Video game playing negatively influences adequate sleep and bedtimes

A new study found that gamers will push off obtaining adequate sleep in order to continue video gaming.

Results show that on average, gamers delayed going to bed 36 percent of the nights they played video games. Average game playing was 4.6 nights per week. The average delay in bedtime on the nights spent gaming was 101 minutes.

"These finding 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," said lead author and principal investigator Brandy M. Roane, PhD, assistant professor at the University of North Texas Health Science Center and director of the UNTHSC Sleep Research Lab. "Additionally, the reasons provided by gamers for their choice to delay their bedtime strongly supports the inclusion of video gaming as an addictive behavior."

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).

The study included online surveys from 963 gamers. Participants were U.S. gamers with an average age of 28.7 years who played video games at least once the previous week. Questions asked about demographics, gaming consoles, game genres, gaming frequency and duration.