We’re called GameSpot, so we clearly love to play some video games. You’re reading stories on this site called GameSpot, so it’s safe to assume that you love to play some video games, too. However, we all need to be careful with how long we play video games because a new study suggests that logging too many hours could seriously hurt our physical, emotional, and mental health.
In a new study published in ScienceDirect’s Nutrition journal and reported on by Medical Xpress, 10 different researchers from around the world investigated the effects “excessive gaming” has on young people. Led by Professor Mario Siervo of the Curtin School of Population Health in Perth, Western Australia, and surveying 317 students from five Australian universities with a median age of 20 years old, the study found that “high gamers”–people whose playtime exceeded 10 hours a week–were at greater risk of dietary issues, sleep deprivation, and weight gain.
“What stood out was students gaming up to 10 hours a week all looked very similar in terms of diet, sleep, and body weight,” Siervo said. “The real differences emerged in those gaming more than 10 hours a week, who showed clear divergence from the rest of the sample.”
(It’s worth noting that 317 students across five universities in one country is an incredibly small sample size.)
Alongside “high gamers” (10+ hours per week), the researchers split the participants into “low gamers” (0–5 hours per week) and “moderate gamers” (5–10 hours), depending on the self-reported amount of time they spent playing video games. In these categories, the researchers found that high gamers experienced a decline in diet quality and an increase in obesity when compared to low and moderate gamers. For example, according to the study, high gamers had a median body mass index (BMI) of 26.3 kg/m2 (generally considered overweight), compared to 22.2 kg/m2 and 22.8 kg/m2 (generally considered normal or healthy weight ranges) for low and moderate gamers, respectively.
Additionally, while all three groups reported generally poor sleep quality, moderate and high gamers scored worse here than low gamers, with their hours spent gaming being a significant disruptor to the quality of their sleep.
“Each additional hour of gaming per week was linked to a decline in diet quality, even after accounting for stress, physical activity, and other lifestyle factors,” Siervo explained in the findings. “This study doesn’t prove gaming causes these issues, but it shows a clear pattern that excessive gaming may be linked to an increase in health risk factors. Our data suggests low and moderate gaming is generally fine, but excessive gaming may crowd out healthy habits such as eating a balanced diet, sleeping properly, and staying active.”
It’s not all bad, though. Siervo said that there’s hope for young people whose college habits may carry over into their adulthood: change their behavior before the habit becomes an identity.
“Because university habits often follow people into adulthood,” Siervo said. “Healthier routines such as taking breaks from gaming, avoiding playing games late at night, and choosing healthier snacks may help improve their overall well-being.”
As for the rest of us? Well, the jury’s still out.
