Migraine

I had an interesting discovery recently that I thought I would share and see if anyone else could relate. I've been able to figure out that bright lights are a *slight* trigger for me... a stackable I think it would be called. If you add it to a bunch of other things, it intensifies everything else--and it DEFINITELY makes something that is already bad much worse. I've noticed that recently my eyes have been a lot more sensitive to light than they were before.

I'm very fortunate and my life is very light controlled. My work is a "dark room" We do scanning and Photoshop work so my desk is in a room kept at 71 degrees with only the light from our computer screens. My husband works nights so our home has dark drapes over every window and we control the lights at all times because he's very sensitive to how bright it is. The only time I'm forced to face the light of day is during my commute or sitting in a restaurant!

A naturopath I saw recently suggested that I might have a problem with my adrenal glands. He suggested some tests, which we're doing, but after my appointment, I did some research. One of the self tests that I found explained that adrenal dysfunction can skew your potassium and sodium balance which causes your eyes to stop constricting properly. Per the test, I had my DH shine a flashlight in my eyes, and they constricted, as they should, but within 20-30 seconds, they opened right back up! Not right!! Now I understand why it hurts my eyes so badly to sit facing a bright window! I've done more research and I guess there are other reasons for your eyes to do these sorts of things... and I suppose it wasn't caught at my last eye exam because I had drops in my eyes to have them purposefully dilated!

I find the whole thing very interesting... and it makes a whole bunch of sense why I am so sensitive to light--and why it would hurt my head so much!! I'm curious if anyone tries the flashlight test, I guess you can do it in a mirror too... or if anyone knows anything about this, or the mechanics of WHY photo phobia exists with migraines?

I certainly can't answer the mechanics of why, but I've noticed the strange dilation habits of my eyes over the last few months. They do tend to over-dilate for the light conditions. (At one of my recent visits to my eye doctor, specifically to talk about my photophobia/fluorescent lighting sensitivity, he noticed that my eyes are dilated more than they should be.) I've also noticed that sometimes, especially when my pain is more severe, my pupils are dilated unevenly (the one on the side with the pain, usually the right).

Especially with this ongoing migraine, I have photophobia pretty much constantly. I'm looking into getting prosthetic contact lenses that work by blocking out all but a small amount of light - unfortunately, they're rather expensive so I'm trying to get my medical insurance to cover it.

Interesting discussion. I am also very light sensitive. My polarized sunglasses are always with me, even on overcast days. I don't know if I'm brave enough to shine a flashlight in my eyes, since whenever my doc. does it I find it painful.

DH notices my eyes dilate in strange ways occasionally. He often will ask how bad my head is when he sees my eyes.

I've just always considered the light sensitivity a symptom of my migraine disease rather than a stackable trigger. Hhmmm . . .

I've tried to research the why of photophobia in migraines but haven't been able to find anything except that it exists... but there doesn't appear to be much detailed information at my disposal concerning migraines at all... so it's not too surprising.

Light sensitivity is definitely a migraine symptom, but for me and others, bright lights can also be a trigger.