Is Virtual Reality Bad for Your Eyes?

People have conflicting opinions about the dangers of VR on the human eye. Many point out to the fact that there is still not enough data since the headsets in question are relatively new.

Some people suggest that VR headsets can cause damage to the eye. Some suggest that this damage could be permanent if the headset is over-used. See why VR causes sickness.

Some people suggest that VR is bad for the children’s eyes since their eyes and brains are still developing. There is not enough data to either confirm or disprove this argument.

Some people suggest any damage to the lens of the VR headset can result in eye damage because it could result in focusing the light rays in a wrong way on the eye. This is why it’s important not to keep the VR headset in the sun. (See Why Virtual Reality Cause Sickness?)

Some suggest that if a person mistakenly looks towards sun rays while wearing a VR headset, then his eyes could get damaged because the VR headset will focus the sun rays on his eyes.

Some people think that VR headsets are safer than mobile phones and that the over-use of any electronic device can result in problems. (See How Virtual Reality (VR) affects the eyesight?)

Some people suggest that VR relaxes the eyes since it makes the person think that he is looking at a distant object, while in fact he is looking at something close.

Some VR headsets have age limits. The Samsung Gear, for example, has a 13+ rating. This age limit has made many people wonder whether there is a serious eye damage risk for kids or not.

According to Alan Saks, from Mortimer Hirst Eyecare in Auckland, the overuse of VR headsets could lead to Myopia, retinal damage and macular degeneration.

According to the warning on the Samsung Gear, prolonged use should be prohibited, for it can cause bad hand-eye co-ordination & balance problems.

According to one experiment, which was carried on animals, VR could result in temporary shutting down of brain neurons, during the VR session, responsible for mapping the person’s location. The experiment showed that other neurons showed abnormal patterns of activity.

Some users reported having blurry vision that lasted for a short time, minutes to hours, after they stopped using their VR headset.