Gamers who play for more than seven hours a week sleep less than casual or non-gamers, a new study has claimed.
According to research presented at the wicked-sounding SLEEP 2009 event, 'hardcore' gamers sleep less during weekdays and experience all-round greater sleepiness.
So Nintendo really could be on to a winner with that Wii sleeping game.
"Excessive" gamers have significantly poorer sleep hygiene and sleep less on weekdays than other gamers, says the study, which claims to have found "a significant positive correlation" between the hours of game play and sleepiness. Probably because "excessive" gamers are playing WoW at two in the morning instead of getting shut-eye.
Gamers who reported that their gaming interfered with sleep slept for 1.6 hours less than other gamers, it says, while those who "claimed to be addicted" to gaming slept one hour less on weekdays.
"Our statistics revealed that those who admitted addiction scored higher on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale (sleepiness)," said investigator Amanda Woolems. "It surprised us, however, that of the people who admitted being addicted to gaming, only about a third of them recognized an interference with their sleep."
Agreed. My worst vice at present is Street Fighter 4 online. That 'Ok, just one more fight' has often kept me up for ages, and I also tend to get pretty stressed if I am not winning. I can see where this study is coming from, and will not attempt to argue with their findings.
Don't buy into it to be honest. They claim gaming is to blame for everything these days. We can't sleep or be social to others and so on......! Its the new thing to blame all of life and the worlds problems on. I suffer from insomnia anyway so it doesn't make any difference to me lol!
Its all about the hardcore all nighter! Nothing quite like playing until 3am and persuading yourself that if you go to bed it will just feel worse in the morning! The sun comes up, the birds start singing, and you're muching down your cornflakes between COD4 matches
I think the phrase "I'll sleep when i'm dead" comes to mind. In more ways than one.
It boils down to the fact that games eat time. One minute its just after 11pm then the next time you look up at the clock it 3am and your confused as to where the time has gone.
How true, because of all the studying for my exams I do, I have to do most of my gaming at night, plus I work out, so I don't have much time for sleep. I'm getting 2-4 hours of sleep a night now a days.
I'm afraid its true (apart from the hygene thing) I'm always getting stuck in that vicious 'just one more round' circle and am often up til 1 or 2am
Same here. That said, the late night habits from the university years didn't help, and the 2-hours-on-followed-by-4-hours-off (though still in uniform and on-duty) guard duty in the military on 24-32 hour shifts certainly didn't do wonders for my sleeping habits either.
Agreed. My worst vice at present is Street Fighter 4 online. That 'Ok, just one more fight' has often kept me up for ages, and I also tend to get pretty stressed if I am not winning. I can see where this study is coming from, and will not attempt to argue with their findings.
Bingo. When I play a game, almost any game, I find that my brain tends to re-awaken and I have a more challenging time calming down my thoughts to the point of deep, restful sleep even if I do feel tired.
Its all about the hardcore all nighter! Nothing quite like playing until 3am and persuading yourself that if you go to bed it will just feel worse in the morning! The sun comes up, the birds start singing, and you're muching down your cornflakes between COD4 matches
Eh. I tried that once for 40-42 hours. I wasn't feeling too fresh at that point. Interestingly enough I felt less "squirrely" after a 3 day field exercise with little or no sleep in the military several years later.
I'm afraid its true (apart from the hygene thing) I'm always getting stuck in that vicious 'just one more round' circle and am often up til 1 or 2am
Same here. That said, the late night habits from the university years didn't help, and the 2-hours-on-followed-by-4-hours-off (though still in uniform and on-duty) guard duty in the military on 24-32 hour shifts certainly didn't do wonders for my sleeping habits either.
See I was with them and not giving a **** up untill they started insulting me with the hygiene and **** now I just wanna quietly push them off a cliff and go to sleep I was up late last night playing Star Ocean and Kill Zone. Oh and real gamers play more like 7 hours a day you time wasting petition toting morons.
Its that 1 last mission problem I suffer from. That and 1 last go at this stupidly difficult mission syndrome. But I usually stick to going to bed at 1130 at the latest or 2 on a weekend
I don't want to sound like an over-eager fanboy, but I think I do get less sleep. Games present you to a better, more exciting world, so even if you are sensible and get some decent shut eye your mind is still reeling from the experience of the last game you played. Unless you're playing Fahrenheit.
On most weekends I'm playing until around 6-7am, so then I decide that if I got to sleep now I'll wake up at around 3pm and waste the entire day so I just stay up all day. Meaning that every weekend I stay up for more than 30 hours.
Oh we are very sorry daily mail but im afraid that there is to much to do on a computer these days. What with all the new games, sims 3 making us live a whole new life as well as our real ones. I could get my 8 hours a day or i could keep trying to get win ONE game of spelunky.
Copyright 2006 - 2009 Future Publishing Limited, Beauford Court, 30 Monmouth Street, Bath, UK BA1 2BW England and Wales company registration number 2008885
