Study Finds that Playing a Video Game Before Bedtime Has Only a Mild Effect on Adolescent Sleep

A study in the April 15 issue of the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine suggests that playing a video game before bedtime has only a mild effect on the sleep of older male teens.

Results show that after playing a stimulating video game it took adolescents a median of 7.5 minutes to fall asleep, which was only slightly longer than the three minutes it took them to fall asleep after passively watching a documentary on DVD. Although no participants fell asleep while playing the video game, almost one-third of them fell asleep while watching the DVD. Subjective sleepiness after playing the video game was only slightly lower than after watching the DVD, and playing the video game was associated with a small increase in cognitive alertness. However, no significant differences in physiologic arousal or sleep architecture were found between testing conditions.

“Initially we were surprised that playing the violent video game did not lead to a much longer time taken to fall asleep,” said research supervisor Michael Gradisar, PhD, senior lecturer in clinical child psychology at Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia. “Although the scientific literature is sparse when it comes to measuring sleep latency associated with playing video games, anecdotally a lot of people report difficulty falling asleep after playing video games at night.”

The study involved thirteen male students between 14 and 18 years of age who were good sleepers, normally falling asleep in less than 15 minutes. They were “evening types” who did not have excessive daytime sleepiness and had no identifiable sleep disorders. Participants completed a seven-day sleep diary for the week prior to their initial testing night. This information was used for the testing conditions so that participants attempted to sleep at their usual bedtime.

The study was conducted at the Flinders University Sleep Laboratory, where participants sat in bed beneath the covers with electrodes attached and lights dimmed for both testing conditions. During the 50-minute experimental session the teens played the Sony PlayStation 3 video game “Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare,” which was the top-selling game of 2007. During the control condition on a separate night they spent an equal amount of time watching “March of the Penguins,” which won the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature. The two visits to the sleep lab were separated by exactly one week.

“We purposefully chose a very tranquil movie to contrast against the very stimulating effect of playing a violent video game in the hope of producing the greatest effect on sleep.” noted Gradisar.

Sleep-onset latency and sleep architecture were measured by electroencephalography (EEG), electromyography (EMG) and electro-oculography (EOG). Cognitive alertness also was measured by EEG, with a higher maximum alpha-power reading indicating reduced cognitive alertness. Participants wore an oximeter probe on their right index finger to measure heart rate, the most common index of physiologic arousal. Subjective sleepiness was assessed using the Stanford Sleepiness Scale.