LED lighting and migraines

[AndrewF]

Hi, looking for help please.

We have moved over to LED lighting in our offices as part of our energy efficiency and help us to get to net zero. Since having these installed we have a few staff in some of our buildings that are experiencing migraines more often than they did before the lighting was changed. They are also complaining that the lights are too bright. I have looked into this and found that LED lights can flicker at a high rate that is not perceivable and this can cause migraines for those susceptible to migraines.

The lights are 4000K which is slap bang in the middle of the advised range. I have also asked what lumens it has been designed to deliver at desk level to see if there is anything obvious there.

Has anyone else come across this and if so have you found a remedy other than giving those affected spectacles with filtered lenses?

Thanks
Andrew

[Alexis]

Hi, looking for help please.

We have moved over to LED lighting in our offices as part of our energy efficiency and help us to get to net zero. Since having these installed we have a few staff in some of our buildings that are experiencing migraines more often than they did before the lighting was changed. They are also complaining that the lights are too bright. I have looked into this and found that LED lights can flicker at a high rate that is not perceivable and this can cause migraines for those susceptible to migraines.

The lights are 4000K which is slap bang in the middle of the advised range. I have also asked what lumens it has been designed to deliver at desk level to see if there is anything obvious there.

Has anyone else come across this and if so have you found a remedy other than giving those affected spectacles with filtered lenses?

Thanks
Andrew

Just a warm welcome to our forums Andrew with a question that I, being someone who suffers from migraines and LED lighting scenario's, am very interested in the responses from our excellent HSfB members' experiences.

Good to have you aboard.

[WillPool]

Hi AndrewF

Welcome to the forums

Whilst I have no direct remedy for you, the advised Lux levels for offices are as follows:

General office: 500 Lux.
Filing/copying/printing: 300 Lux.
Technical drawing area: 750 Lux.
Conference room: 500 Lux.
Design office: 1000 Lux.
Archives: 200 Lux.
CAD workstation: 500 Lux.
Reception desk: 300 Lux.

There is a fair bit of science between Lux & Lumens but basically lux is the intensity of the light whilst lumens measure the light regardless of how far away it is from source (I think that's right anyway)

Hopefully some more knowledgeable members will be able to assist in your query

Will

[Messy]

We had lots of complaints- some with a medical bias- about the brightness of our office lighting when it was changed to LED about 7 years ago.

The lighting designer had warned the estate team this might happen as the LED light is a different something (frequency, warmth or colour - I can't recall).

He was right as there were a fair number of complaints from the 4000 staff. Some were valid as there were some glare issues from glazing, but in time people got used to the new lighting arrangements

[grim72]

It is possible to get diffusers/filters which might help? See link for example (this is the first one google came up for me):

https://www.makegreatlight.com/products ... s%20covers.

Might be an option for you but absolutely no idea how effective they are.

[AndrewF]

Thank you for the welcome

Some interesting comments to look into, thanks for these.

I will keep digging for the migraine issue to see if it's real or some sort of coincidence perhaps caused by stress from brighter lighting. I will repost if I find anything useful. We might even find an expert pop up here with the answer.