Macbook Pro - Eye Strain/Headache/Nausea - What fixed it for me FINALLY
Ever since I bought my first Macbook 16 Pro, I've been torn between happiness and sadness.
Happy because this is an amazing device, the power, the build, the sound, the trackpad, everything is perfect. I was in love with the display too, until I started having problems with it. After 3 days of using it my eyes would literally start to hurt, my head would ache, it was followed by nausea for some reason. I have been in no way a visually sensitive person in the past, I have been using LED screens for the last decade and never had any issues. All of this is very hard to explain to the support team because according to them these problems aren't a 'technical problem' with the device itself.
I was tired of changing every setting there is for display, even got my eyes tested, bought specs for computer usage, none of it helped. I was foraging internet forums for a definite answer to what could be causing this. Learned some new words like PWM and Dithering. What was bugging me hugely was the inability of so many technically adept people to successfully associate this RARE issue (that A LOT of people are having) to something substantial and technical.
What finally worked for me is changing the color-profile on Macbook display setting to HDR Video (P3-ST 2084).
I have also disabled the font smoothing (https://www.macrumors.com/how-to/disable-font-smoothing-in-macos-big-sur/) I've turned on the dark mode. I will still avoid using the laptop at night because these issues are very serious when they happen at night. Don't wanna go blind in my 30s.
It's been a few hours since I made these changes and I am feeling instant relief for now.
Not sure how long it will last but it sure is a temporary solution for me.
If it does not get better I'm not sure what I could do. Apple India doesn't accept 14 day returns sadly.
I might have to sell this beautiful piece of engineering at a loss and move on with my life.
Everyone who is experiencing the issue, try this and confirm if it works for you. I know your pain.
