Fluorescent lighting

[Geoduck]

Does flourescent lighting adversely affect ADD?

I was at my girl’s school for Parent’s night, tonight. It’s where the teachers get to talk to you about classroom expectations, etc., for about a half an hour per teacher. I started getting really spacy, during the last presentation. She had on these really bright flourescent lights. Really, I felt like I was in third grade again. Couldn’t focus one bit and really started daydreaming uncontrollably, even though my meds were still working. A few minutes after we left, I was fine.

Anyway, wondering if it was the bad lighting. I was getting a bit of a headache, too, and have been diagnosed with migraine auras, but haven’t had a headache yet, and flourescent lights definitely trigger them. I’m wondering how much of this bad lighting. made my ADD symptoms worse as a child.

Yes, I know flourescent lighting is evil, for soooo many reasons, but specifically, has anyone else experienced their ADD getting worse under these lights?

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[Geoduck]

The best I could find on the internet was this:

<http://www.hese-project.org/hese-uk/en/issues/cfl.php&gt;

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[Tiddler]

I can hear the noise these lights make and often I can see them flickering too, though no-one else I know can see that happening. They give me terrible headaches and make me feel ‘spacey’ as you say.

I have to sit for 6 hours in a lecture room once a week during term time and I have to be very specific as to where I sit to be as far away from a light as possible. I used to have the same problem with the old fashioned computer screens and their slow refresh rate.

I remember a couple of places I worked where I was short tempered much of the time and looking back I think it was as much the monitors and lights as it was the actual job I was doing.

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[quizzical]

Oh, wow, do I HATE fluorescent lights!!!!!

When I was looking at a questionnaire in a book called Understanding Women With ADHD, one of the many, many questions under the category “Sensitivity” was “Does fluorescent lighting bother you” and even though I was reading the book all by myself, I started pounding the page and shouting “Yes! Yes! Yes! Oh my GOD yes!”

(Wonder what the neighbors must have thought was going on? )

It makes me feel bad, because of course they are the “green” way to go, and it seems like a perfectly reasonable way to go green. My energy-conscious hubby is trying to incorporate them throughout more and more of the house, and I keep telling him “Not in THAT lamp” and making up excuses: “I need the light here to be able to turn on at full power right away” when in truth I just think the light the fluorescent bulbs give off is ugly, harsh, and depressing, even in the newer-style ones.

But this could be a new weapon in my arsenal: “Sorry, honey, I’d love to put a long-life bulb there, but, well, you know, what with the ADD and all….”

Very intriguing!

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[Geoduck]

It looks like there may be a difference between cheap flourescents and full spectrum. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of real hard research out there on the internet, though.

What about halogens and LED’s? Are they good, environmentally friendly, alternatives?

Oh I hate these flourescent lights!!!

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[Anonymous]

I’m not a fan either. not sure if they worsen my focus or not.

this is probably normal, but club lights vanquish all my concentration. the world becomes a mass of confetti..which is somewhat calming.. an overstimulated to the point of mental vacation. lol.

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[billd]

LEDs are DC. If the power supply is filtered and has no ripple, it’s pure constant light with 0 flicker.

FAR superior to fluorescent lighting – which has mercury and is illegal to simply dump in the trash “technically” and if you break one, you should probably contact the EPA. Well, not really, but then, yes……….. HA

All lights other than LED are AC – meaning the power cycles between pos and neg, thus flicker, etc.

My eyes require that I have a LOT of light. I’ve got 6 4-tube 4′ fluorescent light fixtures in my lower level work area, and have 4 huge HID lights in my shop, which is lined with white steel. Then there are fluorescent work lights over my work benches to compliment the big overheads.

So maybe wit all the flickering lights I’m killing me?

Main level shop lights

http://theamcpages.com/images/garage/barn-lights-10.jpg

http://theamcpages.com/images/garage/shop-012a.jpg

http://theamcpages.com/images/garage/shop–south-bench-020.jpg

Lighting in my wood shop upstairs before I finished it off and moved my tools up:

http://theamcpages.com/images/garage/barn-upstairs-lights-12.jpg

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[Geoduck]

LOL! Yup. Work is killing you, billd.

I’ve seen some filters available, but can’t find research to support that this is effective. I’m digging up an ancient article about flourescent lights and hyperactivity to find out more. Actually, having hubby do it. It’s so ancient there’s no electronic copy. He teaches at the local university. He’ll actually have to step foot into the Psych. Dept’s. library. Scary for a Meteorologist. LOL!

Maybe I should go back to school. Seems there could be a dissertation in this somewhere.

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[Geoduck]

Oh yeah, school is insanely expensive! Silly me!!!

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[Anonymous]

I used to wear sunglasses in high school when my teachers would let me get away with it for that reason. I couldn’t concentrate at all, my eyes and my head would always be agitated.

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[caper]

The flicker is due to the low frequency (60hz) of a magnetic ballast. Electronic ballasts are more efficient and much higher frequency so they don’t flicker. Most of the newer T8 fixtures use electronic ballasts.

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[Geoduck]

I know the flicker rate is different here in the US than in Europe. Is it different between here and Canada?

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[billd]

US operates on 60 cycle per second AC, I think much of Europe is 50?

Not sure of Canada – do they have electricity up there yet?

A ballast is a transformer – so 60 cycle AC power in, 60 cycle power output to the lamp/bulb/tube.

Notice how car wheels or in the old westerns, wagon wheels seemed to be going backwards? It’s a product of lighting, TV rates, and our eyes are actually more akin to digital than analog in many ways.

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[caper]

billd: I laughed at the dig about us Canucks.

It’s completely understandable that an American wouldn’t know what goes on outside the USA given their egos and the state of their education system.

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[Anonymous]

I have problems, especially with cool white fluorescent tubes, typically those in shopping centers, supermarket… schools…

I hear their weird noise, I see them flicker… I really hate them

–> makes me feel weird : a bit stressed, a bit tired, hard to focus and a need to go out of the building (and i’m not claustrophobic or agoraphobic)

When I try to study, I do it best with a lot of light. My girlfriend used to turn off the lights when she entered in my office…

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[Author]

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