VR headset (MetaQuest 3) caused no symptoms possible solution

FabiFr

Hi everyone,

I recently went to my physiotherapist for a proprioception assessment, and she had me try a VR headset as part of the therapy. The setup is part of a system provided by a company that offers dedicated rehabilitation software for proprioceptive training. The headset used was a MetaQuest 3, one of the most common VR headsets available today, and it was connected to a high-end gaming PC (Intel i9 + latest-gen RTX GPU).

To give you some background:

I’m extremely sensitive to any recent tech device. I can’t use modern smartphones (anything beyond iPhone 7 gives me symptoms), tablets, or even Linux distributions (Mint 18.06) on my old iMac (which I can still tolerate under macOS 10.7.5). Almost every modern screen gives me eye strain, migraines, or intense cranial/facial tension.

So, I was convinced the VR headset would immediately trigger symptoms — but surprisingly, it didn’t. I used it for over five minutes without any pain or tension, even in the neck, face, or jaw. This is very unusual for me. It has made me seriously consider whether VR might be a viable workaround for people like me who can no longer tolerate traditional displays.

One hypothesis I have:

I’ve been diagnosed with esophoria (a binocular vision disorder), and since VR headsets generate two separate images, one for each eye, they might automatically adjust based on eye tracking or positioning, helping prevent the eye strain that usually comes from my brain constantly trying to correct misalignment on flat displays. With traditional screens, my eyes are always doing this correction work in real time — with the headset, maybe this demand is removed.

Of course, this wouldn’t be practical for everything, but given that my old iMac is locked on an old Mac OS and no longer gets updates, I’m worried I’ll eventually lose access to the internet or usable software altogether.

Has anyone else here tried a VR headset and not experienced symptoms?

Could this be a workaround for some of us dealing with digital eye strain?

Thanks for reading — curious to hear if others have explored this

ocean10

FabiFr

I'm also extremely sensitive to just about anything new to where they basically aren't usable. Some screens give me strong symptoms within second. Old screens, computers on older versions of operating systems, LCD iPhones and Androids prior to roughly iOS 15/16.1.1 and older versions of Androids mostly okay.

When the Apple Vision Pro came out last year a friend bought it and I wanted to try it. I "knew" I'd get sick from it but wanted to try it anyway. To my surprise I did not get symptoms from it. I played around with it for roughly 35 minutes. It feels like literally the only thing new I've been able to use in quite a while.

I'm not sure what made it better: two screens? Micro-OLED technology? Something else?

I don't have BVD as far as I knew (have been checked by multiple doctors and nobody has mentioned). But something was definitely different in a good way.

jordan

I use to use the oculus rift cv1, acer mixed reality, htc vive, and valve index without any symptoms like LCD iphones would trigger for me. I found the Quest 2 to cause a headache but I think its due to it being bright and not able to turn the brightness down enough. Its been years since ive played vr though. I think maybe the seperate images for each eye is what could be helping?

Nickonomic

Can VR headsets be potentially used for standard office work 8 hours plus?