New research finds that video gaming is often an impediment to obtaining adequate sleep.
In a new study, researchers from the University of North Texas Health Science Center found that that on average, gamers delayed going to bed 36 percent of the nights they played video games. They also discovered study participants averaged 4.6 nights per week of game playing.
Overall, the average delay in bedtime on the nights spent gaming was 101 minutes, or nearly two hours.
“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, Ph.D.
“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 was presented 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.
Survey questions included queries on demographics, gaming consoles, game genres, gaming frequency and duration.