The Great American Eclipse of 2017 may have taken over social media, but according to Mashable, sun worshippers are starting to feel the after-effects of the astronomical phenomenon and flooding search engines.
Culling data from Google, Mashable found that a huge chunk of Americans feel like they've got some sort of eclipse-related headache and took to the handy search engine to find out why their heads are throbbing after all the excitement.
Following today's eclipse, Google Trends found that "solar eclipse headache," "seeing spots," and "eyes hurt" all had a huge spike in searches. Before the event, plenty of scientists and physicians warned against looking directly at the sun. Add to that the fact that people from coast to coast rushed to get special eclipse glasses and then subsequently found out that some of them were actually fake and you've got a recipe for hypochondria like never before.
And now, the post-eclipse hypochondria. pic.twitter.com/4Za3CfLyvv
— Tom Kludt (@TomKludt) August 21, 2017
Is anybody else experiencing a headache after watching the eclipse? Seriously my head has been killing me ever since.
— ♠iCYONYX♠ (@IcyOnyx) August 21, 2017
💁🌘🔫
My dumbass used those solar eclipse glasses to look at the sun and now my eyes hurt and I have a giant headache fUCK
— angela (@angelavictoriaj) August 21, 2017
I made sure to wear my eclipse glasses the whole time and I still have a headache
— Edward Guillen (@G12Edward) August 21, 2017
Is a headache a side effect of the eclipse or am I actually going blind
— Shamaim (@ItsShamaim) August 21, 2017
Mashable adds that the search-term spikes are almost all coming from North America, so it's definitely eclipse-related. However, the site adds that there's really nothing to worry about. Being that most people are strapped to their desks all day, the headaches could be stemming from spending more time outside in direct sunlight, strained necks, and wearing those wacky glasses for the first time. The glasses didn't seem to stave the headaches, however, since Twitter was full of complaints post-eclipse.
Plus, viewers could have strained their eyes by looking up at the sun with those special shades, so it could just be a case of eye strain. The best thing to do may be to quit the search-engine research and self-diagnoses altogether and give those delicate peepers a bit of a break.
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