How Many Hours of Video Games Is Too Much? Science Reveals the Health Risks

Gaming has several benefits for cognitive ability and reaction times, not to mention that much-needed stress relief in your down time, but how long can we spend per week zapping the virtual enemy before it starts to defeat out own health as a result? Science has an answer.

The new study published as a result of work carried out by experts at Curtin University in Western Australia, wanted to understand how much is too much as relates to gaming, and while they found that moderate play had no significant harmful effect on health, those who went heavy for long periods received more troubling outcomes.

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How was the Study Carried Out?

Scientists surveyed 317 students with an average age of 20, from five different universities in Australia, grouping them into three categories:

• Low Gamers: 0 to 5 hours per week
• Moderate Gamers: 5 to 10 hours per week
• High Gamers: 10+ hours per week

The students were then observed using several measurements and indicators around sleep, diet, and mental health, to figure out if longer gameplay led to greater lapses in health.

How Many Hours of Gaming Per Week Is Considered Too Much?

The results showed that there were no significant differences in health between the low and moderate gaming groups but going beyond 10 hours told a different story entirely. “What stood out was students gaming up to 10 hours a week all looked very similar in terms of diet, sleep and body weight,” commented Professor Siervo, who worked on the project. “The real differences emerged in those gaming more than 10 hours a week, who showed clear divergence from the rest of the sample.”

When the data was crunched, it became clear that those who gamed for 10 hours plus fell into a poorer diet and had a higher body mass index as a result. The highly frequent gamers also endured poor quality sleep when compared to the low and moderate groups. And, when it came to stress, there was actually a negative association between gaming for longer periods, and perceived mental health. “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,” said Professor Siervo.

Because of the strong link between more frequent gaming and negative health outcomes, the team theorizes that obsessive gaming leads to the neglect of other important areas of life, such choosing fast food over quality ingredients, and staying up too late in order to complete the next level. “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,” said Professor Siervo. “Because university habits often follow people into adulthood, 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.”

Time to become your own Final Boss!