 30 minutes I have to pause the game and just rest my eyes. I blink a lot to make sure I’m not forgetting to blink. I’m not the person who clinically needs eye-drops, trust me. I only have pain in my eyes when I’m playing games with hyper-realistic light or going outside without my daylight glasses.

What’s the difference between hyper-realistic light vs older games? (for the untrained eye)

Here is a screenshot from Skyrim.

The light here is balanced with everything in the surroundings. There is not an abundance of nature, fauna, or textures that make the game look even more real, the light does not react to all the textures differently. It reacts to all things in its surroundings equally. Unlike in real life- which semi-realism mimics, were all things reflect light differently- making some objects brighter, shinier or more detailed. 

Everything in older games like Skyrim is balanced in light- simplified, and removes any stressors from real daylight / night blindness that I experience in real life. My eyes don’t hurt when I play games like this. I never cared for all this ‘’graphics need to be more real’’ stuff cuz it hurts my quality of gameplay experience. You can see that the game isn’t real, my eyes relax more and are less focused on every light particle, shadow, distance- everything. It absorbs the picture with much less stress.

Now here’s some screenshots of Horizon.

The light does highly affect everything. The contrast is strong, every texture responds different to light as it would in real life. There’s fog, bloom, every corner and edge is reflecting and responding to light. My eyes react to the screenshot itself the same way as when I am playing the game. It’s absorbing all the information from every single particle because the light is realistic. 

And that goes for night time as well, night time is even worse for me to fight animal robots that jump around and use flash-grenade attacks. (which I despise! Please- give an option to turn those flash effects off!! I want to be able to enjoy these games without getting frustrated from eyestrain.) And yes, I checked. They don’t have it.

God of war has this exact same problem. Elves and Valkyries use flashy attacks- there’s one or two Valkyrie bosses that use blinding attacks that makes the screen flash white. The whole point behind the flash attacks is that it obstructs your gameplay vision for a moment- but for me this does more than affect gameplay; it actually hurts to fight these monsters when I could otherwise deal with them fine and actually enjoy the fight.

I cannot begin to explain to people who don’t experience this; this shit hurts so much. Even as the image itself. That brightness mixed with the highly detailed particles of light, textures, everything else- physically hurts my eyes to look at. Because it sees EVERYTHING the way everything responds to light as if it was real.

Cyberpunk’s city is the worst offender because raytracing adds mirrors that reflects light realistically. this is all cool and epic technology, but turning off the raytracing does not improve it, if everything else still flashes like hell.

I never cared for the whole ‘’graphics need to be good’’ shit, the gameplay and story sells it for me. I don’t care if you hate stiff expressions or physical gameplay bugs- it doesn’t break immersion for me, it makes me laugh. I am having a genuine good time.

Just don’t hurt my eyes please. Dear devs make an eyestrain relief mode, were flash effects and attacks are simplified, were daylight just is a little less bright. It’s all about color correction- (again: changing the graphic settings that you get before you start a game do not affect this, turning the brightness down actually makes stuff harder to see, because it becomes less balanced. I just need the brights to be less bright, not everything else to also become dark.)

Midnight suns has become one of my fav games this year. And before you say this one is also having light stuff going on- If you look well the colors are much more balanced and the backgrounds aren’t as high in particle and texture light reflection as the cyberpunk picture. Tony’s armor has a nice metal effect, but its not ridiculously shiny and the colors are pretty well balanced even as it reflects light. Doctor Strange’s magic effects don’t ‘’flash’’ they just glow. There’s a difference between glowing and flashing. The light of the glow reflects to the rest of the character, but the brightness is more controlled and balanced. Every other texture from the hair to the clothes responds similarly to the light, rather than uniquely like in horizon or god of war. There’s contrast but not too much contrast. It’s dark but not too dark. It’s light but not too light. This picture is both pleasing to look at and doesn’t hurt my eyes at all.

If someone out there is a game dev in the industry and happens on this.. Please spread this out- It would make my life much easier to playing the new generation realism aesthetic of up and coming games. 

If you experience this too, let me know. I feel so alone in this. (I play on performance modes because graphic mode is even worse.)

Breath of the wild’s flat cell shade aesthetic doesn’t do this to my eyes. Pokémon games and other toony games don’t do this to my eyes. It really is the mix of high texture / objects responding to light realistically that makes everything too bright for me. The contrast is beautiful but it just hurts.

It affects my ability to enjoy the games.

I’ll list below examples in case this is helpful.

Games that affect my eyes: Witcher 3 Spiderman 2018 Remastered God of war / god of war ragnarok Cyberpunk 2077 Horizon Forbidden West / Horizon Zero Dawn Games that don’t affect my eyes: Conan Exiles Runescape 3 Spiderman 2018 Fallout 4 Skyrim LOZ: Breath of the wild Marvel’s Midnight Suns Middle earth: Shadow of Mordor

[diathadevil]

Alright just got back from watching the 2nd Spiderverse movie.

And holy shit. I get the hype for it now.

[bbael]

Just how many hours left of insane visual discomfort...

[onrainynights]

my sister fell asleep on the heater vent in the same room where the thermostat is and it made our bathroom so hot that when I took a shower it triggered a migraine :/ and I have work today. fuck.

[girlwithrituals]

GLOW UP GUIDE FOR 2025⠀

READ: On average, it takes more than 2 months before a new behavior becomes automatic — 66 days to be exact. And considering that 2025 is precisely these many days away, why not start with our glow up plan already?

Physical Glow Up-

BODY

— 5-10K steps a day.

— 7-8 hours of sleep.

— workout everyday for 1 hr atleast- yoga/stretching/pilates/cardio/lifting weights. a workout may take one hour, but your mood will be boosted for the next 12 hours.

— posture training.

— sunlight exposure after waking up for at least 10 minutes.

NUTRITION

— 2-3 liters of water every day.

— limit your caffeine intake.

— avoid sugars as much as you can.

— high protein diet, pre and probiotics.

— more fruits and veggies (+ green smoothies if you like).

— no junk/processed food/trans fat.

— no eating after 8 pm.

SKINCARE

— be clear on your skin type (oily, dry, combination, sensitive).

— once you're clear, use these accordingly- cleanser, toner, targeted serum, eye cream, moisturizer, sunscreen (≥50 spf).

— keep your bedding clean as well.

— no picking of skin on your lips, cuticle etc.

— gua sha to help improve blood circulation and lessen toxins.

— cold therapy may take three to five minutes of being uncomfortable, but your energy levels will be boosted for the rest of the day.

— remove makeup before you go to bed.

BODY CARE

— shower every day.

— exfoliate 2x a week.

— use body lotion (shea butter/aloe vera gel/coconut oil).

HAIR CARE

— wash hair 2-3x a week

— oil your scalp 2x a week, at least 3 hours before shampoo.

— hair mask 1x per week.

— never brush wet hair.

— use silk pillow case.

HYGIENE

— brush your teeth 2x a day, clean tongue and the roof of the mouth daily.

— floss daily.

— cut your nails 1x a week, never remove the cuticles.

— glycolic acid under arm for odor and discoloration.

— never use soap on your coochie.

Mental Glow Up-

MINDSET

— set clear goals- define and breakdown your aspirations.

— start your mornings with positive affirmations.

— surround yourself with uplifting content and people.

— be shamelessly selfish to your career and mental health, remove anyone or anything that doesn't align with your priorities and wellbeing.

— boost your brain health by these 4 neuroscience tools:

difficult first: start your day with the most difficult task (cortisol and dopamine are high in the body meaning that your body/mind is primed to work).

rest your eyes: introduce a micro-pause after learning by resting/closing your eyes - will help retain information better.

tomorrow's worries: write tomorrow's to-do list before bed as it is proven to be effective in helping you fall asleep.

find time to play: engage in low-stake play. can be anything you find fun but where the outcome doesn't matter (induces neuroplasticity + reduces stress).

MIND

— meditation might take as low as ten minutes, but your focus will be improved for the rest of the day.

— no social media after waking up and at least an hour before bed.

— keep aside 1 hr of time to read daily! reading a new book may take five hours, but you will keep the knowledge forever.

— journaling, gratitude.

— digital detox once a week or for 12 hours.

— limit unnecessary screentime, unfollow or cut off people you don't want to see.

JOURNALING

— choose a regular time each day to journal, making it a part of your routine.

— find a quiet, comfortable place free from distractions. light a candle if you want.

— allow your thoughts to flow without censoring or editing.

— write about your feelings and emotions to understand them better. write about things you are thankful for to boost your mood. write about your short-term and long-term goals. identify what triggers certain emotions or reactions

— set a timer for 5-10 minutes and write continuously during that time.

— reflect on both positive experiences and challenges.

— make lists, journal your thoughts on these questions.

— journal at night to clear your mind before bedtime, because emotions and thoughts lose their power once we acknowledge them.

— a gratitude practice may take five minutes, but your mindset will be shifted for the rest of the day.

AFFIRMATIONS

— customise affirmations to your needs.

Personal Life-

WEEKLY TASKS

— initiate small changes: begin with small, manageable tasks such as making your bed or cleaning your room every sunday.

— celebrate your success: reward yourself when you achieve your goals or have a consistently productive week. consider treats like buying flowers for yourself or watching your favorite show.

DAILY WORK

— set achievable goals: establish realistic goals for the day, week, or month ahead.

— track your progress.

— organise your work space, declutter your shelves etc.

— embrace the power of lists: keep a list of tasks to be done and their deadlines. this way, you start each day with a clear plan. to make it visually appealing and motivating, consider using productivity apps like evernote, habit tracker, or notion.

PRODUCTIVITY TIPS

— wake up early.

— plan ahead everything, do scheduling. you can use:

google calendar / notion / tasks .

— if the task takes less than 2 minutes to finish, do it immediately.

— countdown rule, if you are procrastinating, count 1-2-3-4-5 and jump.

— start slow, don't rush and try to do everything at one time.

— follow a proper routine, use app locks based on screentime.

— pomodoro technique, 25 min work, and 5 min break.

— schedule longer break times as well e.g 30 min nap.