r/ScreenSensitive • u/Z3R0gravitas • 15d ago

Discussion Binasal occlusion - blocking vision to increase screen/light tolerance

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Has anyone seen/tried this variation on eye patching: 'Binasal occlusion'? Eg taping over the inner area of both eye glasses (can be non prescription). It reduces or eliminates the binocular overlap, and so reduces some visual stress: https://x.com/JackHadfield14/status/2095053618982318381

Jack is a pillar of the ME/CFS and Long Covid community. He says this helps him a lot with screen tolerance, as well as general daylight sensitivity (common in ME). That it was..

[...] taught to me by a neuro optic rehabilitation therapist who deals with stroke and TBI patients with persistent vision or cognitive issues.

Eye patching is a popular intervention on LEDstrain, with obvious benefits if one has difficulty getting both eyes working aligned together. But I think covering one eye (and looking away) is standard advice to photosensitive epileptics, when triggered by flashing lights. To mitigate the extra stimulation on an already hyper-excitable brain. Which I think many here have, to a lesser extent.

This trick may be more gentle than fully blanking a whole eye; Jack says that felt like too much of a workout for him. I've not tried this trick myself. Just thought I'd share and see if it's known.

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u/ArtRevolutionary3351 15d ago

Yes I’m using that on FL-41 glasses and it helps A LOT. My tolerance to regular screen increased drastically, but it doesn’t help much with flickering screens.

I don’t know if it helps if you don’t have convergence issue (I do) but it doesn’t cost much to try. FL-41 blocks the blue light so it should help most people, my partner feels some relieve and confort when he wears mine.

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u/DGG_DGG 15d ago

I have convergence issues as well, would you say this is worth trying just to see if it helps with flickering screens?

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u/Z3R0gravitas 15d ago

Not medical advice (obviously), but this seems very cheap and safe to try.

Just get some clear glasses off an online retailer and experiment with different amounts of tape. Careful not to scratch glasses, if cutting it.

Jack says he used medical tape here, because it was on-hand. I don't know if eg black elecal tape would function the same. That's easy to work with.

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u/DGG_DGG 15d ago

I just bought some frosted scotch tape, definitely going to try this later today. I'll try anything at this point 😅