Eye Docs: Game 10 Minutes, Break 10 Minutes to Avoid "Computer Vision Syndrome"
Eye Docs: Game 10 Minutes, Break 10 Minutes to Avoid "Computer Vision Syndrome"
June 2, 2008
Gamers should give their eyes a break, according to the Minnesota Optometric Association.
The group, representing 500 eye docs from the Gopher State has issued a press release suggesting that gamers, whether using consoles, handhelds, or PCs, take frequent breaks from the onscreen action.
MOA head Dr. G. John Lach commented:
Be sure there isn't glare on the screen. Gamers need to sit directly in front of the screen instead of at an angle. The screen should be below eye level, not above it, yet most people have their screens at the wrong level. Taking a frequent break is really important. The best thing to do is get up, and focus on as far-away object as possible. Try to follow the ten-ten rule: for every ten minutes of gaming, take a break of ten seconds.
The advice is intended to help gamers avoid Computer Vision Syndrome. Symptoms of CVS include eye irritation, dry eyes, headaches, pain in the eyes or surrounding facial muscles, squinting, excessive blinking, increased sensitivity to light and difficulty focusing.
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Posted 09/05/08 at 06:10am
Flamespeak: Lara Croft = Sex object, Fat Princess = making fun of women, Cooking Mama = women belong in kitchen.
Flamespeak: Lara Croft = Sex object, Fat Princess = making fun of women, Cooking Mama = women belong in kitchen.
Posted 09/05/08 at 06:09am
Flamespeak: You can't please feminists with any representation of women in video games, it seems.
Flamespeak: You can't please feminists with any representation of women in video games, it seems.
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:47am
gamepolitics: he works on his crusade from home. I expect he will be disbarred, but will continue his crusade
gamepolitics: he works on his crusade from home. I expect he will be disbarred, but will continue his crusade
Posted 09/05/08 at 05:46am
gamepolitics: I'm surprised people are taking that story so seriously... one of those oddball things. my choice of graphic is my commentary
gamepolitics: I'm surprised people are taking that story so seriously... one of those oddball things. my choice of graphic is my commentary
Posted 09/05/08 at 01:50am
Flamespeak: To be fair, if you dismiss video games as contributors to violence in youth, it is hypocritical to say they cause heroism.
Flamespeak: To be fair, if you dismiss video games as contributors to violence in youth, it is hypocritical to say they cause heroism.
Posted 09/04/08 at 09:21pm
Tarosan: @gamepolitics has he actually lost his job or is on the verge of being disgraced forever?
Tarosan: @gamepolitics has he actually lost his job or is on the verge of being disgraced forever?
Posted 09/04/08 at 09:21pm
HalfShadow: If either of you waste good music on him, I swear I will kill you.
HalfShadow: If either of you waste good music on him, I swear I will kill you.
Posted 09/04/08 at 09:19pm
Tarosan: I shall blare out "We are Champions" as soon as he gets sacked and post a celebration video on Youtube :P
Tarosan: I shall blare out "We are Champions" as soon as he gets sacked and post a celebration video on Youtube :P
Posted 09/04/08 at 07:45pm
King of Fiji: @Austin: Go try "I'm Going Slightly Mad" it describes Jack 's mind greatly. xD
King of Fiji: @Austin: Go try "I'm Going Slightly Mad" it describes Jack 's mind greatly. xD
Posted 09/04/08 at 07:25pm
Austin_Lewis: @King and Grizzam: I'm going to stand on my mansion's front porch with my Les Paul and Marshall half stack and play both.
Austin_Lewis: @King and Grizzam: I'm going to stand on my mansion's front porch with my Les Paul and Marshall half stack and play both.
Posted 09/04/08 at 07:17pm
ZippyDSMlee: gamepolitics: loseign the bar dose. mostly, hecan still sit in with other lawyers tho..
ZippyDSMlee: gamepolitics: loseign the bar dose. mostly, hecan still sit in with other lawyers tho..
Posted 09/04/08 at 06:51pm
gamepolitics: He has no job to lose...
gamepolitics: He has no job to lose...
Posted 09/04/08 at 06:16pm
King of Fiji: @GRIZZAM PRIME: Instead of the standard "We Are the Champions" might I suggest trying "Hammer to Fall" instead? :D
King of Fiji: @GRIZZAM PRIME: Instead of the standard "We Are the Champions" might I suggest trying "Hammer to Fall" instead? :D
Posted 09/04/08 at 05:49pm
GRIZZAM PRIME: Jack's disbarment...I already have the giant speakers and the Queen CD rigged up...
GRIZZAM PRIME: Jack's disbarment...I already have the giant speakers and the Queen CD rigged up...
Posted 09/04/08 at 04:40pm
Tarosan: I'm hoping Jack loses his job in two weeks... the stupidity in his posts is just well DUMB
Tarosan: I'm hoping Jack loses his job in two weeks... the stupidity in his posts is just well DUMB
Posted 09/04/08 at 03:18pm
ZippyDSMlee: Bannign is stupid,but regulating things for the use by the..er.. "mature" is not so bad.
ZippyDSMlee: Bannign is stupid,but regulating things for the use by the..er.. "mature" is not so bad.
Posted 09/04/08 at 03:01pm
ZippyDSMlee: SimonBob:and if he was drunk he would be a bad shot, at least at range(8+feet). 20+ proof needs to be reserved for 25ish+ year old while 5-12% beer and wine be approved for 18+.
ZippyDSMlee: SimonBob:and if he was drunk he would be a bad shot, at least at range(8+feet). 20+ proof needs to be reserved for 25ish+ year old while 5-12% beer and wine be approved for 18+.
Posted 09/04/08 at 02:59pm
ZippyDSMlee: SimonBob: why? a 6 pack or 2 would be enough to get anyone drunk, theres no point is banning the harder stuff. sipping the harder stuff in small shot glasses having about. 15oz of it is alot better than drinking 10 12oz cans in a row..... and if he wa
ZippyDSMlee: SimonBob: why? a 6 pack or 2 would be enough to get anyone drunk, theres no point is banning the harder stuff. sipping the harder stuff in small shot glasses having about. 15oz of it is alot better than drinking 10 12oz cans in a row..... and if he wa
Posted 09/04/08 at 02:53pm
SimonBob: You guys suck at this. The article says Gill drank "2 to 7 drinks a day, including the day of the shooting" and not one of you
SimonBob: You guys suck at this. The article says Gill drank "2 to 7 drinks a day, including the day of the shooting" and not one of you
Posted 09/04/08 at 02:53pm
SimonBob: countered me with "obviously they should ban alcohol." (And hey, I'm all for criminalizing anything over 100 proof.)
SimonBob: countered me with "obviously they should ban alcohol." (And hey, I'm all for criminalizing anything over 100 proof.)
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Game Politics and Game Politics logo are trademarks of the ECA.
Comments
Ten minutes, ten seconds, right in your quote. Fix up the headline, homeslizzle.
Genuinely good work on the site though. I enjoy the perspective very much.
I was hoping for 10 min. Work has a similar 20:20:20 rule (20 min, 20 sec break, looking 20 ft away). If it was 1:1 on work to break time, i'd be much happier.
Damn! I think I have this... :(
And yeh, headline and quote do not agree with each other. Altho if it is 10 mins gaming to 10 second break, then it sounds quite do-able ;) That's what... 1 minute every hour? a 24 minute break after an entire days gaming? Somehow I think the headline was right...
-- mostly harmless
Throw in some body stretches while you're resting - they do wonders of circulation, and they'll wake you up too
-The Bird
Well, you might not have these symptoms because you subconsciously take those breaks. Maybe you get up to go to the bathroom, grab a drink, look at the clock, etc.. That's the point of what the doctor is saying though, just small little breaks every 10 minutes is enough to keep from getting this syndrome.
--- "Life's short and hard, like a body building elf." -- The Bloodhound Gang
Do they care then about all the people that sit in a cube and stare at a computer 8 hours a day?
I was wondering the same thing. I'd say this isn't just exclusive to gamers; this would apply to people in office jobs as well.
Companies that employ a good chunk of their people in cube farms will often have classes on how to avoid computer-related injuries such as CVS or carpal tunnel sysndrome. On the other hand, gamers, especially young ones, won't necessarily have heard this from somewhere. Thanks GP for getting the word out!
---------------------------------
So speak I, some random guy.
But then they still build offices that have you looking up from a close-in monitor, to a close wall... so it doesn't really help.
Fortunately, I was moved into an area with a window, so I can glance out every now and then.
-- If your wiimote goes snicker-snack, check your wrist-strap...
Lucky you and your window :P
Unfortunately my office doesn't even have a table in their breakroom. My friend's office has an interesting office set up to get their programmers away from the computer for a much-needed break: putting a Wii in the breakroom.
I wish I could afford 10 sec....twitch shooters like UT3 don't even let me blink let alone take breaks, besides my eyes are already shot nothing I can do to help them anymore.
Yeah, but how long are the matches? I've played a fair bit of shooters myself, but usually the matches aren't longer than 10 minutes. Even if you're instantly rolled into another one you've got at least 10 seconds before the match actually starts. Use those 10 seconds to look across the room instead of starting at the loading screen.
As for eyes already being shot, that's a ridiculous excuse. A man with one leg wouldn't say "Oh well, who cares if I lose another one, I'm already down one as it is." Even if your eyesight is bad, that's all the more reason to try and take care of what's left.
--- "Life's short and hard, like a body building elf." -- The Bloodhound Gang
damn, and here I thought it was really bad allergy season... Well, that explains it!
Somehow i don't think anyone who takes games seriusly will follow this rule, ten seconds without looking at the screen will seriusly mess up my build, scouting and combat skills. Turn based games maybe, but in most rts games, (if you play to win that is) you cannot look away.
So wait...
Is it 10 seconds or 10 minutes? I still don't know and the article hasn't been fixed yet... surely a 10 second break is not sufficient for 10 minutes of staring at a screen? (since this equals 24 minutes of break time for 24 hours of gameplay, like I said earlier)
So which is it?
-- mostly harmless
Thanks this is great information
People can't spare 10 seconds from gaming? There's a pause or menu button in practically every game I've played, at least since they stopped coming in cassette, cartridge or Im-a-ravenous-coin-gobbling-monster format. When it comes to MP, surely there's a hole you can crawl into or maybe the next quake/unreal/call-of-deathmatch-bollocks will have an eye rest button that makes you immortal (with some sort of visual indicator to show it so people don't waste their ammo on you) but you can't move or shoot.
I can't believe there are people on here really acting like they can't find 10 seconds every now and again to not look at the screen. I assure you there is no type of game in existance that does not have some built in capacity for stepping away. Some sort of pause mechanism exists in nearly every game published, be it a straight pause or a menu that freezes the play while you're in it.
What would you do if you had to go to the bathroom? Answer the phone or door? SNEEZE, for goodness sake?
Playing games for hours without looking away from the screen IS dangerous, no matter how many flimsy excuses are thrown out there.
I'd like to keep this in mind, but honestly I think I would forget. 10 minutes can pass by extremely fast before you know it. Luckily I don't really suffer from any of these problems, yet.
You'd think that the same problem would affect TV watchers as well as computer users. So why is this suddenly, specifically linked to videogame play?
I've played games for 8 hour straight on the weekends with no eye problems. If the claim fits that I was unconsciously taking these needed breaks, why do I need a warning? Is this really a syndrome? Can they liken this to Parkinsons for frag's sake? Do people really need to be told to hit the pause button if they need to rub their eyes? Thanks for the "medical" opinion guys. It sounds like eye doctors are trying to cash in on the fearmongering too. "Hey, we're relevant! We got the lab coats and everything!"
Hah, I knew there was a reason I spent so much time staring out the window at work -- I've subconsciously been saving myself from excessive eye strain! ;D
Incidentally, the MOA website is actually http://minnesota.aoa.org/ but I can't find this press release there. However, they do report on CVS in an earlier report. Still, the conspiracy nut in me is wondering if somebody should drop Dr. Lach a line and confirm that the scenario being reported more widely (including lines such as "two young men admitted their eyes were very dry ... all three had sore backs") actually happened. Maybe the webmaster is just taking his time in posting the release on their site.
---
The Mammon Industry
An interesting note relating to this. In the manual of the original Grand Theft Auto for the Playstation is a section with the heading Hold It! that says "It pays to take a 10 minute break in every hour of gameplay."
ha ha, i get all those symptoms but i have other reasons for them!
headaches come from my tinitus (ringing of the ear) and mine are fequently in the eye area (my left eye namely, these damned "green" eco light bulbs drive my eyes insane, i simply CANNOT use the bloody things without suffering serious migraines after a few hours... yet everyone has'em now :( ), sensitivity to light is cause i'm a night owl with light blue eyes, and my glasses are transition (otherwise i have to squint one eye to avoid the painful sun!) and further sensitize my eyes to it :p
i don't get the dry eyes TMK but i'm kinda stoic to begin with..., the facial tissue/muscle pains are from a dislocated jaw problem i have with my underbite, my jaw literaly sits out of joint when my mouth is closed, and i've been warned to flatten my subs and burgers when i eat'em to avoid it jumping the joint and locking in place.... but the jaw likes to tense up at random when i'm frustrated or thinking hard and causes these pains (as well has has gotten me yelled at by the dentist for having grinded my teeth nearly down to nothing :p )
so how am i to know if i suffer from this?!
so much for using common symptoms...
gah i hate this.. it doesn't save my info anymore!... my post there folks... bah
play 10 minutes, break 10 seconds, wow what a way to never make any progress in a video game.
Try to follow the ten-ten rule: for every ten minutes of gaming, take a break of ten seconds.
Oh, now that isn't that bad. While not quite gaming, I do look away from my PC monitor from time to time.
The thing that really annoys me is montiors with referesh rates below 75 Herzt. Like someone else's PC or a montior that can't support 75, those really mess with and bug my eyes!
As for gaming, not a problem either. My PC is crap, so I have not played FPSes for a while, and most of my games don't require constant attention to the screen.
I think I may have this syndrome. Of course it could also be that I'm getting older and my lenses are getting less able to focus. The headaches though are another story - I definitely get more than the average number of headaches. I'll have to start obeying that ten minute ten second rule.
I've been using PC's in some form or another since 1979 including programming Basic on an old Ti99-4A. I can spend anywhere between 12-16 hours a day in front of a pc these days.
My eyes still test out at 20/18 (slightly better than normal) and I don't suffer eyestrain or headaches. I think a well adjusted display and occasional breaks are more than adequate to alleviate eyestrain, but too many people have displays that are too bright, too dull, at the wrong angle etc which drastically exacerbate any problem you might get with continual use.
People should investigate tuning their display as well as frequent eye breaks for a complete way to save your eyes (and sanity) if you work/play long hours in front of a PC =)
/quote
The thing that really annoys me is montiors with referesh rates below 75 Herzt. Like someone else's PC or a montior that can't support 75, those really mess with and bug my eyes!
/quote
This is only a problem on CRT's, LCD's do not flicker (ie. all pixels change at the same time rather than a refreshing scan down the screen), so a refresh rate of 60Hz is fine for LCD's.
If you are using a CRT however, 75Hz is the WHS recommended minimum iirc (perhaps 70Hz). Below that point, you will probably get serious eyestrain and headaches.
You can't really disagree with these Doctors and what they have to say about damage to the eyes while on the computer but I think they're missing the point and just want to attack gamers for some media attention.
Ever heard of Ergonomics?
All workplaces are telling their employees to do this kind of thing to prevent eye strain and other injuries to them self. Yes you can get injured while infront of the computer, which is why everyone should be making sure they are sitting properly and that their monitors, keyboards etc are set up properly. I'm only 21 and already have minor back and shoulder problems due to me not using the computer properly while gaming in my highschool years.
I wholy agree with the idea of giving your eyes a break while gaming....says the guy with the coke-bottle glasses..... But I think the point that most of us gamers would make is that when you're playing a game you tend not to notice the time going by, and what may seem like ten minutes could be closer to an hour. Now, maby we do glance away from the screen subconsiously anyway while doing a marathon gaming session. But for the most part when I'm playing I don't sit there and tell myself "ok, now we gotta take a break, it's coming up on ten minutes" It may be possible to put a sticky note above my computer telling me to look away from the compy during loading screens. But in most games of today, they don't realy have a built-in break in the action where you could look away.
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