In this competitive world of esports and online gaming battles, long gaming sessions are preferred over top-notch skills. Whether you are working on your skills or just playing to earn rewards or quests, many hours can slip by before you notice how long you’ve been sitting in one chair. This also affects your eyes with constant focus on the screen. Although being competitive and levelling up your score is fun, taking measures for your health in real life is equally crucial.
This blog covers the ultimate gamer health tips to guide you in keeping your body and mind sharp during marathon sessions. Covering all healthy gaming habits related to your physical and mental health, we’ve got your back.
Tips to Stay Healthy during Long Gaming Sessions
Maintaining good posture
The most important thing when it comes to long sessions is good posture. When you sit for long periods in front of a screen, in a chair, good posture is required for optimal physical alignment, and it reduces strain on your body. If you see yourself slacking and slouching, fixing your posture by sitting upright is a good start to maintaining good posture.
While maintaining a good posture, you are evenly distributing your body weight on the chair, which helps prevent excessive stress on muscles and joints. Many healthcare professionals and organizations are working to spread awareness of maintaining a good sitting posture during long gaming periods, competitions, streaming, or practice sessions.
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A good posture helps in blood circulation, reaching essential nutrients and oxygen to your body muscles. Having a good posture while sitting for long sessions positively impacts your mental health and concentration.
Eye care
A long session of exposure to screens can cause eye strain, which can lead to dryness, irritation, and headaches. As a gamer, protecting your vision and giving your eyes a break must be a priority.
Ever heard of the 20-20-20 rule? No? It is one of the best ways to reduce strain and protect your vision. For this, every 20 minutes, you should look at an object 20 feet away for 20 seconds to relax your eyes.
Moreover, you can use blue light filters or gaming glasses to minimize the harmful effects of screen glare. Also, adjusting brightness and contrast settings helps create a comfortable display. Moisturizing your eyes with frequent blinking and using eye drops further prevents dryness and irritation, ensuring healthy vision throughout long sessions.
Prioritizing Mental Health
For a gamer, you’ve got a competitive environment surrounding you where everyone is achieving their goals and topping the leaderboard. This results in a high chance of being insecure, anxious, or losing self-esteem.
Being competitive with long gaming sessions can cause stress and affect your mental health. So, prioritizing your mental health is a pro-gamer health tip.
Getting enough sleep
Gaming as a profession can take up a lot of time, and night gaming sessions cause sleep deprivation, resulting in exhaustion and depression. Moreover, it can negatively impact your physical and mental health.
Balancing the excitement of growing in the game with enough sleep can be challenging, but crucial. Getting good sleep helps your muscles rest and recover while also boosting your immune system, which helps you stay healthy and energized for the next day.
Stretching and exercise
Fitness for gamers is a popular matter in the world of esports, with many gamers and health professionals promoting physical exercise before, during or after long gaming sessions. But often gets overlooked, as gaming is not physically demanding, which may be true, but sitting in one place for hours and constant hand movement can cause muscle strain and body pain.
To reduce exhaustion and muscle pain, you can opt for easy exercises like stretching your fingers, rotating your wrist, which helps reduce the stress caused by the constant use of the game controller. Moving your neck in a circular motion and stretching your shoulders is also necessary, as sitting for a long time in a bad posture in front of the screen can cause neck pain.
Plan a healthy diet
Mostly, gamers rely on energy drinks and instant food for consumption and to fulfil their hunger, which can lead to sluggishness and long-term health issues. You may find chips and junk food tempting and delicious to eat, but opting for a healthier diet will benefit you not only in the present but also in the future.
Consumption of processed food causes an increased risk of obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. To prevent such harmful diseases, planning a healthy diet is necessary.
Fresh fruits, yogurt, and green vegetables are all good for your body, especially your eyes. Keeping yourself hydrated with a good amount of water and consuming fruits with a high water content are also important to maintain a good diet.
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Dry fruits like almonds, walnuts, and cashews can fill your dose of vitamins and minerals. Oats, cereals, bread, and sweet potatoes are rich sources of carbohydrates, so before a long gaming session, have a sandwich or oatmeal.
In conclusion, gaming can be an exciting and immersive experience, but neglecting your health and avoiding healthy food is harmful, resulting in depression, anxiety, and severe health diseases. Maintaining a balance is the key. Enjoying long gaming sessions by following healthy gaming habits is beneficial for your body. It is essential to plan your gaming sessions and prioritize your mental as well as physical health.
Anshuman Jha