Feel like eye strain from MacBook Air M1 has damaged my life

[lokijupiter]

Forgive the hyperbole, but I have searched for ages for the cause of my headaches, fatigue and facial inflammation. I looked at everything from vitamin D deficiency to thyroid issues. All tests came back normal.

I began to realise that the pain, tiredness and inflammation were mainly coming from the eye area. Until I read up on it, I never realised that eye strain could cause nasty symptoms and I also read up on 'Cybersickness'.

I recently bought an external monitor and I no longer feel a wreck after only 10 minutes like when I was looking at my MacBook Air M1.

I am not saying the Air M1 has caused all the problems in my life, but the symptoms have felt like being constantly 'unwell'. I am unsure of the cause: temporal dithering, PWM or motion sickness. All I know is I feel better with the external monitor.

Where do I go from here? I will continue to use the external monitor but I sometimes have go out to work, which will require me to look at my MacBook again (which I am dreading). Suggestions welcome. Is it worth giving the Air M2 a try?

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

M2 doesn’t have PWM so if that’s an issue it could be worth a shot. I would be curious what other devices you had.

 

[Isamilis]

Forgive the hyperbole, but I have searched for ages for the cause of my headaches, fatigue and facial inflammation. I looked at everything from vitamin D deficiency to thyroid issues. All tests came back normal.

I began to realise that the pain, tiredness and inflammation were mainly coming from the eye area. Until I read up on it, I never realised that eye strain could cause nasty symptoms and I also read up on 'Cybersickness'.

I recently bought an external monitor and I no longer feel a wreck after only 10 minutes like when I was looking at my MacBook Air M1.

I am not saying the Air M1 has caused all the problems in my life, but the symptoms have felt like being constantly 'unwell'. I am unsure of the cause: temporal dithering, PWM or motion sickness. All I know is I feel better with the external monitor.

Where do I go from here? I will continue to use the external monitor but I sometimes have go out to work, which will require me to look at my MacBook again (which I am dreading). Suggestions welcome. Is it worth giving the Air M2 a try?

Second this, though I am not as bad as yours, in my case, about 30 minutes before I start feeling dizzy (mine is MBA Intel 2020).
I finally got iPad Pro 11” (plus Magic Keyboard) to work on mobile (Office 365), while the MBA stay docked with external monitor. The screen is much better, can work on it for hours.
I am also looking for the new MBA (as its screen was reported no PWM) - but haven’t chance to see it in person.

 

[lokijupiter]

M2 doesn’t have PWM so if that’s an issue it could be worth a shot. I would be curious what other devices you had.

I cannot remember exact details, but pretty sure before the MacBook Air M1 I used a MacBook Pro 13" from 2018, and before that another Pro (I believe 2015-2016). Before then I used a Sony VAIO for a while. I have had trouble with all of those laptops (varying degrees of intensity), and only the external monitor I recently bought has given me any sort of relief.

Yes I am tempted to give the MacBook Air M2 a shot - my MacBook Air M1 could have had a couple more years of use left, but I am willing to try anything to keep the symptoms at bay. My fear is that I will try the M2 and have the same problem, perhaps if it is not a PWM issue (not sure what else it could be!), though I could return it.

 

[lokijupiter]

Second this, though I am not as bad as yours, in my case, about 30 minutes before I start feeling dizzy (mine is MBA Intel 2020).
I finally got iPad Pro 11” (plus Magic Keyboard) to work on mobile (Office 365), while the MBA stay docked with external monitor. The screen is much better, can work on it for hours.
I am also looking for the new MBA (as its screen was reported no PWM) - but haven’t chance to see it in person.

Is it a lack of PWM on the iPad you use which helps?

 

[Isamilis]

Is it a lack of PWM on the iPad you use which helps?

Not really sure. But iPP has better display (promotion?), which made me less dizzy compared to MBA and my iPad Air 3.

 

[Odessa]

m2 air give me eye strain too... the screen has some shimmering effect documented here, i don't know if it is temporal dithering or something else, but it makes my eyes red. I tried a bunch of options in accessibility and display settings to no avail.

 

[neo_cs193p]

FWIW, I feel the M2 MBA screen is much less straining to my eyes than my M1P 16" MBP. At first I thought it was the over-saturated colors on the MBP. Or the sheer amount of light coming through the much larger screen surface. But then I also tried out the 240fps slo-mo iPhone camera experiment to check out screen flickering on the laptops and while the MBP shows flicker at lower brightness settings (6 bars or less), the MBA showed no signs of flickering. To me, the M2 MBA is a less fatiguing device, especially in a dark room. I can comfortably use it for hours. FWIW when I used the M1 MBA, I felt it was somewhere in the middle, not too good and not to bad, from this point of view.

 

[lokijupiter]

m2 air give me eye strain too... the screen has some shimmering effect documented here, i don't know if it is temporal dithering or something else, but it makes my eyes red. I tried a bunch of options in accessibility and display settings to no avail.

Where do you go from here? I am hesitant to move from Apple devices as I am so used to them, so I might try the other poster's approach of using an iPad Pro with magic keyboard.

 

[lokijupiter]

Hi all, FYI this is the external monitor I am using: https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B08R3YN83L/ref=ppx_yo_dt_b_asin_title_o02_s01?ie=UTF8&psc=1

It's not particularly fancy (at that price) compared to others, but somehow it is giving me relief. Any idea why? I am thinking maybe the "anti flicker" which suggests it's a PWM issue for me.

 

[Sheepish-Lord]

Btw, the Notebookcheck website test devices for PWM so maybe looking up devices you’ve used or currently use could help for trend analysis. Their search feature is decent albeit a little out looking.

 

[Graham Caracas]

"Where do I go from here?"
Ever think of going to a doctor?

 

[kiddlattimer]

Second this, though I am not as bad as yours, in my case, about 30 minutes before I start feeling dizzy (mine is MBA Intel 2020).
I finally got iPad Pro 11” (plus Magic Keyboard) to work on mobile (Office 365), while the MBA stay docked with external monitor. The screen is much better, can work on it for hours.
I am also looking for the new MBA (as its screen was reported no PWM) - but haven’t chance to see it in person.

Which generation ipad pro 11 did you use? I have the same issue.

Tablets aren't my favorite but I might need to give that a shot, I can't find a laptop or monitor that works for me so far.

 

[dab72]

Forgive the hyperbole, but I have searched for ages for the cause of my headaches, fatigue and facial inflammation. I looked at everything from vitamin D deficiency to thyroid issues. All tests came back normal.

I began to realise that the pain, tiredness and inflammation were mainly coming from the eye area. Until I read up on it, I never realised that eye strain could cause nasty symptoms and I also read up on 'Cybersickness'.

I recently bought an external monitor and I no longer feel a wreck after only 10 minutes like when I was looking at my MacBook Air M1.

I am not saying the Air M1 has caused all the problems in my life, but the symptoms have felt like being constantly 'unwell'. I am unsure of the cause: temporal dithering, PWM or motion sickness. All I know is I feel better with the external monitor.

Where do I go from here? I will continue to use the external monitor but I sometimes have go out to work, which will require me to look at my MacBook again (which I am dreading). Suggestions welcome. Is it worth giving the Air M2 a try?

Hi, I don't fully understand the science but sharing my personal experience. Would love it if anyone understands it better and can explain what might be going on technically. Also posting in a very helpful thread in ledstrain.org

Since I got the M1 MacBook Air (2020), I noticed my eyes would start hurting after a short session on my laptop. It was very frustrating - I can describe it as almost a burning sensation in my eyes that got worse over time (is this the feeling you got?). Felt very tired as well. I also noticed I started getting dry eye symptoms and if I used my laptop late at night, I could wake up with dry eyes in the middle of the night. This also happens to me with certain other devices, like my iPad Pro and iPhone 12.

However, I noticed that when I used some monitors, I did not get the eye symptoms anymore. In particular, I started using BenQ's eye-care monitor and could all of a sudden go hours and hours without any eye strain (I would turn the brightness all the way down from my M1 laptop so no light was coming out of the actual laptop screen). This worked great and gave me a chance to start clocking in a ton of hours again with no eye issues, but it still didn't give me a chance to use my laptop whenever I just wanted to take it to a coffee shop or just sit on the sofa.

So I tried a proposed solution on the forum with BetterDisplay app. I think my steps were: downloaded, I went to my settings > display settings and made sure that the dummy display was set to 'main display' and my macbook air display was set to 'mirror for dummy 16:9'. I also disabled True Tone and I set color profile to Adobe RGB 1998 per someone's suggestion.

Then in the BetterDisplay settings, I played around with a few resolution options. You can slide a resolution bar to the percent you want (it's located below brightness). I think I set it to 52%. I believe anything from 50-60% will feel relatively normal.

Once I did that, I tested it out and the burning eye feeling I was getting was immediately gone! Started an online course yesterday (spent 5+ hrs on my laptop) without any major discomfort. It's possible my eyes are sensitive to something that is not affecting other folks, but wanted to share my story just in case there's anyone else out there with similar conditions. Thanks!

 

[arcite]

Two things:

Turn off Font Smoothing --- OSX implements font smoothing, which adds extra pixels, making fonts bolder...but with the side effect of making them less sharp. Download an app like "Font Smoothing Adjuster.app" - turn off font smoothing. It's magic.

Next, turn on True Tone.

Those two quick adjustments make the Macbook Air 15 perfect for me.
Other things to try; make sure you're not getting lots of light reflecting off the screen.

As confirmed by notebookreview, there is no PWM on macbook air. Different story for the 14/16; which uses a different display tech

 

[jakespeed]

I'm curious for those that struggle with these screens do you run the native resolution (for Airs that's one step from down) or the "default" resolution? I have had pretty bad eyesight since I was young, but for me I have always noticed that the more I push above about 120dpi (or equivalent) for laptops or around 100dpi for Desktop monitors the more eye strain I get. I heave learned to just find those sweat spots ( even if it fits less) takes care of the string of staring at these screens for many hours.

 

[Saturn007]

Started an online course yesterday (spent 5+ hrs on my laptop) without any major discomfort

My optometrist cautions against ever doing that! There's a great rule for eyes: 20-20-20. Every 20 minutes, take a break and stare at things 20' away for at least 20 seconds. It's also a good time to get up and walk around, stretch the legs, and get the circulation going and get a bit of exercise in.

I'm curious for those that struggle with these screens do you run the native resolution (for Airs that's one step from down) or the "default" resolution?

Count me in on this question, too. It's often not mentioned in many posts raising legitimate concerns about laptop display impact on our eyes, but could be a big factor!

 

[JayKay514]

Forgive the hyperbole, but I have searched for ages for the cause of my headaches, fatigue and facial inflammation. I looked at everything from vitamin D deficiency to thyroid issues. All tests came back normal.

I began to realise that the pain, tiredness and inflammation were mainly coming from the eye area. Until I read up on it, I never realised that eye strain could cause nasty symptoms and I also read up on 'Cybersickness'.

I recently bought an external monitor and I no longer feel a wreck after only 10 minutes like when I was looking at my MacBook Air M1.

I am not saying the Air M1 has caused all the problems in my life, but the symptoms have felt like being constantly 'unwell'. I am unsure of the cause: temporal dithering, PWM or motion sickness. All I know is I feel better with the external monitor.

Where do I go from here? I will continue to use the external monitor but I sometimes have go out to work, which will require me to look at my MacBook again (which I am dreading). Suggestions welcome. Is it worth giving the Air M2 a try?

Hey - you haven't mentioned if you wear glasses or contacts or have any sort of vision issues to begin with.

I'll note a few things that may cause the issues you describe.

- Vestibular (inner ear) disorders. This causes dizziness / nausea in response to movement (often, scrolling can trigger this, as well as movement in video games, VR, etc).
- Astigmatism (refractive error in the lens of the eye)
- Nearsightedness - if undetected, can cause eyestrain and forehead/facial muscles to strain as you struggle to focus
- Vertical Heterophoria - one eye is slightly higher than the other. This may not be detected in a standard eye exam so your ophthalmologist has to be looking for it. (This is, weirdly, often common in people diagnosed with ADHD.)
- Poor Ergonomics - your device screen is too close, too far, or is not at a height which prevents eyestrain. The rule of thumb is that your eyes should be aligned with the top edge of the screen, and you should be at around 20-24" distance from it.
- Font / resolution settings. Yes, it's possible to manually set your screen to a 1:1 pixel ratio, which will make the type very very small in exchange for a much larger desktop, but... it's not recommended.

As mentioned earlier, the 20-20-20 rule is really good. I use a small timer to block out 20-minute intervals of work so I'm not straining my eyes / neck over extended periods.

 

[rocketbuc]

Hey - you haven't mentioned if you wear glasses or contacts or have any sort of vision issues to begin with.

I'll note a few things that may cause the issues you describe.

- Vestibular (inner ear) disorders. This causes dizziness / nausea in response to movement (often, scrolling can trigger this, as well as movement in video games, VR, etc).
- Astigmatism (refractive error in the lens of the eye)
- Nearsightedness - if undetected, can cause eyestrain and forehead/facial muscles to strain as you struggle to focus
- Vertical Heterophoria - one eye is slightly higher than the other. This may not be detected in a standard eye exam so your ophthalmologist has to be looking for it. (This is, weirdly, often common in people diagnosed with ADHD.)
- Poor Ergonomics - your device screen is too close, too far, or is not at a height which prevents eyestrain. The rule of thumb is that your eyes should be aligned with the top edge of the screen, and you should be at around 20-24" distance from it.
- Font / resolution settings. Yes, it's possible to manually set your screen to a 1:1 pixel ratio, which will make the type very very small in exchange for a much larger desktop, but... it's not recommended.

As mentioned earlier, the 20-20-20 rule is really good. I use a small timer to block out 20-minute intervals of work so I'm not straining my eyes / neck over extended periods.

Which app are you using for the 20-20-20 rule?

 

[Isamilis]

I used Rest Time. It runs pretty good, small footprints and not very intrusive.

 

[JayKay514]

Which app are you using for the 20-20-20 rule?

I actually use a small physical timer. If you search for "ADHD timer" on Amazon there's a wide selection. This particular one is sold with a few different variations / brand names.

Secura 60-Minute Visual Timer, Classroom Classroom Timer, Countdown Timer for Kids and Adults, Time Management Tool for Teaching (Blue & Blue)

Secura 60-Minute Visual Timer, Classroom Classroom Timer, Countdown Timer for Kids and Adults, Time Management Tool for Teaching (Blue & Blue)

www.amazon.com