Study finds video games cause only mild effect on sleep

Every school night, millions of teens armed with controllers and headsets clash on the virtual battlefield of “Call of Duty.” You would think these adrenaline-fueled gaming sessions would keep teen males wired all night. As it turns out, getting to sleep following an evening of gunfire, explosions and kill counts isn’t much different than it would be after watching nature documentaries.

A new study published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine concluded video games only have a mild effect on the sleep of older teen males.

Researchers in Australia looked at how long it took a group of male teens to fall asleep after they played the best-selling Playstation 3 video game “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” in comparison to the Academy Award winning documentary “March of the Penguins.”

The difference was only 4.5 minutes.

A group of 18 teens, all about 16 years old, were subject to two 50-minute experimental sessions. Each time they under the covers in bed, in a dimmed room, with electrodes attached.

It took teens 7.5 minutes to fall asleep after playing the violent video game. When they watched “March of the Penguins” the average was three minutes. About a third of the boys fell asleep during the documentary. Seven teens say they felt less sleepy after they played “Call of Duty.” Two of the teens actually fell asleep faster.

Scientists measured only a small increase in the subjects’ alertness, but no differences in their arousal or quality of sleep.

The findings counter the popular, but mostly anecdotal, belief that it’s hard to sleep after playing video games at night.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean gaming has no effect on sleep. The slight difference in teens’ sleepiness might be enough to keep them playing longer. And many game sessions last a lot longer than an hour.

In extreme cases gaming benders have lasted for days. Just this week in South Korea, the Culture Ministry announced plans to stop minors from playing online games after midnight.

Past research has linked excessive video game playing to loss of sleep. College students addicted to video games sleep about one hour less than their peers.

Virtual Reality: Video Games & Sleep Loss

A study that was presented this week at SLEEP 2009 in Seattle, Wash., reports that excessive video-game playing can interfere with your sleep.

The study involved 137 college students. They had an average age of 22 years; 63 percent were women. Casual game players were compared with excessive game players. “Excessive” was defined as playing more than seven hours per week.

Results show that almost 13 percent of participants reported that they are addicted to gaming. These participants slept one hour less on weekdays than other gamers; they also reported feeling sleepier during the day. In general, excessive gaming was associated with more sleepiness.

But study author Amanda Woolems told the AASM that only some of these college students realized that they were losing sleep.

“Of the people who admitted being addicted to gaming, only about a third of them recognized an interference with their sleep,” she said.

Playing video games also can have an effect on the sleep of children. One study involved children between 6 and 12 years of age in Japan. Playing video games had a negative impact on sleep. Children also were more active before bedtime if they had a video game system in their bedroom.

Another study involved teen students in Belgium. Teens with a gaming computer in their rooms went to bed significantly later on weekdays. Those who spent more time playing computer games also went to bed later on weekdays and weekend days. They spent less time in bed on weekdays and reported higher levels of tiredness.

Wii Sleep: A Nintendo Solution for Insomnia?

In January the Sleep Education Blog reported on the benefits of playing the old-school video game Tetris; it can be a visual distraction that may reduce flashbacks and nightmares after a stressful event.

Now Nintendo is developing a video game application that is light years ahead of Tetris; the Wii Vitality Sensor may even help you fall asleep.

Nintendo introduced the device at E3 (Electronic Entertainment Expo). The annual video game industry trade show was held earlier this week in Los Angeles.

A Nintendo press release said that the Wii Vitality Sensor will detect your pulse and other body signals. This will give you information about “the body’s inner world.”

The Telegraph reports that Nintendo President Satoru Iwata envisions the device as a potential sleep aid.

“It may not be long before games help people unwind or even fall asleep,” said Iwata.

Learn more about insomnia on SleepEducation.com.

Image by Nintendo

Preventing Nightmares and PTSD Flashbacks with Tetris

A new study in the online journal PLoS ONE shows that playing the computer game Tetris can reduce unwanted “flashbacks.”

This is promising for people who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Could it also help other people who suffer from nightmares?

The study involved 40 people who watched a traumatic, 12-minute film. It contained scenes of real injury and death.

After a 30-minute break, half of the group played Tetris for 10 minutes. The other half sat quietly.

Flashbacks were monitored for one week using a daily diary. Subjects then returned to the lab for an assessment.

Results show that Tetris players had significantly fewer flashbacks. They also had fewer clinical symptoms of trauma.

At the one-week follow up, both groups scored the same on a recognition memory test for the film. This indicates that voluntary recall was similar between the groups. It was the rate of involuntary memories – flashbacks – that was different.

Tetris requires you to arrange a falling puzzle of colorful block-like shapes. The authors told Reuters that the visual aspect of the game may compete with the traumatic, visual memories. It may interfere with how your mind forms and stores the memories.

One of the study’s authors noted that you have about six hours to affect memories before they are stored in the brain. Any type of intervention needs to be done in this window of time.

The AASM reports that nightmares tend to be the most disturbing aspect of PTSD. Often the dreams involve a flashback to the event that seems shockingly real.

Potential implications of the study also extend beyond PTSD. It suggests that a visual distraction like Tetris could reduce nightmares for anyone after a stressful event.

It could be especially helpful for children who are prone to having nightmares after seeing a scary movie or other distressing images.