Does anyone else start to feel light-headed in supermarkets?

[dreamylove]

The other day I was in Costco and around 30 minutes in I started to feel quite light headed and kind of spaced out. It felt like when you are zoning out and day dreaming except I couldn't snap myself out of it so was walking around in this day dream-like state trying to navigate my trolley around people that I could see but couldn't focus on if you know what I mean. I soon forgot about it as soon as I was outside I felt normal again.

Then a couple of a days later I was in Tesco. Again, I was fine for around 30 minutes and then started to get the same zoned out kind of feeling and start to be a little irritable as I want to hurry up and leave. I am ok and both times the family members I were with did not notice anything I just felt a bit slow when trying to navigate the trolley around people and the aisles and when packing the shopping at the till. Again, as soon as I left I was fine.

Since then I can recall feeling like that in Ikea and sometimes when clothes shopping in, e.g. Primark. However it is always in shops I am in for quite a while and is around the 30 minute mark that I start feeling like that.

I think it may be either a reaction to the fluorescent lighting or perhaps nervousness at being in crowded shops? I was wondering if anyone else ever feels like this?

It could be minor crowd anxiety, but my first thought was the fluorescent lighting as you mentioned. I, and my son, find it almost intolerable. It makes my head go crazy after a while. I'm sure it's one of the leading reasons I hate shopping.

I get this - twilight zone! Loads of time can elapse. Even more so in shopping centres. Sensory overload combined with routine/familiarity, perhaps.

There is a thing called Sick Building Syndrome!
en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sick_building_syndrome

www.nhs.uk/conditions/sick-building-syndrome/

I shop online, except if fancy a browse when it’s quiet, or when have only a few things to get.

Super markets trigger migraines for me at the 30 minute mark. I dont know whatvit is so am watching with interest

Yep, I get this too, I think it’s a combination of the fluorescent lights and sensory overload from noisy/busy environments. We live round the corner from a decent sized supermarket so I nip over and do the big shop as soon as it opens at 7am on a Saturday; it’s really quiet and I can go quickly through the tills with no queueing which helps a lot.
I get it in big airports too which makes going on holiday a bit of an ordeal! A pint in departures usually takes the edge off.

Yes, from stimulus overload, the brightest lights, music, conversations, people mixing in all different directions and my own task to perform. I bow west headphones Sens keep my head down if I have to go in. Online shopping is brilliant!

This always happens to me when I’m pregnant! I end up fainting because of it! X

The lights do my head in - literally - I have special glasses from the opticians which have made a great difference. Blue light filter and anti-glare lenses. He said light sensitivity can be an issue "at my age" yet he still lives - it came on very suddenly though, I was thinking it was something more serious medically as my head hurt so much but the glasses have solved it.

As everyone else said, it is usually a combination of things. I get it badly when I am hot, so now I have to take my coat off as soon as I get into shops, which is a pain. I last about 10 minutes in HMV, that's my worst place for it.

Yes me! There was one particular one in NZ that used to make me feel so unwell, almost like I was going to pass out at any second. I think it might be the lighting.

@Aquamarine1029 It is hard for me to distinguish between anxiety and fluorescent lights as the potential cause as I only ever encounter fluorescent lights in "stressful" situations (busy shops or my university classrooms, labs and offices).

For me it’s definitely the lights, if I am brewing a migraine it happens faster than usual but if I stay in that kind of lighting for long enough I get a migraine regardless.

It is the lighting. Also the building design - big supermarkets are designed with the ceilings sloping slightly towards the back - it's all designed to induce a feeling of light-headedness and slight panic, which will make you spend money quickly in your desperation to get out of there, and to make impulse purchases in this panicked state, thereby spending more money than you'd planned to.

There's a Danish marketing guy called Martin Lindstrom who has written about this. Here is an article in which he is mentioned, but I highly recommend googling him and reading his books - it will really help you avoid spending unnecessary time and money in supermarkets! I never go to big Tesco / M&S etc now.

www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/food/the-plate/2015/06/15/surviving-the-sneaky-psychology-of-supermarkets/

@Loopytiles Yes I think it may be sensory overload as I find I can't focus properly on my environment. I also recall when I look across the shop floor it just looks weird and almost fuzzy even though I know my eyesight is fine as I went to the opticians just last month.

@MrsMaryBOOface Wow, I never knew that it was an actual thing. I feel sorry for people who are constantly in a working environment that makes them feel like that, it is horrific. I wonder how widespread the problem with fluorescent lighting is, I wish we could limit its use as it is so common.

@Grasspigeons I have fortunately never suffered a migraine but it is interesting that your symptoms also begin at that 30 minute mark.

@YessicaHaircut Yes that makes sense, all the examples I can think of have been in busy, large shops.

@dudsville Yes that is exactly how I feel, however I have never consciously felt anxious and overwhelmed in busy shops but it almost like perhaps it is only expressed physiologically rather than psychologically if you know what I mean? I also always feel dizzy when using the tube in London which could be due to the sensory overload of it being loud, busy and hot and stuffy.

@HighNetGirth Yes I definitely get it worse when I am hot. So many times I have been on the tube or in a hot shop and had to quickly take my coat off as I think I am about to faint.

@onelostsoulswimminginafishbowl I have only noticed it in really large shops so I am curious if they have different lighting to the smaller supermarkets local to me, I'll have to have a look next time I'm in there.

@MrsSpenserGregson Oh my gosh, that is fascinating but also horrific that the shop environment is designed that way! I wonder how common it is to feel like this after 30 minutes in a supermarket.

I get stressed in places like this. I now have my headphones in with my fav music or an audio book. The difference that makes is amazing.

I got well and truly ripped a new one when I posted here that I felt awful in our nearest large Tesco's compared to the Waitrose. Almost exactly the same symptoms.

Well, I went there last week - and was fine.

The difference? They'd just changed their lights.

only when pregnant with #2! it was a sensory overload thing i think. all those flavours running through my brain 🤢

I get that in Ikea, but I always assumed it was a combination of the lighting and a lack of fresh air by the time you get part way around.

I get that sometimes, especially if I’ve been a bit under the weather. Never in Aldi though - their lights must be different. Certainly our local one is very differently lit to our local
Morrison’s, which is the one where I feel odd most frequently.

That article is both fascinating and slightly scary, MrsSpenserGregson!

I get this too!

It’s definitely not sensory overload for me, as I like being in crowds and busy places. I only get it in certain shops, department stores and shopping centres so I think for me it’s definitely to do with the lighting. I suddenly without warning feel lightheaded and although I might faint. I normally have to go out of the shop, sit down and have a drink/something to eat, and then within a hour start to feel ok again.

I wonder what the solution is?

another pregnant fainter in Sainsbury's here. Still gives me headaches. Hate the artificial light.

TKMaxx always makes me need a poo.

Yes!! I noticed several years ago that supermarkets could make me feel light headed and spaced out. I tried to correlate this with being tired or stressed, not having eaten, the lighting as previously mentioned but nothing seemed obvious and I kept my shopping trips to a minimum. One fateful day about four years ago, I recall being in the jam aisle at Morrison's and suddenly needing to grip hold of something that appeared solid as my vision was going hazy. The next thing I knew, I was on the floor with paramedics leaving over me and the jam aisle had been cordoned off .....

I was and am fine, it was called a tonic clonic seizure I think, I had various tests for epilepsy and relinquished my driving licence. I've been fearful ever since of it recurring and haven't been to a supermarket alone if I can help it.

So i really understand what you mean.

I don’t go to big shops like that

The constant activity gives me sensory overload. I find it hard enough to deal with busy stations.