Amazing home lighting choices for migraine sufferers

If you are the one suffering from migraine, beware of the latest scientific findings! Did you know that changing your home lighting can actually do wonders for your migraine severity and frequency? If no, here you go! Scroll down to know how you can take an edge off your migraine by switching to light therapies for migraine and buying some best migraine light bulbs for your home:

Migraine

It is a neurological condition that is characterized by severe, intense, and debilitating headaches. Secondary and correlated symptoms include nausea, numbness, tingling, difficulty speaking, vomiting, and sensitivity to bright light and sound. The disease can also be genetic and is found in all age groups.

Treating migraine

Despite the severity and widespread with a massive number of migraine sufferers around the globe, there is still no proper medication for the disease as there are multiple symptoms and effects that may vary from patient to patient. The best way to treat it is to go with self-care that involves finding your migraine symptoms and then taking measures to deal with them, now that might be stress management, improved sleeping, diet modification or anything in between.  Moreover, severe conditions can be countered with oral intake of pain-relieving medicines.

However, there are many prevailing triggers. Above all, we have poor lighting. Yes, you heard that right. Lighting can actually trigger your migraine headache and so, we have come up with some of the most exciting ways to turn your home space into the true definition of luxurious yet healthy living with some of the best healthy lights hanging from the ceiling.

Best light bulbs for migraine

reduce your migraine headache
Suffering from headache desperate and stressed because pain and migraine. Photo: Aaron Amat, BS

Incandescent lighting

Hands down to the invention of 1879, the incandescent light bulb. The incandescent light bulbs are considered as of the best light bulbs to have for migraine sufferers as they have a wire filament inside that makes their illumination bright yet warm. Additionally, they are most unlikely to flicker. Backed up with two prevailing features of warmer illumination and non-flickering effect, these light bulbs can reduce your migraine headache significantly.

However, there are the latest energy-efficient models in the market that have already outdated the incandescent.

LED lights

LED light bulbs can also deplete the migraine severity for the fact that they don’t flicker and are brighter than the conventional incandescents. But, these are quite expensive and may require a transformer in the ceiling sometimes.

Halogen

Last but not the least from the basic models we have for daily use, halogen lights are just an option for migraine patients as they have a 30% less energy than incandescent bulbs and are less energy-efficient as compared to fluorescents and LEDs. Hence, it becomes an option depending on your migraine severity.

Beware of the fluorescent lights

Most commonly found in offices and homes, this is the most pathetic type of light a migraine sufferer can have. Known for flickering and emitting rays of blue light, these lights are known to trigger your migraine the most. However, you may counter the con with, “they don’t flicker all the time. Instead, it only happens when they are near to burning out”. The fact is that even if they don’t flicker at one moment, your brain can still detect the unpronounced flickering.

The science of colour temperature and migraine

colour temperature and migraine
Photo: Deagreez, BS

Have you ever wondered why certain lights go easier on your migraine as compared to others? Well, if not, YOU NOW NEED TO because the lighting is one of the foremost factors increasing and decreasing your migraine intensity and frequency.

It’s all about the colour temperature

Only if you come to know a bit about colour temperature and how it sway your indoor lighting to be less shattering when you are suffering from migraine, you would feel as if you know everything about migraine lighting solutions:

Best colour temperature of indoor migraine lights

Similar to how music influence your mood, lighting can also impose a prominent impact on your daily life and mood. It can boost your productivity and energy by regulating your sleep-wake cycle affecting the backend secretion of hormones melatonin and cortisol, primarily. Light does a lot more than a layman knows: where on one hand, it influences your mood in both, good and adverse ways, it also triggers your migraine.

Science proves sensitivity to light as one of the prime side effects of migraines provided that 80 percent of the sufferers worldwide are affected by it.

It has also been discovered that greenlight has a capability to mitigate your migraine pain to a great extent. With that known, scientists decided to dig into the matter of colour temperature and this is what they came across:

Light therapies for migraine include using warmer light ranging to 2700K temperature with a more yellowish to orange colour rays. Such sufferers are least advised to use cool colour temperature lights ranging around 5000K with blue rays.

Best lighting for migraine sufferers

Best lighting for migraine sufferers
Photo: Vershinin89, BS

Hence, it is fair advice for people with migraine to make use of accent and ambient lights within their daily course of life. Additionally, the use of blue light rays is suggested to be eliminated completely from their routine and as far as the bright white light is concerned so, they should only get its exposure for a minimum time of the day in the earlier hours for the sake of maintaining their circadian rhythm. Overall, they must try to be as much as possible under the dim and darker lights. However, reading under a dim light can be cautious.

Circadian rhythm and migraine

Last but not least, people are often confused about the prevailing relationship between circadian rhythm and migraine. Many wonders if they’re actually a connection or not…

Anyhow, the human body circadian rhythm is indirectly related to the migraine for the fact that disturbance in your circadian cycle may affect its severity and intensity. Since the circadian rhythm of your body regulates your sleep-wake cycle along with other biological processes, it can easily intensify the migraine headache in case of circadian misalignment showing widespread effects on sleeping hours.

For the ones who use circadian rhythm lights, it is highly advisable to keep your migraine pain in the critical examination as the prolonged exposure to bright white light in the morning can exacerbate it. It is best to not to completely seize this exposure. Instead, reduce the number of hours.

The idea is supported by a study done on 20 women for 7 days examining their sleep cycle and the effects on migraine intensity, it has been proved that:

Sleep disturbance plays a crucial role in the development and growth of chronic migraine. In other words, a disturbed sleep cycle is one of the most common circadian factors to amplify the migraine’s intensity and frequency.

Emma Thomas
Emma Thomas
I'm a part-time digital marketing consultant, part-time travel blogger, and a full-time dreamer. I have three passions in my life, traveling, social media and writing.
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