Do you – like many others – also go through the day scrolling, but do you regularly experience a light feeling in your head or dizziness while Instagramming or working online? Then you probably suffer cybersickness. This is a type of motion sickness that can cause a nauseating, disorienting feeling. With motion sickness, your muscles and balance organ feel movement, but you don’t see it, causing confusion. With cybersickness it’s the other way around: you see movement on the screen, but you don’t feel it.
What’s cybersickness?
A motion sickness like cybersickness occurs when your senses send conflicting signals to your brain. Cybersickness is actually caused by a mismatch in your sensory input to your brain. This relates to:
- Visual system (what your eyes tell your brain)
- Vestibular System (What your inner ear perceives in relation to head movements and balance)
- Proprioceptive system (what sensory receptors throughout your body feel at that moment
You can test it by blinking at your screen. Your eyes then tell your brain that there is a lot of movement, while your vestibular and proprioceptive systems tell you that everything is stable. For some, this can lead to dizziness and nausea.
Hopefully it is now clear that cyber sickness can arise when you scroll on your smartphone and meanwhile look at your screen to attend a virtual meeting. It all has to do with orientation. You need your senses to feel where you are, how you move and what the next step is. When your senses pass conflicting information to your brain, it can result in disorientation and physical symptoms.
Consequences of cyber disease
Looking at a screen for hours every day will not leave you cold. Research shows that surfing online, both on your mobile phone and on your laptop or computer, can lead to reduced responsiveness in the long term.
Other long-term complaints can also arise, such as focusing your vision or your balance (such as visual impairment, lack of balance, and clumsiness).
Symptoms of cybersickness
As with motion sickness, some people experience cyber sickness at the slightest, while others experience none at all. If you recognize yourself in the symptoms below, you (unfortunately) belong to the first group.
- Nausea (especially when your stomach is full)
- Vomit
- Light-headed feeling
- Dizziness
- Tired and irritated eyes
- Blurry sight
- dehydration
- Headache
- Neck and shoulder complaints
- Sleepy/tired
- To blush
- To sweat
Some experts compare the symptoms to how you feel when you’ve looked a little too deep into the glass. And we all know that’s no fun!
To work! 11 tips against the cyber disease
But what if you have a job where you are always online? Or follow a study where everything goes online? Then there are a few tips & tricks that can help you to reduce the complaints:
-
Reduce your total screen time and put your cell phone away more often
- Take regular breaks to rest your eyes
- Change your position regularly
- Every ten minutes, focus your eyes on something other than the screen
- Avoid using different screens at the same time
- Choose audio over video when you can
- Read a printed book rather than an electronic version
- Write notes by hand instead of electronically
- Slow down your scroll speed
- Disable pop-ups and avoid flashy displays
- Avoid heavy foods right before long periods of screen time
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2023-04-28 15:33:09
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