Even as Pokeman GO mania grips the world, the story is no different closer home in Noida. It's thrilling for sure as fans go hunting for virtual characters, their eyes glued to smart phones and tabs, but when it turns you into an insomniac, there is a reason to worry. Hospitals and doctors across the satellite city have been receiving patients complaining of sleeplessness, all too often of late.
"There have been a few instances when young adults have come to me complaining about sleeplessness. It isn't very difficult to figure out that video gaming is the culprit," says Navneet Sood, an eye specialist in JP hospital, Noida. He explains, "The background colour of Pokemon Go is greenish blue, which is really bad for the eye, especially when one is looking at it for hours no end."
Sector 44 resident Kabir Sood is totally addicted to the game!
The augmented reality game, which is played using a mobile phone's GPS capability, has Sharadha Singh, 20, resident of Sector-50 so much under its spell that she isn't even aware how 4-5 hours fly by. She has even wandered off to the neighbouring sectors looking for Pokemon. In fact, once she went missing after dinner and didn't return home for three hours. "We were almost about to file an FIR," her mother Kritika Singh says.
Then you have Sector 120 resident Akshat Mishra, 21, who is so hooked to the game that he spends as many as seven hours staring at his phone. Kabir Sood, 24, a resident of Sector 44, is another victim. He is engrossed in the game even while walking his dogs or while at his gym.
Parents are often clueless about the cause of sleeplessness until they drag their kids to a doctor. It's Pokemon, of course.
So what's the solution? "Just keep the kids off phones and tablets three hours before sleep," advises eye specialist Sood.