Abstract
The relationship between gaming and sleep is mostly informed by studies of addictive gaming behavior, thus limiting our understanding of sleep in the context of nonproblematic engaged gaming. The present study investigated whether addicted, problem, and engaged gaming behavior was associated with sleep duration, social jetlag, and difficulties falling asleep. The sample consisted of 13- and 16-year-old Norwegian adolescents (n = 3228) participating in the Health Behavior in School-Aged Children (HBSC) survey in 2018. Participants were categorized into addicted, problem, engaged, and normal/non-gaming behavior groups according to which GAS-7 criteria they fulfilled. Robust generalized linear mixed models with a random intercept for class ID were used to examine the association between the sleep variables and gaming behavior. Addicted gaming behavior was unfavorably associated with all sleep parameters. The findings for engaged gaming and problem gaming behavior were somewhat mixed. Engaged gamers slept less on weekends, less on weekdays for those aged 16, and experienced greater social jetlag compared to the normal/non-gaming group. Problem gamers experienced greater social jetlag and had higher odds of experiencing difficulties falling asleep. Overall, the results suggest that all types of gaming behaviors might harm sleep health, but to a greater extent for the addicted gamers.
Highlights
Published: 4 February 2022Games are a natural part of human life
We anticipated that addicted and problem gaming was negatively associated with sleep parameters, but we were more agnostic about the relationship between engaged gaming behavior and sleep, given the mixed findings in the literature
This study aimed to investigate if addicted, problem, or engaged gaming behavior was associated with sleep duration, social jetlag, and difficulties falling asleep among 13and 16-year-old Norwegian adolescents
Summary
Published: 4 February 2022Games are a natural part of human life. As an extension of play, games have presented entertaining opportunities to engage in and improve cognitive abilities such as planning, strategy, memory, communication, and cooperation [1]. Recent evidence in the European context shows that youth sleep is short and ill-timed, and a large proportion of adolescents have difficulties falling asleep [6,7,8,9]. This puts a substantial number of youths at risk for mood and mental disorders [10,11,12], negative health outcomes such as obesity [13,14], and decreased academic performance [15]
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