Sorry but I lost the original post and didn’t want to retype it all again....

I am very light sensitive due to Meniere's. Not all fluorescent bulbs affect me but many do. Decades ago there was a local Sear's store that DH and I would go to. I would become very uncomfortable in that particular store and we would quite often end up having some major disagreements and bickering just about every time we went there. It was our bad mojo store.

Some years later I began to suspect it was the lighting since i found other stores to be uncomfortable and lights that were flickering or about to go out to be unbearable. I tried to pass it off as more of a psychological/sensitivity thing than a physical one.

Now that I have been diagnosed I realize that all that was a precursor to where I am today. Not causative, just a sign of what was to come.

And that's one reason I don't have CFL's in my house, bring back incandescent bulbs! There is one location that has a flickering fluorescent that I always turn off at church, there is an exterior window in the room so the fixture is unnecessary.

Years ago, when I was working at a store I had to get tinted glasses for work. And I did not need glasses except for the lights.

Interesting esp since most of the walmarts I know have sky lights too so I'd think it would temper the effects of the fluorescent flicker.

Most mega stores around here have converted to LED tubes and skylights.

There are some complaints about the Ikea store having thousands of overhead lights, combined with hundreds of table lamps, kitchen chandeliers, etc.

Vertigo!!

Flickering lights trigger migraines for me.

Just to say, CFLs don't flicker. Fluorescent tubes do.

There is little difference between how a CFL and a linear (tube) fluorescent operate. They are essentially the same except for size and that the ballast is integrated into the compact fluorescent bulb above the screw in base. So both have flicker potential. So to say CFLs don't flicker and tubes do is not correct. Before most places switched over to LEDs I had to switch tables at restaurants many a time because of a flickering CFL in the light fixture hanging over the table.

Wow! Never thought of how lighting's possible effects. Very interesting!! Explains some things....

LEDs can flicker also, especially if the voltage or frequency is not exactly correct, and this can easily happen if you replace low voltage halogen with LED.

Interesting thing about those fluorescents is depending on it's light frequency you can be tanned by them. I had a hard time convincing one doctor that I was not going to a tanning salon. Why he would think I would only be tanning my face and forearms is beyond me but I was told to stop. Started using moisturizer with light UV protection.

Oh yes, the lights in big box stores and grocery stores used to trigger migraines for me almost instantly. Now they haven't for a long time. Maybe they've changed their lighting though it's still way too bright for me.

Husband had a really weird reaction at a grocery store with obviously flickering lights years ago. I made him go to the doc who thought maybe it was a TIA or some other neurological issue. He had all kinds of tests, including an MRI, and everything was normal and he has never experienced it again. I really think it was caused by the flickering lights.

For about 3% of people afflicted with epileptic seizures, these seizures can be triggered by exposure to flashing lights in the range of 5 to 30 hz. This condition is more prevalent in the younger patient and may reduce with age. I suppose there are some people who may become unsettled by stroboscopic stimuli.

That Safeway situation sounds good to me except for shutting down self-checkouts. That's counterproductive to me. I want to get in and out as quickly as possible, sort the things the way I want (so frozen is separate from pantry, etc) and waiting in line while others are checking out and the commotion with that, just doesn't make sense. Turn off that obnoxious music is the best thing to do afaic. And as a side point, I find it so laughable that people with Youtube channels have thought they're being "professional" by blasting music in the background of their videos and talking across the room to the mic on the camera... can't hear what they're saying, but they think they're being so "professional"! People are interesting creatures!

@cynic, shutting down the self check is a good idea as most people don’t know how to use them properly and the red lights are constantly going off.

Some stores are doing the sensatory or quiet time so that parents with autistic children or even autistic adults have an easier time shopping. Some in the autistic spectrum have problems with noise and lights.

It's a problem for me too. I was sensitive to flickering light for a long time (including sunlight flashing through trees while I was driving) but getting bitten on the back of my neck by a tick several years ago cranked my sensitivity up several notches. I go to Walmart wearing sunglasses and a baseball cap, but even so there are days when any exposure at all leads to an ocular migraine--and then probably more over the next few days.

Bright light will do it too. I prop foam board on some of my windows to keep from getting hit with direct sun. Sun on snow--or bounching off chrome on a vehicle--is the worst.

^^^ And the low angle of the sun in autumn can add to this. I don’t get the HA as often as I used to.

One thing I learned just recently is that fluorescent light can cause my face to flush. I used to wonder why my face got red when I played Scrabble at the library, and then one day someone mentioned that I was getting red so I might not want to play a second game. She said fluorescent lights do it to some people. I looked it up, and she was right.

I like self checkouts but Safeway's have the most annoying voice prompts. I wish they would just shut the sound off.

I meant to mention that a head injury--even an old one--can cause sensitivity to lights. A young man we know attended his senior prom this year but couldn't be in the room where the dancing was because they had the sparkling ball suspended from the ceiling. He's a football player who had more than one concussion in his high school career. Nasty sport.