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Can Gaming In Bed Have a Negative Effect?

Can gaming in bed have a negative effect?

The Question Of Blue Light When it comes to using electronics at night time, the issue of blue light is often raised. We have talked about blue light before, but not in the context of gaming – and it is here that we may see a crucial difference between blue light from consoles and PC […]

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The Question Of Blue Light

When it comes to using electronics at night time, the issue of blue light is often raised. We have talked about blue light before, but not in the context of gaming – and it is here that we may see a crucial difference between blue light from consoles and PC gaming, and blue light from a phone, for example.

Simply put, blue light is a light wave emitted from most light sources. Our brain associates this with sunlight, triggering a chemical response that delays natural sleep. Blue light filters can help to reduce this effect, but realistically we recommend that you avoid electronic light sources for up to an hour before going to sleep.

Video games might see a more impactful effect from blue light though, as video games commonly use bright and surprising graphical effects to engage with players. Elements like explosions and jump scares – even the common effect of a flash-bang grenade in a first-person shooter (that often whites out the entire screen) can all have sudden and lasting effects on a players drowsiness. Imagine being ready for bed and then your OLED television displays a painfully bright (by design) white screen, along with accompanying tinnitus-like sound effects.

Simply put, when it comes to video games and blue light we stand by our rule of avoiding it for an hour before bedtime – perhaps more when video games are concerned.

Comfort

Gaming is different than just watching television. In fact, there is a whole industry dedicated to creating a more comfortable experience for PC gamers whilst keeping to the alert and competitive nature of gaming – Gaming Chairs.

Why is this relevant to mattresses? Because unlike watching a television show, gamers are going to find it hard to stay engaged when lying down facing a television or propped up on a shoulder playing on a handheld device. Posture is incredibly important, and staying in an unhealthy position for too long can have serious repercussions.

Focusing solely on posture, gaming in bed can be incredibly unhealthy – especially if the gamer in question spends all day sat down or relying on their physicality for their career. Even gamers who play professionally make sure that they are committed to good night’s sleep on a mattress that will support their posture.

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Our advice would be to keep gaming out of the bedroom, or at the very least, out of the bed itself for the good of your posture.

Emotions Running High

Everyone who has ever played any game has used some version of the phrase “Just five more minutes.” Then, those five minutes turn into an hour, one more game turns into five, and before you know it, you have whittled away most of your night gaming.

When it comes to sleep health, and specifically getting the eight hours of sleep that doctors recommend, this involuntary loss of time to gaming is obviously going to be incredibly unhealthy. It’s not just losing time in games either.

Emotionally, video games can have a profound effect on a person. We’ve all seen videos of meltdowns on YouTube, but smaller versions of that exist within every gamer playing, as that’s the goal of games – to elicit an emotional response.

So, if you were to play a quick multiplayer game before going to sleep and play through a particularly exhilarating match, the chances are you are going to be filled with endorphins, on a winner’s high and as a result, looking to replicate the experience. Conversely, the opposite can be true as well; a negative experience in a multiplayer match can lead to anger, frustration and a desire to perform better. Either way, your body is chemically primed and nowhere near ready for sleep.

When it comes to emotions, we would say that gaming in bed can have negative effects, especially concerning the amount of time it takes to fall asleep.

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