Car dashboard light triggers migraine at night
I wanted to see if anyone else has had this problem and perhaps what they did to resolve it. I recently bought a new car, but didn’t know what the colour of the dashboard lights were until I already had it home for a few days since I don’t drive at night often. Unfortunately the lights are red. Really red! It instantly triggered my migraine and made driving impossible. I’ve tried calling the dealership but they say there is nothing they can do about the colour since it isn’t technically a defect.
Has anyone else stumbled into this issue and if so were you able to do something about it? Because other than just not driving at night, I don’t know what I can do. And I LOVE ❤️ my car otherwise, it’s just the dash lights….
Hi @Kvetka77,
I found this, but it will mean some work from you or a car savvy friend: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prwJ5LBPVbg. As far as the bulbs, you should be able to get them from the parts dept at the dealership, and failing that, there are lots of compatible after-market parts on Amazon. Saying that, it may also be wise to check and see if that would affect your warranty. -Warmly, Donna (team member)
Well now that's frustrating! I'm sorry you are going through this. I wonder if there is some sort of shield or film cover that is available to help diminish the lights?
Whatever you find out, please come back and share!
Wishing you a low pain day, Nancy Harris Bonk, Patient Leader/Moderator Migraine.com TeamI spoke with my dealership. Since my car is new and still under warranty, I can't do anything myself without causing negative issues with that warranty. They also said the dash lights in my car are not bulbs, they don't make cars like that anymore. The lights are generated by LED panels integrated into the dash itself. Thus, there is absolutely nothing they can do to change the red. The technician did mention that she thinks an acetate film of some sort laid across the cluster might help, but I'd have to be sure it didn't scratch the cluster glass or cause any other interference. The only other option would to be wear tinted glasses of some sort that could compenstate for night driving. In essence it will be a game of testing options to see if anything works. I just wish the dealership had mentioned this *before* I bought the car. But it's up there with the things that people without migraine do not need to consider. I still love my car otherwise.
, I did a little research and I thought this might be helpful - (I would need a handy-person to interpret lol, but hopefully you have one of those in your life). This is a response to a product question on Amazon: "Ok, so here is the off the spec sheet review. If you are doing a dash light conversion of an older vehicle, this is likely what you are looking for. LED's are dimmed in a completely different manner than standard light bulbs. LED's use very little power, and will operate at the same brightness over a wide range of voltages, which is why you cannot get your old school dimmer to work. The way to dim and LED is to use a PWM (Pulse Wave Modulation) type dimmer. There are tons of these types of dimmers available on Amazon for super cheap, but they do not use a 3 wire system. unless your car uses an isolated ground for the items you are tying to dim, you won't get those to work, because they do the PWM on the Negative side of their output circuits.
This unit outputs the PWM wizardry (it really just sends pulses of electricity to the circuit to provide the dimming) on just one positive output wire. In my case, I intercepted the dash light circuit at the factory dimmer connection points, and connected the Purple to the power side of the dash dimmer, and White to the dash lamp circuit, and the Black to ground. Super simple with a voltmeter, and a few minutes to crimp on the right connectors, and plug it in on my Datsun Roadster. it would be a bit more involved on a domestic car with the dash dimmer in the headlight switch, but you shouldn't need to carve up the harness to get it done either."
I hope that may prove helpful! - Warmly, Donna (Health-Union Team Member)
Thank you for the update. I'm sorry this is such a battler and hear how frustrated you are.
I wonder if glasses for night driving would be beneficial? I've not tried any and I do wonder if glare resistant glasses would help with the glare from the panel and oncoming car lights. We have this article on light sensitivity you may find interesting.
Please let me know what you think and I'm sending you pain free wishes, Nancy Harris Bonk, Patient Leader/Moderator Migraine.com Team Member
I have bad migraines every day. When I drive at night, I use the yellow glasses, and it takes off a lot of the glare and, that helps so much, enough that I can drive all I want at night. I still have to use my eye drops. Does your car have a dimmer for your car headlights? Most cars do. My car has an automatic one that I pre-set to what I want it to be. It is difficult to drive anyway when you have a terrible migraine, day or night. Best wishes for you. Hi
Thank you for sharing this with us. These are great tips! Would you mind sharing the brand of yellow glasses you find beneficial? Night driving is becoming more problematic for me as I age!
Sending you pain free wishes, Nancy Harris Bonk, Patient Leader/Moderator Migraine.com Team Member
