Light sensitivity in ASD

[Mariana]

Hello everyone,

 

I have been registered in this forum around two or three months ago and my first attempt of establishing communication wasn't very good. I invited people to participate in my PhD project which is named:

Ergonomics: Application and Effects in Working Spaces Designed for Hypersensitive Users.

 

Might be the name or the use of the word "ergonomics" that sounds so disconnected to the main purpose of my project but, at the end, the application of these "ergonomics" to light and colour and the use that we give them in spaces where we work is essential. But the lack of enthusiasm might also have been because, maybe (hopefully not!) light and colour doesn't make a massive difference in ASD. Based in what I have read it does, but it might be braver of me if I directly ask people with ASD if my hypothesis is real and if I'm going to make any difference or change in their lives.

 

So the question is simply that: Do light and colour make any difference in the environments that surround you in daily life? Is it only me the one that believes that an appropiate use of light and colour can actually make a difference in the ability to relax, concentrate and increase productivity in working spaces for people with ASD? You might want to think about this before answering the poll.

 

I sincerely hope to find the real answer. If the real answers to my poll's questions is yes then this project will help a lot of people to live happier, relaxed and productive.

 

Thanks for your help,

Mariana.

[philipo]

Ive been obbsessed with light and colour since 3 to 4 years old,i spent a big part of my life as a sound/lighting engineer with a big sideling in photography/film/video.i always took the veiw i was just an obssesive creative arty type.last autumn I was dx'd and realised why!I'm 48 now! I used colour wheels in my living room years ago to calm my nerves and I always have colour with sound together.on holidays with my family I'd saty out of the sun while they were om the beach and prefer soft/darker lighting.Flourescants are horrible.After doing thousands of gigs I'd had many requests from people with epilepsy about strobes ,especially raves where a lot of stroboscopic effects were used.I used to be extremly carefull that strobe effects never run for more than ten seconds and that the 'frequency' of flashes was never constant for more than a few second.

[ScienceGeek]

I have trouble with a lot of places that I have worked or studied. A lot of places seem to think that bright white walls, fluorescent lighting and reflective surfaces is "modern" looking and great, but for me that is an instant headache. I cannot do my best work in these environments, I become slow, lethargic and my pain is amplified. Open offices are a big problem not only is there the lighting but also all the phones ringing, conversations, sounds of computer equipment etc, I cannot filter out background noise effectively and it sounds like everything is shouting at me. I don't know how anyone concentrates with so much going on! I could only cope with working in such places for a few weeks at a time and then I would end up getting fired because I couldn't keep up with the workload (not due to lack of effort!)

[darkshine]

For me my work space is my study area, and I really struggle with getting enough light to study effectively. The reduced wattage light bulbs are not good enough, I live in a small, quite dark cottage, and the windows aren't all the big. I have to have lights on in the day or it is too dark to see in at least 3 rooms of my house. And even then, the lights being on doesn't really make that much difference any more. It makes my depression worse, it gets me down, it hurts my eyes when studying because there isn't enough light, I find I get tired a lot, and it makes the place look dingy which does not help, and is not conducive to a productive atmosphere.

 

On the other hand, if light is too bright it dazzles me and hurts my eyes

 

I think colour effects everyone and there is research available on this - but I do find that colour lamps (like lava lamps, certain "disco" type lightin, xmas tree lights) can be very calming and soothing and sometimes hypnotic.

 

I love things that use water too (though irrelevant )

 

I didn't vote on your second question because I don't know

 

Darkshine

[indiscreet]

Hello everyone,

So the question is simply that: Do light and colour make any difference in the environments that surround you in daily life? Is it only me the one that believes that an appropiate use of light and colour can actually make a difference in the ability to relax, concentrate and increase productivity in working spaces for people with ASD? You might want to think about this before answering the poll

I find it depressing if a light is too dim and I'm uncomfortable, for some reason, with spotlights or lamps in a room rather than a central light.

 

Lighting in supermarkets or large offices where it's very difficult to avoid seeing a light make me feel dizzy and sick and can cause me to have the visual disturbances of migraine, but without the headache. Fluorescent lighting is a particular problem.

 

Bright colours cheer me up but I think this is true for most people.

[philipo]

Most flourecants are actually flashing on and off at 50hz,or 50 times a second,new ones run at 100hz.With human vision,the human eye can easily detect frame stutter,so early film used 25 frames or pictures a second to recreate motion film.Older type computer screens used 50hz or 50 frames a second,well within the human eye range of detecting the screen flashing on and off,most flat screens run at 60hz and modern flat screen tellys run on 100hz ,reducing flicker and eye strain.While we perceive flouescants as 'white' light ,they are in fact very strong in the green spectrum,The use of 50hz is because of the mains electricity.It has 50 pulses a second and so old tele's and computer monitors were designed to be synched to what was technologically the easiest/cheapest method.Computer gameing has raised the bar.i think what was once called 'sick building syndrome' was due to the mental stress of flourescants,which was not very good for our optic nerves.In the last ten years many computer users set their monitors to 60hz to reduce eyestrain and migranes/headaches.If all screens were to be set at a minium of 75hz there would be less 'subconcious' detected flickering by the eye.The low power flourescants,as in energy saving type, mostly run at 50hz and so have introduced into our homes a background flicker and may have some influence on 'biological optical'stress.

Although oldr type filament bulbs technically ran at 50hz,in synch with the power supply,they never turned off and on like flouresants do,i.e.they stayed mostly on continuously due to the heated tungsten fillament.The opererating frequencies i.e.50hz have an impact on the optic nerve but I strongly feel they have a greater impact on asd/as/auty 'rs and people with epilepsy,

anothe rinteresting are ,although probably not related is that in old skool photographyi.e.film,to prevent camera shake and a blurred picture it was generally reccommended that the shutter speed should be set no lower than 1/60th of a second.i.e.not below 60hz.

 

In digital cameras ,as well as old type film cameras,two thirds of the film,or digital sensor is devoted to processing the green end of the spectrum although we tend to think of red/green/blue as the basis of colour.faithfull reproduction of the greens is the hardest technicaly and certain film manufacterers concentrated heavily on this to differentiate their film from competitors.It indicates that our sense of colour is far more biased to the green spectrum.thanks for your patience.

Edited July 22, 2011 by philipo

[indiscreet]

Most flourecants are actually flashing on and off at 50hz,or 50 times a second,new ones run at 100hz.With human vision,the human eye can easily detect frame stutter,so early film used 25 frames or pictures a second to recreate motion film.Older type computer screens used 50hz or 50 frames a second,well within the human eye range of detecting the screen flashing on and off,most flat screens run at 60hz and modern flat screen tellys run on 100hz ,reducing flicker and eye strain.While we perceive flouescants as 'white' light ,they are in fact very strong in the green spectrum,The use of 50hz is because of the mains electricity.It has 50 pulses a second and so old tele's and computer monitors were designed to be synched to what was technologically the easiest/cheapest method.Computer gameing has raised the bar.i think what was once called 'sick building syndrome' was due to the mental stress of flourescants,which was not very good for our optic nerves.In the last ten years many computer users set their monitors to 60hz to reduce eyestrain and migranes/headaches.If all screens were to be set at a minium of 75hz there would be less 'subconcious' detected flickering by the eye.The low power flourescants,as in energy saving type, mostly run at 50hz and so have introduced into our homes a background flicker and may have some influence on 'biological optical'stress.

Although oldr type filament bulbs technically ran at 50hz,in synch with the power supply,they never turned off and on like flouresants do,i.e.they stayed mostly on continuously due to the heated tungsten fillament.The opererating frequencies i.e.50hz have an impact on the optic nerve but I strongly feel they have a greater impact on asd/as/auty 'rs and people with epilepsy,

anothe rinteresting are ,although probably not related is that in old skool photographyi.e.film,to prevent camera shake and a blurred picture it was generally reccommended that the shutter speed should be set no lower than 1/60th of a second.i.e.not below 60hz.

Thank you, Philipo, that's interesting. I knew that flourescent lighting caused problems for many people but not why.

In digital cameras ,as well as old type film cameras,two thirds of the film,or digital sensor is devoted to processing the green end of the spectrum although we tend to think of red/green/blue as the basis of colour.faithfull reproduction of the greens is the hardest technicaly and certain film manufacterers concentrated heavily on this to differentiate their film from competitors.It indicates that our sense of colour is far more biased to the green spectrum.thanks for your patience.

My partner is a professional photographer so I've learned a great deal about cameras from him but I didn't know that two-two-thirds of the film or digital sensor is devoted to processing the green end of the spectrum.

[philipo]

Just checked Inndiscreet,its a bout 60%.Digital has the same problem as film.more than half the film emulsions are for reproduction of greens,and digital sensors have to use more resolving/processing logic for the green end of the spectrum.Whats knocked me back when coming home from the med is how green our country is.Thats why i never complain about the rain!.

 

You van buy 'daylight' filament bulbs.They are designed for artists and don't produce a great amont of light for their wattage but help people with Sad,seasonally Affected Disorder and dont flicker at 50hz.The main problem with 50hz,i.e.flourescants and energy saving bulbs is that the 50hz 'flash rate' is within the optic nerves/brains parameter for detecting flickering.This I beleive is a big contributer to headaches/migranes,as well as noise in offices especially.The jury is still out on wireless networks and radio frequency resonance,but with the planned increase to 4G standards for mobile internet,which wants to increase data rates by a factor of 10 to 15 times present standards,is the radio/wireless signal will have to be correspondingly more powerfull,i.e.more ionising radiation from wireless routers/phone networks.

[Mariana]

Thanks everyone for letting me know about your personal experiences with light and colour and also for the information in regards to the different technologies that might be useful for my project. Really interesting all of your comments and very encouraging to know that I'm actually solving a REAL problem!!!!

[Aeolienne]

I voted yes to both the poll questions, but I'm still a bit unsure as to whether I'm really affected. I was assessed for tinted glasses at Specsavers after my then job coach had commented on me frequently "occluding" my eyes under the office strip lighting. In the testing room I could see that printed words looked easier to read with the pink lenses, so I got those and wore them at work. At the same time I'm puzzled as to why I haven't experienced the same revelation other Aspies have, as in "For the first time the carpet isn't moving!!"