From Flicker to Fatigue: The Hidden Impact of Bad Lighting on Your Health

I live in London, and I can attest to the fact that grey skies and short winter days can mess with your mood–big time!

Waking up in the dark, dragging yourself out of bed to take your dog for a walk—even at 7 AM—feels impossible some days.

But the moment the sun peeks through, even if it’s freezing outside, your whole mood shifts.

I feel it recharge me instantly—like I’ve had a mini energy boost.

Now, imagine the opposite:

Walking into a space lit with harsh fluorescent lights.

You know the kind—the ones in old halls that seem to buzz just at the edge of your hearing and make you feel a bit queasy.

It’s proof that light isn’t just about seeing—it’s about how we feel, think, and even sleep.

What Is Light Flicker?

I never used to notice flicker. But now that I know about it, I feel it everywhere.

Take my recent airport experience.

My flight got delayed for five hours, and I was trapped in a waiting area with terrible, flickering overhead lights.

At first, I didn’t think much of it—just the usual travel exhaustion, right? But after a while, I noticed it:

• That dull headache

• The creeping eye strain

• The mental fog

It wasn’t just the delay that drained me—it was the lighting.

And here’s the thing:

Even if you don’t consciously notice flicker, your brain does.

How Flicker Affects You (Even If You Don’t See It)

Flicker happens when the brightness of a light fluctuates rapidly.

If you’ve ever tried to record a video of a TV or computer screen and noticed those odd flickering bands, that’s flicker in action.

Even though our eyes might not register flicker directly, our brain processes those constant micro-changes as stress.

It’s like background noise that your body works hard to filter out—without you even realising.

And it’s everywhere:

• Cheap LEDs: Lower-quality LEDs often have inconsistent power supplies, causing rapid brightness changes.

• Older Fluorescent Bulbs: These flicker at the same frequency as the alternating current powering them.

• Dimmer Switches: When not compatible with the light bulb, dimmers can introduce uneven electrical flow, increasing flicker.

Why Is Flicker Bad for Your Health?

Now imagine the constant stress flicker causes your body—a stressor you don’t consciously notice but that’s always there.

Here’s what it does:

1️⃣ Headaches and Eye Strain: Flicker forces your eyes to adjust constantly, leading to fatigue and discomfort over time.

2️⃣ Mental Fog and Fatigue: Your brain’s constant filtering of flicker drains energy, leaving you feeling tired or less focused.

3️⃣ Worsened Sensitivity: For individuals with neurological conditions like migraines, epilepsy, or autism, flicker can trigger symptoms or intensify discomfort.

4️⃣ Circadian Disruption: Poor-quality artificial lighting, including flicker, confuses your internal clock, disrupting sleep and hormonal cycles.

Think of flicker as a hidden stressor—one your brain works overtime to ignore, but at a cost to your overall well-being.

In a future post, I’ll break down how natural light regulates our body’s internal clock, why artificial light is disrupting your hormones, and how to create a lighting setup that works with your body—not against it. Be sure to subscribe!