Gaming before bedtime isn’t a recipe for a good night’s sleep

Gaming before bedtime may not be the best idea if you’re after a good night’s sleep, a new study by Flinders University, Australia has found (via Medical Xpress/Eurogamer).

The study monitored 17 teenage boys who played violent video games for 50 or 150 minutes before going to sleep. It was discovered that for those boys who played for two and a half hours there was a 27-minute loss in total sleep time and a 39-minute delay in sleep onset according to the participants’ sleep diaries.

“While they went to bed at their regular bedtime, the adolescents’ still experienced significant sleep disruptions caused by frequent awakenings throughout the night,” said Flinders University child sleep psychologist Dr Michael Gradisar.

“Sleep is made up of many different stages and the REM sleep, also known as the dreaming sleep, was reduced by 12 minutes among the teens who played for over two hours,” he said.

“This may not seem like a significant reduction but REM plays an important part in helping us remember content we learnt that day so for adolescents in their final years of school who are revising for exams, winding down at night with a video game might not be the best idea.”

In contrasts, those who only gamed for 50 minutes had little sleep disruption.

“Based on the self-reports, those who played for 50 minutes said it took them 22 minutes to fall asleep, which is within the normal amount of time teens take of 30 minutes or less.

“But their sleep onset delay almost doubled to 39 minutes when they played for two and a half hours so clearly there’s a limit to how much you should play before bed.”

Gradisar’s past research suggests 50 minutes of Call of Duty is no different to watching 50 minutes of the March of the Penguins documentary.