Sup guys, I´m Francisco (Xico.5871 GW2, Sorrow´s Furnace), and I´m a gaming ophthalmologist, if such a thing exists, i have a few tips for taking care of your eyes while gaming:
1. Illumination.
That´s right a bright room means that your pupil will be small, thus focusing all the light coming to the eye into the macula which is the center of the retina which has the more color photo receptors In obscure environments your pupil is more open, and the light stimulates other photo receptors that don´t help in the color vision.
2. Monitor/TV Positioning
I play PC games mostly, a general rule for the the distance between the monitor an your eyes is the one arm rule, the monitor should be at a comfortable horizontal distance for viewing, which usually is around an arms length (sit back in your chair and raise your arm and your fingers should touch the screen). At this distance you should be able to see the viewing area of the monitor without making head movements. If text looks too small then either use a larger font or magnify the screen image in the software rather than sitting closer to the monitor.
There is a nice wiki article about positioning and angle for monitors.
http://en.wikipedia....iewing_distance
3. Prescription Glasses
If you have to wear prescription glasses, try to wear them at all times while gaming, this will prevent your eye, specifically the cilliary muscle, to over work trying to focus the images you are watching. If you use contact lenses always try to have a precription glass at home it will prevent you from having a dry eye syndrome, of course there are exceptions like people with keratoconus, and corneal transplant, that need contact lenses 24/7.
4. Gaming Glasses
Wait what??? stop inventing stuff dude…. I´m not, there is a type of filter that improves the way monitor beans enter the eye, thus improving your visual experience and giving your eyes more rest. http://www.gunnars.c...Gaming-Eyewear/. Is it mandatory to wear them? NO, but it´s nice to know you hava an option.
Wait!!!, I´m a nerd, I already use glasses. Don´t worry you can buy them with your prescription too.
5. Humidity
It´s a big problem in dry cities or during the winter/autumn, a lot of people have a dry eye syndrome, maybe you have it too, it kicks in after a while of gaming or being in front of a monitor, the thing is, when we play, we forget to blink, and our tear film, evaporates easily if we keep our eyes open without blinking, so we have a few options here:
Ambient Humidifiers http://www.coolest-g...usb-humidifier/ (OMG how cool is that!!)
Artificial Tear Drops every 6h
Take breaks every hour of gaming (I know it´s hard for us)
Or simply blink more.
6, Color Blind Folks (Daltonism)
I´m pretty sure that if you have this condition, you already know what i´m a about to say, but in case you don´t there is an option in some games regarding this condition, you just have to turn the color blind mode on in video options, for the game to change some color in some of the effects of the environment.
7, If you are a parent
My kid will go blind if he plays a lot!!! OMG!!, He/She wont, trust me, you just have to make sure to take him to an ophthalmologist before age of 5, to see if he has to wear glasses to properly stimulate the retina.
Hope you find it useful, and if you have questions, feel free to ask below, or send a pm, it can be about any topic.
See ya in game.
