Eye strain is a big problem for a lot of gamers and if you are in the middle of a marathon session, you may find that your eyes start to sting or feel tired. Some people also experience headaches after a few hours of gaming. There are those out there that will tell you that your eye strain is a sign that you have been playing for too long and you should think about taking a break. But we both know that you’re not going to do that, so you need to find ways to deal with the eye strain instead.

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The most important thing to remember is that, if you are getting a lot of headaches, you should see a doctor because there could be something more serious going on. If there isn’t and it is just a case of serious eye strain from gaming, these are some of the best ways to deal with it.

Get An Eye Test

It’s normal to experience eye strain after a long gaming session but if you find that your eyes hurt straight away, you might be experiencing vision problems. Go and get your eyes tested and you may find that you need to wear glasses. If the test does show an issue and you need to wear glasses, either all the time or just while gaming, you should always buy them online. It’s way cheaper and a lot easier to get glasses online than it is to go into a store and you’ll have a much bigger range to choose from as well. Even if your eye test doesn’t show any problems, you should consider investing in some glasses that are designed for use with screens because they help to reduce the glare and protect your eyes.

Improve The Lighting

Have you noticed how some games come up with a warning message when you load them up saying that you should play in a well lit room? You probably ignored it, but if you get bad eye strain while gaming, you should take that advice. When the lighting is poor, you have to strain your eyes a lot more to see the screen properly, so they will start hurting. When you are setting up your gaming room, pay careful attention to the lighting options and make sure that you have plenty of bright light. You don’t want fluorescent lights because these put a lot of stress on the eyes and you should avoid having a light source directly behind the screen as well. Ideally, you want to play with as much natural light as possible so when you are gaming during the day, open up the curtains and blinds.

Give Your Eyes A Short Break

When you are playing for a long period, it’s important to give your eyes a break from time to time. You can use the 20/20/20 rule here, which is the most effective way to prevent eye strain when using any kind of screen. Every 20 minutes, look away from the screen and focus on something that is around 20 feet away for at least 20 seconds. This will help to refocus your eyes and should help with your eye strain.

It sounds stupid but you should also remember to blink. Usually, people blink around once every 15 seconds but when using a screen, we tend to blink far less often than that. This means that your eyes will dry out and you will notice more eye strain. When you are gaming, try to pay attention to how often you blink and make sure that you are blinking regularly.

Take A Break

Even though you might not want to hear it, gaming for hours on end without a break isn’t great for you. The rest of the steps on this list will help to reduce eye strain but eventually, it will become unavoidable because you have simply been playing for too long. Studies show that taking a break every 50 to 90 minutes can actually improve your gaming performance as well. Long periods of gaming lead to increased stress levels and reduced decision making abilities, both of which make you a worse player. If you are stuck on a particularly tricky puzzle or a frustrating boss fight, you might think that the best way around it is to just keep going, but that’s not the case. It’s better for your eyes if you take a break and when you return with a clear head, you should be able to progress a lot easier.

Eye strain is a common problem for gamers but these simple tips will help you to beat it.