01 Aug Video Game Playing Negatively Influences Bedtimes
Are video games like “Bloodborne,” “Fallout” and “Call of Duty” worth losing sleep over? For plenty of gamers, the answer is yes. A new study has shown that gamers will push off obtaining adequate sleep in order to continue video gaming.
The study included online surveys from 963 gamers. Participants were U.S. gamers with an average age of 28.7 years, whom played video games at least once the previous week. The study shows that gamers delayed going to bed 36 percent of the nights they played video games. Participants averaged 4.6 nights per week game playing. The average delay in bedtime on the nights spent gaming was 101 minutes.
The lead author, Brandy M. Roane, said that these findings, “provide further insight into factors that influence individuals’ decision making when determining if they should get sufficient sleep. Our data shows that video gaming is quite an important factor that frequently leads to missed sleep for 67 percent of gamers. Additionally, the reasons provided by gamers for their choice to delay bedtime strongly supports the inclusion of video gaming as an addictive behaviour.” While the study can’t prove that playing games into the early hours of the morning means you’re hooked, it suggests a possible link between the two.
The research abstract was published recently in an online supplement of the journal Sleep and will be presented Monday, June 13, in Denver at SLEEP 2016, the 30th Anniversary Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS).
American Academy of Sleep Medicine. “Video game playing negatively influences adequate sleep and bedtimes: Over 67 percent of gamers reported missed sleep due to playing.” ScienceDaily. ScienceDaily, 13 June 2016. <www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2016/06/160613144656.htm>.