ARE YOU ADDICTED TO VIDEO GAMES? - Daily Arcade 009

I can still recall the time, at the ripe and impressionable age of 13, I pulled my first-ever all-nighter with my older cousin to beat Diddy Kong Racing on his Nintendo 64. No, it wasn’t the greatest game ever made for the N64 (though I’ll still argue that it was criminally underrated), but it didn’t need to be. The thrill resided in simply staying up all night, hanging with my older cousin, and finally beating Wizpig as the sun was coming up. Fortunately for me, relatively strict parenting and a knack for socializing prevented these all-nighters from becoming a regular occurrence (I will admit that later on in college I had a couple more restless nights when Skyrim was released).

But still, some diehard gamers go down into this sleepless rabbit hole of video game addiction and are unable to pull themselves out. Now, we all probably have our stories about staying up late on a school night to beat that last mission, but for some, this has led to an unhealthy and potentially dangerous lifestyle. A new study conducted by the Hamilton, Ontario-based McMaster University took an in-depth look at how video game addiction is a proponent of sleep deprivation, which in and of itself can bring about a number of health-related issues. The research, which was recently published in the academic journal PLOS One, was pioneered by Dr. Katherine Morrison, an associative professor at McMaster University’s Michael G. DeGroote School of Medicine.

The case study, which was a collaborative effort by researchers from both McMaster and California State University, Fullerton, featured data analyzed from a group of 94 children and teens between the ages of 10 to 17. These young subjects all played video games and were enrolled in lifestyle management programs for either obesity or lipid disorders. The focus of the study was to research the extent that the video game habits of the group had impacted their sleep habits, obesity risks, and cardio-metabolic health. The research team used fitness trackers to monitor the sleep habits of the participants, which was then compared to their video game usage.

What the research showed, unfortunately and— in my opinion— unsurprisingly, was that video game addiction habits did indeed result in a shorter amount sleep, which in turn increased chances of having elevated blood pressure, low high-density lipoprotein cholesterol, high triglycerides, and high insulin resistance. Still, as Dr. Morrison acknowledges, this sample set of kids was both specific and quite small, it’s uncertain how these numbers would relate to the general population. But that didn’t prevent Dr. Morrison from finding strong evidence in her research.

“That said, we were amazed that amongst gamers, video game addiction scores explained one-third of the differences in sleep duration,” Dr. Morrison said. “Sleep is emerging as a critical behavior for cardio-metabolic health, and this data shows that gaming addictions can cause numerous health issues in at least a segment of the population.”

The research team plans to expand their study further, looking to study the effects of video game addiction in more general populations, while also analyzing video game usage and addiction tendencies of gamers over a longer period of time. But what can we, as gamers, do to prevent ourselves, our friends, and our family from falling into the rabbit hole of addiction? As someone with quite the addictive personality, I can sympathize with those who have fully replaced a bulk of their sleep schedule with gaming, but that doesn’t necessarily make it a viable lifestyle alternative.

According to Dr. Morrison, those avid and sleepless gamers who are dealing with obesity or some type of lipid disorder should take part in some type of intervention, for their cardio-metabolic health is vital to their long-term well-being. It’s something that some of us, as major video game advocates, hate to admit or deal with as a real issue. Although Dr. Morrison’s study does cast gaming under a relatively negative light, I think it’s important to note that addiction comes in all types of forms, and indulging too much in anything will lead to negative side effects. So, next time I power up my PS4 to get my Phantom Pain on, I’ll try and keep the words my Grandfather has said to me so much, that it’s basically become his motto at this point. “Everything in moderation my boy, everything in moderation.” FULL ARTICLE HERE: http://equityarcade.com/2016/05/14/study-on-video-game-addiction-hints-at-harmful-and-sleepless-consequences/