Those new energy-efficient light bulbs may be keeping your electricity bills down, but some people are reporting one unintended side-effect.


About 12 percent of Americans experience migraines. Some of those 36-million people are finding while they want to help save energy, it's becoming a battle with the bulb.
 
Wild temperature swings are just one of many migraine triggers for Terri Burchfield. Washington's weather often has her reaching for her medication. "It can be so severe that I literally crawl up into a ball and just can't move," said Burchfield.

Besides changing weather patterns Burchfield's discovered something else that can spark the severe pain: compact fluorescent bulbs.

"I noticed a lot of eye fatigue and eye fatigue for me is a trigger for migraine. It can lead directly into nausea and mixed with other triggers can trigger a very bad migraine," she said.

Burchfield had one of the energy efficient bulbs on her desk at work-and quickly removed it after the light's flickering bothered her.

That's a common complaint according to neurologist Marc Schlosberg.

"Migraine is not just head pain. Migraine is a whole syndrome," said Dr. Schlosberg. "One of the most important parts of this syndrome is sensitivity to light. So it can be sensitivity to glare. It can be sensitivity to flicker. It can be sensitivity to some-certain colors of light," he said."

Migraine experts say people who don't get the severe headaches don't see the flicker. A 60-watt energy-efficient bulb affected Burchfield's eyes while a much brighter 100-watt standard bulb did not.

She says she wants to do her part to save the planet, but not at the cost of her health. "My goal is to mitigate triggers. There's triggers I can control and there's triggers I can't control," said Burchfield."

Burchfield has no control over the U.S. government's new energy reform law. It's scheduled to effectively phase out most incandescent bulbs nationwide within six years. She and thousands of others like her, are wincing, anticipating all those headaches to come.

"It's just really hard to function. It hurts! It hurts everywhere!," she said.

Manufacturers say the newer bulbs have been improved. Sylvania says there is no scientific evidence showing that otherwise healthy people can get migraines from energy-efficient bulbs. Sylvania says it manufactures flicker-free light bulbs.