Hyper-sensativity to light

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I had a fine balance to take: I wear glasses normally, so with my past few pairs I went for very lightly tinted lenses - not just transition lenses but all the time tint. I'd have loved to go for something darker - I'm wicked photosensitive, I tear up and shake like a leaf when they shine the lights for an eye exam - but I had myself a stern lecture on social comfort versus physical comfort. Darker would have been more physically comfortable, but would have drawn too many funny looks and questions for my social comfort.

As a lifestyle choice, I'm currently working strictly nights, which helps - I can turn the lights down in the office and just work by the glow of the computers. It's taken a while to get here but it's so comfortable!



Question, then: what color eyes are we talking? I've heard somewhere that people with blue or other light colored eyes are far more likely to be photosensitive to bright light than people with darker eyes, like dark green, brown or dark hazel. Maybe that's superstition talking? (I've snipped a whole long wild surmise about genetics-to-enviroment corelations that I have no research to support.)

Not a fan of too-bright anything, natural or indoor lighting. I like everything in fair balance, from temperature to light to sound. I'm extremely sensitive to sensory stimuli of any kind.

I can't stand the sun light. It blinds me when I look up and I squint my eyes outside. In the fall, and winter and spring I am fine but in the summer it's too bright out. But fluorescent lights don't bother me but I find those HP lights annoying.

Yes. More to artifical light than to natura light. For the record I cannot STAND to be in a room lit with flouroscents. It just won't happen. I'll sit in the dark rather than subject myself to that harshness. I also wear shades outdoors 100% of the time.

I like sitting in my room when the shades are pulled because I don't like it when the sun is shining straight into my eyes. I like twilight.

autie,not aspie but am very sensitive to light though am red haired as well.
this is something wanted to mention for other ASDers who might be red haired as well.

people with red hair are supposed to have a sensitivity to light,as well as thinner eye lids,so light gets in easier.
wonder does that mean auties and aspies with red hair can get double the strength of sensitivity?

Yup, hate fluoresent lights, especially when they start to flicker. Very bright sunlight gives me a really bad headache, so I tend to wear a hat and sunglasses a lot. Having astigmatism and those little floating thingamys doesn't help at all. Find myself blinking a lot if something is too bright.

Irritation from bright light is one of a number of sensory issues that many aspergeans face. However, it's one of the easier ones to deal with - I wear sunglasses whenever I'm outside, and often even when I'm inside. Polarized lenses will cancel out the glare without needing to be heavily tinted.

I can't stand bright lights. I don't go outside in summer, because everything is just too bright. It hurts my eyes. I also don't look at the sun, and I hate how cars are shiny. It means that they reflect the sun into my eyes. I bike a lot, and in a bike lane between a line of parked shiny cars and a line of moving shiny cars is not a good place for me to be. I try not to look at them. The sudden flash as I pass a car parked to reflect the sun, in either the window or the side mirror, hurts. I can't sleep in the car at night when traveling, because sometimes a car goes past the other way and the headlights stop me relaxing.

Mostly fluorescent lights and artificial light isn't bad, but sometimes they flicker. There's nothing like flickering lights to piss me off, except irregular background noise. When pissed off, I tend to shout at people, be unable to focus, get kinda twitchy, and be very intolerant of idiots, music, and other people in general. And fluorescents can buzz, too.

And all this applies to strobe lights as well, except multiplied by 10. And loud noises, as well.

I'm thinking about getting glasses. With darkened or polarized lenses. Last time I went to the optometrist, I was told that I'm short-sighted in one eye and glasses could help, but that I didn't need glasses and could function fine without them, so I can justify getting a good pair and always wearing them.

I know someone else with aspergers who doesn't like sunlight, but that's because she has red hair, pale skin, and a burn time of about four minutes, although she might have sensory overload problems too. I haven't asked.

bookwench: my eyes are sort of two-color. blue/grey around the outside of the iris, but hazel near the center. The line between is kind of spikey, pointing away from the center of the eye.

My first word was light, and I'm guessing part of it may be due to my sensitivity to it. I tend to keep my apartment quite dark, usually only open the window blinds when I know there will be other people around. I keep the brightness on my computer monitor down all the way and it still seems glaringly bright sometimes. Sunlight irritates me a little even when it's cloudy.

I rarely let myself sit in the dark, even if I do enjoy it more, because I get strangely hyper and wacky if I spend too much time like that.

But I always love cloudy days as opposed to sunny days. And if I'm the first one in a classroom, I never turn on the lights.

Loud sudden noises also make me flinch.

I'm fairly sensitive to light-- I think I made myself that way to accomodate for the depression, as looking into lights helps alleviate it. The Celexa I'm taking for that same depression, however, makes me sort of hypersensitive to light sometimes, in which my eyes will burn in an unpleasant way when it's sunny outside, even when I'm not looking into it.

I third it. I don't seem to be affected by florescent lights (thankfully, since most LCD TVs and monitors use them, my kitchen is lit by them, and my work is all florescent). I'm not sure if I'd like them at home in like my bedroom or living room though.

Sunlight on the other hand is really blinding to me. It's made me hope I'm a vampire or something, but I don't have any cool powers
I try to wear a hate and sunglasses when I can outside, which pretty much takes care of it. I forgot my sunglasses one day (it was very overcast on the way in to work), and I could barely see driving home. I had water streaming out of my eyes-they felt like they were going numb. I had to try to keep one eye forced open the whole way, and kept rubbing them and wiping away tears.

Other weird things-I have some ability to feel electromagnetic fields with my hands, can hear the frequencies CRT TVs make, and in high school I found out I could feel radiation. My physics teacher had some radioactive samples out, and I told him I could feel it (it tingled kind of). He said that's not possible, and had me try to pick out the radioactive sample in a container from a few different samples. Took me a few seconds-I just put my hand over them and felt which one tingled. He said I was right, and said "but that's impossible".
Oh, and I can manually open my eustation (misspelled) tubes. My brother's was the only other person I'm aware of who can do that.

I third it. I don't seem to be affected by florescent lights (thankfully, since most LCD TVs and monitors use them, my kitchen is lit by them, and my work is all florescent). I'm not sure if I'd like them at home in like my bedroom or living room though.

Sunlight on the other hand is really blinding to me. It's made me hope I'm a vampire or something, but I don't have any cool powers
I try to wear a hate and sunglasses when I can outside, which pretty much takes care of it. I forgot my sunglasses one day (it was very overcast on the way in to work), and I could barely see driving home. I had water streaming out of my eyes-they felt like they were going numb. I had to try to keep one eye forced open the whole way, and kept rubbing them and wiping away tears.

Other weird things-I have some ability to feel electromagnetic fields with my hands, can hear the frequencies CRT TVs make, and in high school I found out I could feel radiation. My physics teacher had some radioactive samples out, and I told him I could feel it (it tingled kind of). He said that's not possible, and had me try to pick out the radioactive sample in a container from a few different samples. Took me a few seconds-I just put my hand over them and felt which one tingled. He said I was right, and said "but that's impossible".
Oh, and I can manually open my eustation (misspelled) tubes. My brother's was the only other person I'm aware of who can do that.

The reaction of HoneyHaze to fluorescent lighting is impressive.

Fluorescent lighting is about as unnatural as lighting can be. I once read of a study where mother rats living in fluorescent lighting were more likely to kill their baby's.

I would say HoneyHaze's response was a natural response (though an acute one) to an unnatural stimulation.

I'm also impressed that HH got them removed in some places. It never occurred to me to try. I just sat & grumbled.

Yep. On-off-on-off-on-off and then in some supermarkets I start going on-off-on-off-on-off.. and walk out before I have a full-on fit.

Special contact lenses that absorb some of the UV rays have helped me a lot. So I avoid some shops and bright sunlight. I also really don't like the dark indoors when it's light outdoors - have to have an open curtain etc.