So if you’re like me, you probably have spent a few all-nighters studying for that final, maybe a party or two, or my favorite: an all-night gaming binge. While I still do this from time to time, I can feel my age starting to catch up with me when I stay up too late. Let’s take a look at how staying up and pulling all-nighters while on the game can affect us.
You may think your body is magically rejuvenated after 7 or 8 hours of sleep. Well that’s not quite how it works. There are two sides of sleep called REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and non- REM sleep and you need both during the night in order to feel rested when you wake up. Non- REM sleep is what a majority of your sleep consists of. This is where you are relax and become rested. REM sleep is where you have vivid dreams and a lot of your memory consolidation occurs during this sleeping stage.
Some problems that can come from messing with your sleep cycle are as follows:
Gaming close to bed can cause you to lose 30 to 40 mins of sleep2 – A lot of this is due to the interactive nature of videogames and its possible it could be caused by the blue light emitted by TV’s and computer screens. But the facts remain the same, sleep loss happens. This loss of sleep happens in one of two ways. Either by being overstimulated and not being able to fall asleep or from waking up periodically throughout the night.
- Loss of REM sleep – When you lose REM sleep, you take the time it uses to help store memories away from it1. This could cause a multitude of things from memory loss to the inability to do complex tasks
These two issues may not sound like a big deal but everything that you do to your body adds up. If you continue on this type of sleep deprived patterns throughout your life, it could affect the way you live outside of the game. Until next time gamers, game safe!
References
1Carbone, M. (2015). This is how video games can screw up your sleep | Sleep Junkies. Retrieved June 21, 2016, from http://sleepjunkies.com/blog/video-games-sleep-habits/
2Good, O. (2012). Two Years Later, Sleep Researchers Now Say Gaming Before Bed Is Bad. Retrieved June 21, 2016, from http://kotaku.com/5953301/two-years-later-sleep-researchers-now-say-gaming-before-bed-is-bad
I have pulled all-nighters playing video games many of times and have experienced some of the symptoms described in your blog. This information can be very useful for high school students, parents, and administrators. Nice post!
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