Has gaming had any side effects on your health

[mjs warlord]

Ok so we all done it .... long gaming sessions , sometimes on purpose but sometimes somebody upstairs bangs on the floor and shouts ..... do you know what the time is ... you look at your watch and think oh poo i did not realise it was as late as that , the end result is the same , you wake the next morning and due to lack of sleep you feel like you been drinking all night.

Here a a few thing that have affected me.

None gamers dont understand what i mean when i say i walked away from a game and felt like i had just run a marathon , maybe its because i am not just playing it , i am in it.

Windlands given to me for free for helping to bug sort Crystal Rift by the same indie guy ... its basically swinging around the environment on ropes to get from one place to another , i had to stop using it because as a swung on the rope i was " in the game " and lost count of the times i nearly fell out of my chair.

Devils Tuning Fork , the game is all drawn in wire frame but you dont see anything unless you move and as you move the screen flashes , i had to stop using it because it made me feel sick , it reminded me of many years ago when discotheques had flashing strobe lights , when they were turned on i had to stand still because if i kept moving i would fall over when they stopped ???

My pc is under the stairs next to an archway where i knocked 2 rooms into 1 , i have lost count of the times i have lost count of the number of times i have bounced off the archway avoiding a dive bomber.

Finally a really strange one , i suffer from tinitus that affects my balance , recently i built a huge building 21 wall panels high in the game SATISFACTORY , i went to the top and looked down to admire all my production lines , at this point i actually went dizzy and fell forward onto my desk lol...... btw i was sober

Hey ZED i know you will read this so i am ready for your fun making of me .....

 

[Colif]

Mandatory

I can't think of any myself.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

Yeah, I think I have lately. I have asthma and I'm on blood pressure medicine. I've been binging Horizon: Zero Dawn, and lately I've noticed my heart beating harder and faster after playing. It's probably not good for me.

 

[Brian Boru]

you look at your watch and think oh poo i did not realise it was as late as that

I've had plenty of those for sure!

I had to change my mouse hand ~15 years ago and take wrist rest seriously. Not all gaming, as I also work at my PC, but gaming would've contributed.

But thankfully nothing else of note.

 

[Colif]

Staying awake all night playing games never effected my health, just breaks sleep patterns. I always wish the sun would go away as it means I should stop playing game and go to sleep before other people wake up and tell me. I have been reasonable though and I don't play games when I have to work next day, as they are too tempting. Just 30 more minutes... I only play games when I don't have to worry about time.

I had to change my mouse hand

Brian has a razer mouse hand now, lets him grip real tight and has green rgb strip

 

[mjs warlord]

the 2 fingers i use on my mouse have raised lumps of bone on the joint nearest to my finger tips from 20 years of clicking

 

[Frindis]

I used to play in a band when I was young, so I like to believe that I built up agility and strength to withstand a lot of abuse on my fingers/wrist. The neck and back might at times be a little stiff, but that is mainly if I don't stretch a little while playing long hours or if I sit in a bad position. I should be more active though, so that is definitely a side effect. You don't train your body that much when you sit on your butt.

 

[Ryzengang]

Probably. Even if you don't have any readily perceptible acute problems, any sedentary hobby almost certainly confers additional risk for various health problems. So even if we ignore some of the more acute things that have been mentioned in this thread, sitting for long lengths of time is not good for you. FWIW, I'm in the final semester of my Master of Public Health program, so this is a topic that naturally interests me. I want to highlight that this stuff is good to keep in mind, but it shouldn't be something that you stress over too much (as long as moderation is kept it mind). Enjoyment and stress relief in and of themselves are beneficial as well, so it would be improper to simply be negative about gaming because it is a sedentary behavior without considering the positives.

 

[mainer]

There were times, especially in my younger years, that I would be gaming at night and check the time only to realize that it was past 1:00 AM (or later) and knew that I had to go to bed and get some sleep. Back in my working years before I retired, Sunday nights were always an issue because I had to be up by 6:00 AM to go to work on Monday, so my mind and reactions would be a bit off if I stayed up late gaming. It didn't affect my health, outside of disruptive sleep cycles, but it did affect my reaction time, both physical and mental.

One thing that both @Frindis & @Ryzengang mentioned is the fact that our hobby is sedentary and doesn't benefit our physical bodies, which can have adverse effects on weight gain and health. I have been able to avoid that through the years because I've always been active even in my older age. But I think it's something all of us gamers need to be aware of and not allow to get out of control. This would also include eating habits and types of food we consume.

Overall, I've been able to maintain a balance between my gaming personas/life and real life, so that I've had no lasting negative affects with my health.

 

[Johnway]

The usual stuff i guess. When I'm getting thrashed on online, my blood pressure increases and i have adrenaline/aggression to work out.

occasionally i do get headaches presumably from not drinking enough water or something.

I don't have any problems with time management i can control that as i'm a creature of habit and with schedule . I generally have other commitments for the weekend/annual leave so i don't binge games (study, art, clean my room, etc). I can't stay up late playing games as honestly I need my sleep. hell, on my weekends I need my afternoon naps.

 

[WoodenSaucer]

I used to play in a band when I was young, so I like to believe that I built up agility and strength to withstand a lot of abuse on my fingers/wrist. The neck and back might at times be a little stiff, but that is mainly if I don't stretch a little while playing long hours or if I sit in a bad position. I should be more active though, so that is definitely a side effect. You don't train your body that much when you sit on your butt.

If you played guitar or bass, I'm sure you know what it's like to have hard calluses on all of your fingertips.

There were times, especially in my younger years, that I would be gaming at night and check the time only to realize that it was past 1:00 AM (or later) and knew that I had to go to bed and get some sleep.

I was like that when I was a teenager, too, especially during summer break. When I was a senior, I was spending most of my free time programming a game for the C64. There would be nights I'd be up until 3am programming away without even realizing it.

 

[Zloth]

Nah, not really. My hand muscles used to get sore, but I switched my home and work computers to ergonomic keyboards and everything has been fine since then. I also had a strange time where, for no reason at all, I was pushing my mouse wrist down on the edge of the table hard enough to start hurting. I got a mouse pad with a gel wrist pad on it and haven't had any problems since.

So even if we ignore some of the more acute things that have been mentioned in this thread, sitting for long lengths of time is not good for you.

That's what the exercise bike is for. I've got an old PS2 and XBOX 360 down with it, but modern console games are too close to PC games, so now I just read while I'm on it.

It was kinda funny to watch me play more action-oriented games while on the bike. I would be doing OK, but then the bike would get to a virtual hill, and I would start getting creamed!

@WoodenSaucer - I did the same thing, staying up until 3am! Then I would sleep until 11am. 8 hours of sleep, just like normal folks. Except nobody saw the stay-up-late part, just the sleep-late part. Hence the whole "sloth" thing. (Well, that and the fact that I see no problem with having a few varieties of moss growing in my hair... )

 

[Ryzengang]

That's what the exercise bike is for. I've got an old PS2 and XBOX 360 down with it, but modern console games are too close to PC games, so now I just read while I'm on it.

It was kinda funny to watch me play more action-oriented games while on the bike. I would be doing OK, but then the bike would get to a virtual hill, and I would start getting creamed!

Yep, I do the same thing and it's honestly a great solution. Same for people who are fans of television and netflix; get a bike/treadmill and you can watch and exercise.

 

[Pifanjr]

I've had a few times where I'd been playing so long without getting up that it took me a few minutes to walk properly again. The worst case of which was, of course, during a LAN party.

 

[The White Lion]

PC gaming has realized bad effects for my health. I was raised up on a personal computer, one of the first PCs I used was a desktop in this beige colored case, I used it to play Half-Life when it was still under the brand Sierra Entertainment and the old Age of Empires Gold Edition.

This was when I got hooked and has lead to a life-time of chronic computer use , social isolation, and insomnia. My computer use is habitual, my life is on my computer and I use my PC every day, for computer games or internet forums such as this place. I don't socialize much at all, my life lacks intimacy, I have no friends, and I feel lonely.

I think this feeling of loneliness is one of the effects of my chronic PC use, I do not go outside much to socialize with other people and so my life lacks connections to other people. I believe I am not the only person who experiences such feelings of loneliness due to habitual use of personal computers, I have met some other persons on the internet who has the same feelings I do, a sign of the age we presently live.

Another ill effect PC gaming has given to my health is insomnia, I am a bad sleeper and I sleep so little in the night, this is due to the PC games I played as a child. The computer hardware disrupted my natural sleep cycle, the blue light that emanates from my computer screen keeps me awake.

I have these special eyeglasses with yellow lenses that blocks the blue light so I do not perceive the blue light and I think this helps, but in my past there was some days I did not sleep all night to play computer games, and I shouldn't have done this. You need sleep for your body to rejuvenate itself, at least 7 hours and at the same time every night. I am the example.

[Mod edit: added paragraph breaks to wall of text.]