Plenty of us grind hours-long sessions on games like EA FC or Madden, but a recent study finds that over 10 hours of games a week can damage your health. 10 researchers from around the globe joined up to investigate the effects of excessive gaming. The study was published in ScienceDirect’s Nutrition journal and was originally reported by Medical Xpress.
Everyone looks at gaming with a different view; some play games for leisure, while others think of it as an escape. However, no matter how you look at it, the study reveals the horrible effects of prolonged gaming sessions.
Study Breaks Down the Groups
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Professor Mario Siervo led the research, surveying 317 students from five different Australian universities. The median sat at 20 years old, the prime age of gamers.
Everyone was split into three groups: low gamers at 0-5 hours a week, moderate gamers at 5-10 hours a week, and high gamers at over 10 hours a week. The goal was clear: spot how playtime stacks up against diet, sleep, and weight in real student life.
Diet And Weight Risks Spike
People who played more than 10 hours a week, aka the “high-gamers”, showed worse diet quality and higher odds of being overweight. Their average BMI was 26.3, technically overweight, while the other groups were around 22.
Every extra hour spent gaming meant a drop in diet quality, even when stress and exercise were taken into account. Professor Siervo noted that while low and moderate gamers looked pretty similar, things take a quick turn once you’ve crossed that 10-hour line.
Sleep Suffers The Most
Sleep was disturbed for almost everyone, but moderate and high-gamers had it worse than the low-gamers group. Late-night gaming sessions mess with sleep quality big time.
Plus, gaming overshadowed their conscientiousness, stealing time away from basics like balanced meals and staying active. Instead, you have gamers fixated on a chair for hours until their backs give up.
Is It Gaming, Or Your Negligence?
Professor Siervo stressed the study links excessive gaming to these health risks, but it doesn’t state that gaming outright causes them. The small sample size may be a factor; still, the patterns are hard to ignore.
Anything excessive is usually bad, and gaming doesn’t get a pass at all.
