Sensitivity to Lights

Disclaimer: I am not a medical professional. I can only speak to my own experience and hope that gives you some insight into what POTS is and how it can affect you or the people around you.

What it feels like: Wanting to wear sunglasses at all, feeling like all lights are too bright – lamps, the sun, indirect light it’s all like looking at the sun.

What causes it:

They don’t know. I think maybe it’s the underlying headache at all times? I’m really not sure.

Solutions I’ve found:

Low lights and dimmers for when it’s bad. Sunglasses are key for being in a car or outside, get polarized ones. I wear my sunglasses every time I step out the door and I live in New England. They’re on rain, snow, and sun. Good polarized ones make a huge difference (Maui Jim is my favorite, I’ve had the same pair for 10 years). If you need to wear your sunglasses in the house, do it. I keep the lights in my house off as long as I can, only turning them on when it’s pitch black and half the time the light from nearby houses is enough. Natural light seems to be the best for me and even then I have sheer curtains on all of my windows to help dim them.

Further Reading

“ABSTRACT: IMPROVEMENT WITH POSTURAL ORTHOSTATIC TACHYCARDIA SYNDROME, HEADACHES AND LIGHT SENSITIVITY IN A PATIENT WITH POST CONCUSSION SYNDROME FOLLOWING A PROGRAM OF MULTIMODAL VESTIBULAR …” Frontiers, 7 September 2016, https://www.frontiersin.org/10.3389/conf.fneur.2016.59.00056/event_abstract. Accessed 2 April 2023.

“Synergistic but separable sensory changes in postural tachycardia syndrome and chronic migraine.” NCBI, 10 November 2020, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC8043970/. Accessed 2 April 2023.

Have you struggled with sensitivity to light?