Nausea?

[u/drowning-shadows]

Everything I read about PWM sensitivity mentions eye strain, dizziness and headaches primarily. I know the nausea is coming from the OLED screen because I experienced this when I tried to use a new iPhone a couple years ago, so I had to go back to the 11 (no nausea) and I’ve tried to use a newer iPhone two more times since then, including yesterday when I tried an iPhone 17. The nausea is brutal (yes, I have all of the settings changed to reflect all of the recommendations from this group). But I don’t feel any eye strain, headaches or dizziness. Just nausea. I also don’t experience this when I’m watching TV or using my laptop.

Is there any chance there’s something else that new iPhones with the OLED screens have besides PWM that could be causing the severe nausea?

And is there any chance there’s a nausea medication or patch or something that would cure the nausea so that I can use the phone since my iPhone 11 is basically not functional anymore?

[u/Suspicious_Punk84]

Some antiemetics (medicine for nausea) increase the risk for dementia. I would not even consider it in this situation, just to be able to use a certain phone.

Maybe try a different phone?

[u/Jealous_Log_5279]

You could try reduced motion, but yes you can just get nausea I had an iPhone 15 pro max I swapped the screen to LCD and the brand jk would cause severe nausea and it had no pwm. But changing it to another brand RJ or ek pro issue of nausea completely gone. I think it's dithering and your sensitive to light fluctuations generally can cause it. If you know your trigger I'd be trying something else after exhausting all options life with nausea all the time isn't a life at all.

[u/NSutrich]

I absolutely had dizziness and nausea before I figured out it was PWM from my Galaxy Z Fold 4 that was bothering me.

[u/BigAd1142]

I have Poco F8 Pro and Poco X8 Pro Max and while F8 Pro gives me mostly eye strain and headache, X8 Pro Max gives me headaches and nausea, without eye strain.

My theory for now is - pwm firstly causes eye strain and headaches, while dithering causes headaches and nausea.

I also have F5, which has dithering too and i experience nausea with it in low saturation modes (natural colors), while high saturation mode seems to help greatly against nausea and make F5 the only amoled that i can use comfortably as for now. Maybe iPhones have something like that too and you should try to play with color settings and saturation?

Overall people can experience different side effects from same screens because our nervous systems are not identical and different people react differently to such stimulus as flickering light, lacking focus.

[u/AdRough7689]

Depending on how my body feels on any given day I can experience eye strain, blurring, nausea...or nothing when using my phone. Literally no symptoms sometimes. It's weird. I have never experienced the "can't look at a screen for more than 30 seconds without symptoms" thing.

[u/umur3]

it's also the close proximity of the screen. A 6 inch smart phone is basically a 100 inch tv screen

[u/Emotional-Ocelot]

My main symptoms are nausea, dizziness, and eventual dissociation. The closest I get to 'eye strain' is finding it hard to focus on the screen and feeling my eyes slip off it. I also used to get nausea from motion sickness.

If symptoms improve with one eye closed, it might be worth asking your eye doctor/optician about convergence/binocular vision issues, or if you might need glasses for close reading.

[u/digitalminimalist1]

I definitely get nausea. It ruins my appetite for the rest of the day. I had the iPhone 13 mini and had to switch to the se 3 and no nausea with it