Do LED Office Lights Cause Headaches?

Light Emitting Diode, most popularly known as LEDs. These brightening beasts can light up your home, office, and rooms perfect for you. However, as their popularity remains, some question arises relating to them saying, do LED office lights cause headaches?

Though research is still continuing on this topic, Photophobia or light sensitivity can create headaches for light-sensitive people. LEDs create amber, red, green, or blue light when converting light into white light. The whiter the LED light is, the bluer light it creates. Over-exposure to blue light can strain your eyes and create headaches.

Now you might wonder if it is harmful to you or not. Worry no more, we are here to discuss everything about LED office lights. We will also discuss which LED lights can trigger your headache and which LED light can help you with your migraine.

Plus, we will give you some excellent LED lighting tips to make your office more comfortable for work.

So, let’s get started.

Why Do LED Lights Hurt My Head?

LED lights are energy efficient and durable, these characteristics make them best suited for office lightning. Though LED lights are a great source of bright lighting and also help with saving some extra bucks on the electricity bill, they can cause pain for some people. I repeat, only for some selected people.

People with Photophobia or light sensitivity cannot tolerate bright light. Bright light triggers their light-sensitive cells thus starting this unbearable headache for them, which is also known as migraine. If you are light sensitive, there might be a good chance that sitting next to a bright LED light can trigger your photosensitivity.

This can cause an unpleasant experience for you and also harm your productivity. Only people with migraine can understand how bad it feels when headaches start.

To understand why LED lights hurt your head, you need to understand how they work. When emitting light, LED creates amber, red, green, or blue light. These lights are not visible to the human eyes because of the light spectrum.

Among these lights, the blue one is harmful to the human eyes. This blue light is not only emitted from the LED, but it can come from computer screens, smartphones, other electronic devices, etc.

So, because of some blue light-emitting LED lights, your head hurts and the monstrous headache starts.

Visible Light Spectrum

The visible color is determined by the wavelength of light, which is directly related to frequency and energy. The ultraviolet and infrared regions of the electromagnetic spectrum merge into the borders of the visible light spectrum.

Ranges of these different colors are listed down below.

Color	Wavelength (in nm)
Red	625 – 740
Orange	590 – 625
Yellow	565 – 590
Green	520 – 565
Cyan	500 – 520
Blue	435 – 500
Violet	380 – 435

Most light we see with our eyes is white light, which contains a lot of these ranges or other wavelengths. There are basically two types of blue lights on the visible spectrum and they are-

1. Beneficial blue light
2. Harmful blue light

Blue light has shorter wavelengths and is more energetic than other colors. Beneficial blue light is located at the 465-495nm range on the visible light spectrum, and it looks blue turquoise in color. While harmful blue light is sitting at the 415–455nm range on the visible light spectrum.

Understanding The LED Light Color

Choosing the right light color is as important as choosing the right light. LED lights are great energy saver meaning it consumes less electricity. Because it consumes less energy its saves you a huge amount of money in the long run. Plus, the life span of these lights is pretty good, so they can give you service for a long time.

You might be thinking about the substitutes for LED because they emit blue light. But would you believe me if I say that the substitute for LED light is LED light itself! Pretty confusing huh?

LED lights just don’t come in different shapes, they also come in different colors too. So, it’s pretty easy for you to choose them from their color varieties according to your comfort. They are user-friendly, you can use them any way you want. They are also great for decorating.

Color temperature is measured in Kelvin. And LED lights come with these color temperatures.

• Extra Warm White – 2800k color temperature
• Warm White – 3000k color temperature
• Cool White – 4000k color temperature
• Daylight – 5000k color temperature

These color temperatures can provide you with the best-lit comfortable lighting for your office. Look out for color temperatures when buying lights. Besides these color temperatures, there are other visible spectrum lights that can help you with setting up the lighting system.

Do Green LED Lights Help Headaches?

Some researchers found that, while blue light can make headaches worse, a beam of green light can help you reduce them by up to 20 percent. You might ask why green light. Green lights emit a narrow band of green light that is not that intense compared to other bands.

Researchers from Harvard Medical School have discovered that exposing migraine sufferers to a little green light beam considerably lessens their photophobia and can lessen the intensity of their headaches. As green is the color of nature, it always helps us.

Blue and red lights produced the most signals in both the retina and the cortex, while green lights produced the least. This mild beam of green can help you with reducing eye strain and headache. So, the answer is yes, green LED light does help with headaches.

Best LED Light Color For Headaches

It is scientifically proven that green light helps reduce migraine while other rays like amber, white, and blue can trigger headaches and it can also increase the intensity of migraine. Headaches are triggered when a photo-sensitive person is exposed to bright light.

Studies have found that mild colored lights can reduce eye strain and it also helps with the headache. Red, orange, and amber light rays can also cause or worsen migraine. However, they are less severe than blue light. The only green light has been shown to have a lower impact on migraine pain.

Many therapists even provide green therapy to soothe the eye and help with migraine. You can choose other mild-colored LED lights to help you light your office. These lights will add a new dimension to your office, and they will also create a comfortable workspace.

Comfortable LED Lighting Setup For Office

Office lighting is essential for employee health and well-being, as well as efficiency and performance. The type of lighting used in workplaces has been scientifically proven to influence employees’ work, mood, and overall health.

You might think only interior design can help you create a comfortable setup. But the interior design will not solve every problem. Interior design can make everything look organized while the lighting setup can help you gain more productivity.

After all, productivity is our topmost priority. Productivity comes easily with comfort. You don’t want your employees to suffer from migraine or headaches leaving all the work behind.

Here are some things you can do to set up LED lighting in your office comfortably to avoid headaches.

• Use LED light panels in corners to brighten the corners.
• Decoratively using ceiling panels will distribute the light and it will also increase the sensitivity.
• Don’t put brightly lit lights in front of office desks.
• Don’t install light directly facing towards you, change the direction.
• Use green candidly led light in a corner, this will create an aesthetic look plus it will help the employees to relax a bit during work.
• You can use more green lights in the restrooms where the employees can rest during work.
• Use a desk lamp. Desk lamps are your best friend in this scenario. A desk lamp with lids can give you an ample amount of light without harming your health.
• Use lights more dispersedly manner. Meaning does not focus in a formal manner, change the direction of lights as much as you want. It will also create an optical illusion making the whole office look classier. 

How To Use LED Color Lights In Office?

Buying LED color lights are not just enough to reduce headache or migraine, it is also crucial to set them up. Right light on the right spot can save your work and increase productivity. Remember, productivity increases when people can work comfortably.

Here are some tips to set those LED color lights in your office.

1. If you have a daylight-colored LED light, place it in the middle of the room. Use lids to control the brightness, lids can decrease the harsh bright light.
2. If you have a warm white colored LED light, use it on a side of your desk, this will help you see without straining your eyes and without triggering a headache.
3. You can use extra warm white lights in the lounge or the corridor to give it a more comfortable and welcoming look.
4. Use green lights in restrooms where employees can take a rest. You can also use it on the ceilings to create an illusion.
5. Cool white colored lights are ideal for presentation rooms, where people need an ample amount of light without getting distracted.

Best LED Lighting For Computer Work

We already know that computer screens and other electronic devices emit blue light if you work at a desk for hours our suggestion would be that you should wear blue cut glasses that can save your eyes from the harmful blue ray emitting from computers and such.

 Imagine you are working on your computer which is already emitting blue light plus your desk lighting is also emitting blue light. This excessive amount of blue light can strain your eyes. It can also create muscle tension making the whole experience unpleasant for you.

While you are on your desk, try to dim the LED lights swinging from the ceiling. Wear blue cut glasses to protect your eyes. You can keep a green light lamp beside you to help you work without any blockage or frustration.

Keep the brightness at a tolerable limit, both the computer and the lights. Adjustable LED lights are best to use for this purpose. You can adjust the brightness according to your needs. Also, while buying lamps, try to look out for adjustable ones with adjustable stands. This will let you work easily.

Wrapping Up

Over-excessive and too bright LED lights can strain your eyes, and trigger headaches and migraine. While at work, your priority should be confirming the comfortable workspace for your employees and yourself. LEDs are great options for any space, whether it be home or office.

It can help you save huge bucks in the long run. Buy LED lights according to your comfort, if comfort is your priority, then you will be amazed to see how fast all the work is done.

Hope you understood how LEDs work and how they can change your life forever with those amazing color schemes and varieties.