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Ask HN: I get headaches. What sensors can I get to collect data about them?

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Re: Ask HN: I get headaches. What sensors can I get to collect data about them?

#11
I don't personally get headaches that often, but my mother and sister both do. My mother gets cluster headaches - tension headaches plus migraines, normal headaches, and sinus headaches on top of it. My sister gets migraines. Extended family has also been plagued. I fully urge you to figure out the root cause and seek medical help. I don't know if sensors will help with some (most) of these.

I fully suggest keeping track of when you get headaches, including what you were doing when you noticed it. Might keep track of daily activities as well.

The following are things that I know can trigger headaches. Obviously not all-inclusive:

1. Poor eyesight or other eye strain. Normal folks will get eye strain reading too-small text or staring at a computer screen. 2. Stress, anxiety, or depression: The muscles tense up, causing headaches. Massages help my mother, as do muscle relaxers and/or anti-anxiety medicine. 3. Sinus problems and/or allergies. 4. Dental problems. 5. Scents from various things or chemicals 6. Lack of sleep, sleep apnea, or other sleeping issues 7. High blood pressure (pharmacies and wal-marts often have machines to test, and I'd test often for a few weeks) 8. Food sensitivities 9. Neck strain (posture or medical). 10. Dehydration (easy to check) 11. Changes in weather. 12. Random viral or bacterial infections. 13. Low vitamin D. I personally had this happen, among other things. 14. Smoking or living with a smoker 15. Dry nasal cavities. You can use a saline nasal spray for this. I recommend disposables since they are sterile each time you open them (less chance of mold, etc). 16. Hormones. This might be more for women, especially with PMS and/or menopause. I'm not sure how it happens in men.

Re: Ask HN: I get headaches. What sensors can I get to collect data about them?

#12
post #7
post #5

Caffeine is the number one cause of headaches. It causes the arteries to constrict, lowering blood flow to the brain. Other than that, there's lots of things that can be measured. 1. Sleep. Fit bit will work, but more importantly is a pulse oximiter that measures oxygen intake through the night. If you're not sleeping well, apnea may be causing your headaches. You would see this by an oxygen drop below 88. This will…

> 60 hertz flickering lights, bad eyesight, are all causes of eye strain. If that's the case, it's funny we would choose to use 60fps for games. Shouldn't that have a similar affect with flickering between scenes? Or actually I guess the new scene replaces the old scene rather than going dark in between like what happens with a flickering light

More dedicated gamers don't actually use 60hz monitors. I personally use a 155hz IPS monitor but there are 240+hz TN panels for gamers out there.

All pros use at least a 144hz panel.

Re: Ask HN: I get headaches. What sensors can I get to collect data about them?

#13
post #7
post #5

Caffeine is the number one cause of headaches. It causes the arteries to constrict, lowering blood flow to the brain. Other than that, there's lots of things that can be measured. 1. Sleep. Fit bit will work, but more importantly is a pulse oximiter that measures oxygen intake through the night. If you're not sleeping well, apnea may be causing your headaches. You would see this by an oxygen drop below 88. This will…

> 60 hertz flickering lights, bad eyesight, are all causes of eye strain. If that's the case, it's funny we would choose to use 60fps for games. Shouldn't that have a similar affect with flickering between scenes? Or actually I guess the new scene replaces the old scene rather than going dark in between like what happens with a flickering light

Apologies for not seeing your post until just now.

Back in the day, The multi-sync CRT's would sync VBLANK[1] to the power line if the screen was at 60hz. If a fluorescent tube overhead was also 60hz, the flicker became unavoidable and caused many an office worker a migraine headache. To avoid this issue, graphics cards and monitors started syncing at 85hz.

With an LCD panel at 60hz, the backlight is not flickering, and the screen itself is not vanishing off the display like it is on the CRT.

The reason to use 120hz and higher these days is to prevent motion blur. [2]

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vertical_blanking_interval

[2] https://www.cnet.com/news/ultra-hd-4k-tv-refresh-rates/

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