Stuck in VR

[JuicyJimme]

I recently bought the htc vive and I played it non stop for 2 days, I got out of vr about 2 days ago and nothing feels the same, when I grab my phone or try to unwrap foods it feels like I’m doing it in VR most things feel numb also as if they were in vr. For the first day of getting out of it my hands felt and looked like the rate of the VR hands, it seemed as if I was still in VR, now going into the second day of no VR and STILL feeling like everything is delayed and out of place and like I’m still in VR I’m getting a bit worried, when will it end and what is it, also has anybody else experienced this 

[HackPerception]

@JuicyJimme - There's not a ton of academic studies into this kind of phenomena. Realistically, the human brain, the body, and consciousness itself are all so complex, it would be rather difficult to come up with firm conclusions on this kind of phenomena without a very comprehensive study. Anybody using VR currently should be taking regular breaks during usage as VR is more than just visual but also heavily incorporates your body and it's other senses.

When I first got reliable VR access at home, I had a very similar experience. My dreams the first few weeks were very lucid and super sci-fi as a bonus. Long term VR immersion definitely still affects how I consciously experience real-life and makes me acutely aware of how my brain constructs my projection of reality around me and how my brain makes tons of interpolation mistakes and then patches them up as new sensory data fills the data gap. I have 4000-5000 hours in an HMD - it's still something I personally experience if I use an HMD for hours on end or if I try a very intense experience whose visuals don't match up to my embodied experience. VR exploits your biology but by no means is your body or your brain evolved to spend time in virtual spaces. Taking regular breaks is an important part of self-care and safe and healthy usage.

Your case sounds a little intense - please err on the side of always taking 15 minute breaks for every 30-45 minutes of usage in the future and avoiding straight binging. I'd also recommend being extra careful if you're a neurodiverse individual as your brain may process the stimuli very differently than other users which could compound the problem. VR is very intense on your body and your psyche - most people coming over from the gaming community underestimate how much stimuli you're processing. Gaming in VR is not directly comparable to flat screen gaming and it will take a while for everybody to better understand what's happening when we immerse ourselves in VR for too long.

[JuicyJimme]

5 hours ago, VibrantNebula said:

@JuicyJimme - There's not a ton of academic studies into this kind of phenomena. Realistically, the human brain, the body, and consciousness itself are all so complex, it would be rather difficult to come up with firm conclusions on this kind of phenomena without a very comprehensive study. Anybody using VR currently should be taking regular breaks during usage as VR is more than just visual but also heavily incorporates your body and it's other senses.

When I first got reliable VR access at home, I had a very similar experience. My dreams the first few weeks were very lucid and super sci-fi as a bonus. Long term VR immersion definitely still affects how I consciously experience real-life and makes me acutely aware of how my brain constructs my projection of reality around me and how my brain makes tons of interpolation mistakes and then patches them up as new sensory data fills the data gap. I have 4000-5000 hours in an HMD - it's still something I personally experience if I use an HMD for hours on end or if I try a very intense experience whose visuals don't match up to my embodied experience. VR exploits your biology but by no means is your body or your brain evolved to spend time in virtual spaces. Taking regular breaks is an important part of self-care and safe and healthy usage.

Your case sounds a little intense - please err on the side of always taking 15 minute breaks for every 30-45 minutes of usage in the future and avoiding straight binging. I'd also recommend being extra careful if you're a neurodiverse individual as your brain may process the stimuli very differently than other users which could compound the problem. VR is very intense on your body and your psyche - most people coming over from the gaming community underestimate how much stimuli you're processing. Gaming in VR is not directly comparable to flat screen gaming and it will take a while for everybody to better understand what's happening when we immerse ourselves in VR for too long.

Hey thanks for that feedback, I’m currently in hospital and sadly thinking about selling my VR now as I’m so scared of it, last night I woke up to the same feeling as I’ve been getting but intensified, I didn’t know whether I was awake or not and my body was extremely numb all over but at the same time I could feel, i felt like I was just inside of VR. I’m not sure what wires my brain has switched since VR but it obviously doesn’t like it, I really enjoyed playing with the realistic experience but I guess my mind doesn’t like it. So much it made it extremely real last night, I would bite my tongue and feel it but not the pain side. Similar to when people would come close to me and I would think I i should feel them touch even when they didn’t so my brain would try to make the feeling anyway.

[HackPerception]

@JuicyJimme

That's awful! I'm very sorry to hear that! I frankly have never heard of anything like this before surrounding VR - I can't provide any useful advice here except to say that if you're having reactions this adverse to a VR device, that I'd strongly recommend that you stop using your HMD any further and that you avoid all VR & AR products now and in the future until you qualified medical staff weigh in on what's happening. Feeling a bit weird after a VR experience isn't unheard of - what you're describing is well beyond that and VR simply isn't worth your health and well-being.

Hope you're feeling better soon!

52 minutes ago, JuicyJimme said:

Hey thanks for that feedback, I’m currently in hospital and sadly thinking about selling my VR now as I’m so scared of it, last night I woke up to the same feeling as I’ve been getting but intensified, I didn’t know whether I was awake or not and my body was extremely numb all over but at the same time I could feel, i felt like I was just inside of VR. I’m not sure what wires my brain has switched since VR but it obviously doesn’t like it, I really enjoyed playing with the realistic experience but I guess my mind doesn’t like it. So much it made it extremely real last night, I would bite my tongue and feel it but not the pain side. Similar to when people would come close to me and I would think I i should feel them touch even when they didn’t so my brain would try to make the feeling anyway.