That video about LED street lights causing migraines... I gotta ask

I was scrolling last night and saw this TikTok saying the new LED street lights in cities are giving people headaches. I live in Denver and honestly, my neighborhood got swapped over 6 months ago and I've been getting these weird tension headaches ever since. Could it really be the lights or is this just confirmation bias? Has anyone else noticed a change after their town switched?

3 comments

3 Comments

johnson.river1d ago

36 cities in Colorado have switched to these LEDs and I've read complaints popping up in local Facebook groups from Aurora all the way to Boulder. It's not just the flicker rate that gets me, it's the way the blue light blasts through my blackout curtains like a daytime sun. There's probably some confirmation bias mixed in, but when I drove through a neighborhood that still has the old orange sodium lights last week, my headache literally faded in 10 minutes.

robinp8915h ago

Hang on, I think the blue light thing might be a little overblown here. Newer LEDs actually have a cooler color temp but most cities dim them or use warmer tones in residential areas. That said, the flicker is definitely real - some LEDs have a fast pulse that our eyes pick up even if we don't notice it consciously.

thea6021d ago

The flicker messes with your brain, it's a real thing. I'm in Denver too and my headaches started right when they swapped our block over. Blue light at night is basically telling your brain it's daytime, no wonder people feel wrecked. Those old orange lights were gross but at least they didn't give me a pounding skull every single evening. My neighbor switched to orange-tinted glasses for walks and said it helped a ton. City just doesn't care because LEDs save them money on electricity bills.