My telephone was giving me migraines, so I made these 5 adjustments

Round 2022, I used to be identified with persistent migraines. Not like regular complications, migraines include quite a lot of neurological signs on prime of the ache, resembling nausea, gentle and sound sensitivity, and problem concentrating.

As I took the time to determine what my migraine triggers have been, a couple of culprits stood out, together with the time spent on my smartphone. The intense display screen would usually set off migraines or worsen my current signs — so I needed to make a couple of adjustments to cut back the impression it had.

Most of those adjustments additionally assist cut back eye pressure, so you’ll be able to attempt them out even should you don’t have migraines or complications from display screen use. Since altering these settings and options, I discover my eyes don’t twitch after utilizing my display screen for lengthy durations of time. However the greatest impact was on my migraine signs, with me experiencing fewer migraines triggered by display screen use and making certain I may nonetheless use my telephone throughout delicate migraines.

Whereas there could also be explanation why you may need to keep away from darkish mode, the function is important for me. I used to solely use darkish mode at evening time after I was getting ready for mattress, however I’ve now made certain that darkish mode is the default mode on all of my units.

In some ways, darkish mode has turn into an accessibility function for me. With out it, I wouldn’t have the ability to use my machine with out risking triggering a migraine or making an current migraine worse.

On my Oppo Reno 10 Professional+, I even have the choice to set a darkish mode model: Enhanced, Medium, or Light. Since Enhanced consists of essentially the most darkness, with a black background, I opted for this model.

Switching over to darkish mode on my telephone additionally signifies that most of my apps are additionally on this mode. For the few that didn’t change over mechanically, I manually toggled darkish mode throughout the app settings.

Eye Consolation, often known as Eye Safety or Evening Gentle (relying on the precise OS you’re utilizing), is a blue gentle filter obtainable on Android smartphones. I used to make use of a blue gentle filter app on my telephone, however since Android launched the flexibility to customise the filter setting, I can use the function straight by means of my smartphone software program.

I additionally made certain to toggle Eye Consolation to the default setting, quite than limiting it to sure hours. In the meantime, I all the time alter the temperature to as heat as doable to enhance my consolation when experiencing gentle sensitivity.

Since my eyes alter to this filter, it’s not as distracting because it may appear. Nonetheless, the downside is that it might probably have an effect on the colour accuracy of photos you’re viewing. However I favor this caveat over the choice of getting my telephone trigger complications and eye pressure.

I’ve been which means to make the change away from Chrome for some time now since I need to be much less reliant on Google apps. However the lack of the flexibility to make use of my darkish mode extension on Chrome’s Android app was the ultimate push I wanted to cease utilizing the app as my default cellular browser.

As an alternative, I’ve switched to Courageous, which permits me to power darkish mode on internet pages that use a light-weight theme by default. Whereas many web sites help darkish mode, there are nonetheless a couple of that solely have a light-weight theme. I seen this essentially the most when studying information or wanting up recipes.

The function to power darkish mode is on the market in Courageous’s Look settings, the place you’ll be able to select to allow evening mode.” Thus far, I haven’t encountered any points with getting websites to ship a black background and white textual content, which has made the change to a unique browser worthwhile.

Whereas Adaptive Brightness on Android is beneficial, I discovered that my gentle sensitivity usually meant that the brightness my telephone mechanically set was just too vibrant. That is particularly an issue at evening, after I set my display screen to 0% brightness after I’m in mattress.

The primary downside of this can be a slight lack of comfort. After I go outdoors, my telephone display screen doesn’t mechanically alter, and I’ve to make use of muscle reminiscence to show the brightness again up. However the principle profit is that my telephone doesn’t mechanically flip the brightness again up as soon as I’ve turned it down.

Typically I’d be utilizing my telephone after I began to really feel the acquainted ache behind my eyes, and I’d notice my display screen was too vibrant — however by this time it was already too late, the migraine cascade had began. So, manually adjusting the brightness has been well worth the comfort trade-off.

Whereas most of my adjustments profit eye pressure normally, this one is a little more particular to migraines. Movement sensitivity is a standard symptom in migraines, and I discover that sure motions on my smartphone could make my nausea worse.

That’s why I all the time make sure that my show refresh price is ready to my telephone’s most (120Hz). This increased refresh price reduces stuttering on my display screen whereas scrolling, which in flip helps me not really feel as sick from the jittery movement.

After all, growing my display screen’s refresh price doesn’t do something on the subject of watching movies that set off my movement sensitivity — like movies recorded with a shaky digital camera. However at the very least I can simply scroll by means of my telephone’s settings and Reddit threads with out inflicting points (so long as I don’t scroll too quick).

Making these adjustments not solely decreased my eye pressure and light-weight sensitivity but in addition made my telephone a lot much less of a set off for my migraines. When a migraine does hit, these adjustments enable me to nonetheless use my machine after I’m caught in mattress and have to compensate for messages.

If you end up having an analogous expertise or experiencing eye pressure from display screen use, I’d additionally recommend making an attempt out other ways to cut back the impression of display screen use — each in your smartphone and your laptop.