Glaucoma is an eye condition that involves damage of the optic nerve, which is often caused by abnormally high pressure in a person’s eye. This is one of the leading causes of blindness which can occur at any age, but is most commonly found in people over the age of 60, according to Mayo Clinic.
However, a woman from China was diagnosed with glaucoma at only 29 years old! This was because she was addicted to playing mobile games with her friends every night before she went to sleep.
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According to Oriental Daily, the woman and her friends found it really fun to play as a team in a mobile game, and agreed to play a few games together every night. At first, the woman set a rule for herself to only play one game before going to bed, but whenever her team lost the game, her teammates would ask to play another round.
Before she knew it, she was playing games later and later into the night, sometimes until 2am or 3am in the morning.
One day, after she stayed up until 3am the night before, she woke up in the morning and found that she couldn’t open her eyes as she felt a stinging sensation. She closed her eyes for a while before opening them again slowly.
This experience scared her, so she refrained from playing mobile games for a few days and treated her eyes with steam eye patches.
Source: SCMP
However, she soon resumed the bad habit of playing mobile games before going to bed, although this time she made sure she didn’t play until the early hours of the morning.
Nevertheless, the damage had been done as the woman suddenly found that her right eye was extremely red and bloodshot! Even the whites in her eye could not be seen. She then went to the doctor who examined her eye and diagnosed her with glaucoma.
In regard to this case, Zhu, deputy director of the ophthalmology department of the hospital said that using your phone for social media, games, reading novels and many other activities in the dark before going to bed is very bad for the eyes.
He explained that using the mobile phone for a long time in a dark environment will cause the eyes to be more prone to dryness, swelling, and fatigue. This is because using your phone in the dark makes the ciliary muscles (a muscle in the eye that enables the lens to change shape for focusing) contract forcefully, which may cause damage to the optic nerve.
Source: 123RF
At the same time, blood supply to the eyes is restricted, causing intraocular pressure to rise, resulting in glaucoma and even blindness.
Well, I guess if you really want to use your phone at night, don’t do it with the lights off and rest your eyes properly before going to bed.
Also read: 9yo Boy Becomes Cross-Eyed After Playing Mobile Games for 10 Hours Every Day During School Holiday
