Light dazzles me

Every 20 minutes, 20 seconds into the distance — this restores the tear film.

With UV protection and side cover. Indoors better not — the eye would adapt to less light.

Less bright than the room, not more — the simplest relief.

Some drugs cause light sensitivity; it is stated there and sometimes explains everything.

Every 20 minutes look into the distance for 20 seconds and blink consciously; place the screen a little below eye level.

Sunglasses ease it but treat nothing — and tinted lenses worn indoors permanently lower the threshold further over weeks, so sensitivity increases. What is treated is the cause: dry eyes with artificial tears, migraine with its own drugs, inflammation of the iris with cortisone drops. Sudden strong light sensitivity with a red, painful eye needs examining within twenty-four hours.

In migraine the light sensitivity often persists between attacks too — about eight in ten are affected during an attack. New, strong light sensitivity with a red, painful eye needs examining within twenty-four hours. Dry eyes are the single most common reason. Wearing sunglasses indoors permanently lowers the eye’s ability to adapt over weeks — sensitivity rises measurably as a result.

The migraine pattern — it goes when the attack goes.

The tear film breaks up; typically with burning and a gritty feeling.

Points to inflammation — an eye assessment is worthwhile.

Scattered light and halos around lights point to the lens rather than the surface.

Only needed with certain accompanying signs: a new headache after the age of fifty, pain on chewing, a tender temple.

Shyness of light together with fever, a stiff neck and a severe headache is an emergency. Then speed counts, not the value.

With an overactive thyroid the eyes stay more open and are dazzled more quickly. It is one of the few causes that can be treated.

These two pigments gather exactly at the place of sharpest vision and filter short-wave light there. Kale, spinach, chard, broccoli and egg yolk are the sources.

The retina holds particularly much zinc; it is needed to turn light into a signal. High doses over months lower copper, though — so the two are considered together.

The outer segments of the seeing cells consist largely of a long-chain omega-3 fatty acid, and the tear film needs it too.

The seeing pigment is built from vitamin A. A lack shows first as poor vision at dusk and as a dry surface of the eye.

With migraine that comes with light sensitivity, this is the studied prevention: 400 mg a day over 3 months. It does not act on acute glare.

10 mg lutein and 2 mg zeaxanthin a day over 6–12 months measurably raise the pigment density of the central retina; for glare and recovery time after glare the effects are small.

Here as a pointer the other way: it makes the skin more light-sensitive, as do some antibiotics and water tablets. Anyone suddenly burning faster checks the list first.

Effects on inflammation and triglycerides established; cardiovascular prevention is mixed. Watch quality and freshness.

Light in the evening suppresses the release of this hormone — blue light most. Anyone dazzled in the evening and struggling to wake in the morning often has the timing of the light as the topic, not the eyes.

Light sensitivity often belongs to migraine. Studied are 400 mg riboflavin and 400–600 mg magnesium a day over 3 months for prevention — both work slowly, not during an attack.

Light sensitivity often belongs to migraine. For prevention 400–600 mg a day over 3 months is studied; during an attack it does not work. New light shyness with headache and a stiff neck belongs assessed at once.