10/21/2025
Do you find it difficult to enter stores because you're light 💡 sensitive?
If so, you're not alone.
👉 At least 30 million Americans have light sensitivity, or photophobia.
Fluorescent lights, sunlight, LEDs, and LCD screens from computers or smartphones are just a few of the prominent sources that can cause or trigger migraines for those who are light sensitive.
Roughly 5% of the 2.7 million Americans with epilepsy (135,000) have photosensitive epilepsy - triggered by flashing lights and flicker.
👉 If you're a supermarket owner...what could this be costing you?
According to a 2024 survey by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average American spends roughly $6,000 per year on groceries, over half of which is spent on impulse buys like candy, wine, and coffee.
This means that if only 1% of the thirty million (300,000) people in the US who experience photophobic migraines rush in and out of the store to just grab what they need to avoid the deluge of toxic light...
👉 Stores could lose $1,116,000,000 in revenue from impulse buys.
If one includes the 135,000 potential US customers who have photosensitive epileptic seizures, this adds another $ HALF BILLION dollars in lost revenue.
Would you hang around and buy a coffee, or stroll down the aisles if you had a migraine?
I’d probably be coolin’ my noggin off in the ice cream freezer.
Two other ways stores could be losing money due to poor lighting are:
🔴 Lost employee productivity:
Migraine, along with related sensory symptoms, is the leading cause of global disability for people under 50 years of age.
This results in billions lost every year due to days missed and diminished productivity.
Dry eye, another leading cause of light sensitivity, can reduce work performance by as much as 30 percent.
🔴 Food degradation:
Intense light, including from LEDs, can trigger chemical reactions that break down vitamins, impacting milk quality and shelf life.
A 2021 study published in the Journal of Fungi found that as little as four hours of exposure to blue wavelengths at 450nm (the same as found in LEDs) increased the growth of a gray mold also known as bunch rot.
Luckily, there's a solution: full spectrum light by Philip Gotthelf of Tesla Induction Lighting Co., which does not flicker, and even makes products look more appealing, as they normally would under sunlight.
Learn more: https://romanshapoval.substack.com/p/leds-mold-and-seizures
Power ON with light ☀️
Power OFF at night 🔌
Soft Lights Foundation
Spectral Tuning: Improving mood & food
