Kingston University Pharmacy Student Charlie Talks about Irlen Syndrome

Hello, just balance you there on the books, ok. Right, I'm just going to talk to you today about something called 'Irlens syndrome', which is i-r-l-e-n-s. Irlens syndrome and how it affects me and the new glasses that I've received. So, Irlens Syndrome is something that often is linked with dyslexia, but it can be independent of dyslexia or dyslexics may not experience Irlens syndrome. And what it is basically is a sensitivity, a severe sensitivity to certain wavelengths of light. So it's the thing that's responsible for any visual disturbances, often described when reading typically dark writing on a white paper or just white lights in general. White lights contain all wavelengths of light of course and so those specific ones that someone with Irlens syndrome is sensitive to, can affect and cause visual disturbances. So I'll just show you the glasses quickly that I have, now Irlens syndrome is different for different people, so, for me, the wavelengths that I am sensitive to are somewhere in the medium of blue and purple and actually these glasses have five different layers so that it cuts out five specific wavelengths of light. So, as you can see, it kind of looks a bit like I am wearing sunglasses indoors, but you get used to it very quickly, very comfortable and it just basically cuts out glare for me. So behind the camera here I can see my computer and the white light is actually causing me to be uncomfortable and I use these now whenever I'm using the computer, watching the TV, studying, it's not just about writing on paper, it's anything that causes, that revolves around light and so, what happens is it makes my vision easier and it cuts out any disturbances so where before I didn't even realise that I was uncomfortable watching TV, I'd sometimes squint because of the brightness, now I've got these glasses, I realise what I've been suffering with. I started to look into this with my dyslexic tutor at Kingston uni because I was having trouble reading still, even after having help with my dyslexia. We then went to talk to a specialist optometrist who gave the diagnosis, but I never actually realised that I had a problem with computers and with the TV, I just thought that I was one of those people that gets headaches and migraines when I'm concentrating so, reading a book, watching TV, but now, when I look at the TV with my glasses on, all of a sudden it seems so much clearer. Nothing's happened to the picture, I haven't all of a sudden got a HD TV but it's just cutting out those wavelengths that are causing me glare, that's what it is essentially. It's like when you have a car's headlights shining in your eyes, it's like that to me and it's strange that I never actually realised how bad it was until I had a solution, which is one of the reasons why I'm so happy to have got these glasses and so there are also other things that you can do to help cut out this problem. I mean it may be that you don't need glasses but you do need some help when writing, so you can actually get, from a stationer's, different coloured paper, so here I've got green lined paper as you can see. I've also got different shades; you can get the same colour in different shades. I've also got blue, yellow's not so good for me but I tried it and so, you can get these in most main colours, either in a stationers, or specialist stationers, or you can get them online from specialists and it really helps, if for instance, you're not using a computer or anything and you don't really want to wear your glasses, you're just literally writing on paper, then you can use this paper for your studying. So if I was writing notes from the computer I would wear my glasses, but if I'm not then I might not necessarily need to use the glasses all the time, sometimes this paper is enough. And I don't always write in black, even on this paper, I like to use different colours, something for me, like an orange, a bright orange, would not, would not be very clear, I would not, especially on white paper, I would not be able to see that, but other colours work well. Green is a good colour for me and so, the key thing really is to experiment and find out what works best for you. Like, because my glasses are purple I didn't really think that green would be the colour for me, you know, it seems a bit 'out there', but actually green's a really good colour for me because it doesn't have the, it doesn't have the wavelengths that affect my eyes, so writing in green pen or dark green pen on green paper, actually some people would think, "well, green on green, that doesn't work," but for me it does and so the key thing about these things is, especially with anyone, even if you're not suffering with the condition, with studying it's all about trying what's best for you and really taking the time to experiment before you go rushing into something. So, whenever I'm writing notes now I use all this paper, my folders are full of it and it's great to have found what works for me. So I hope this has been interesting, even if it doesn't relate to you specifically and I hope that I've been informative. Thanks for listening.