Video Games Before Bed Are Okay

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A new report in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine found that playing violent video games before you go to bed won’t keep you awake. In addition, none of the participants showed homicidal tendencies after playing violent video games, although the children forced to watch March of the Penguins did experience nausea, vomiting and mild dementia. :D

A new study found that teens who played the popular video game "Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare" took only slightly longer to fall asleep than teens who watched a documentary. Australian researchers found that it took teens a median of 7.5 minutes to fall asleep after playing the video game, only slightly longer than the three minutes it took them to nod off after watching the Academy Award-winning March of the Penguins on DVD.
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fast paced fps get my blood flowing. i feel like they keep me up at night. not like hours, but long then if i didnt play.
 
I don't know if the times have changed, but fun video games used to keep me up for hours after I stopped. It's not the adrenaline or bloodflow, but the sheer excitement of wanting to continue playing. This is mostly related to story-driven games like RPGs.
 
After 30+ years of playing games I find this "report" to be complete BS.

Playing games has always messed up my ability to go to sleep.

Maybe it was that the teenagers stayed up for 24+ hours and then fell asleep in 7.5 minutes.
 
Video games keep me awake. I can't play them to close to when I go to sleep. I think this study is wrong =/
 
RTS games are like mind crack for me. when i stop playing them my main focus changes but in the back of my mind i am still doing all the micro managing of playing the game. can stop me from sleeping for hours.

if i play online FPS games it is fairly mindless and has no effect on me.

i also have never fallen asleep under normal conditions in under 30 minutes. only times i have fallen asleep quicker is total physical and mental exhaustion.
 
I find that gaming right before bed not only makes it harder for me to fall asleep but also makes my eyes super tired the next morning. Something I found that helps calm my mind is playing some calming music like Enya quietly.
 
7.5 minutes? It takes me 2 hours to fall asleep. My mind is my worst enemy as I am constanly thinking.
 
BravO))) said:
7.5 minutes? It takes me 2 hours to fall asleep. My mind is my worst enemy as I am constanly thinking.
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I was just about to post the same thing. Forget 3 or 7.5 minutes, I envy anyone who can fall asleep in under 30 minutes
 
i can play games then go to sleep just fine

it's a question of will and tiredness

i do play games for an hour or so before bed most nights, but more often than not I watch an episode of something before falling asleep

I even turn it off in the middle of it if i feel tired enough to go to sleep.

the thing is, if you CONSCIOUSLY fight or WANT to stay awake while playing games before bed, THAT will make it harder for you to fall asleep, because your mind is engaged on the task at hand and resists the will to quit untill it's finished.

I've had my share of nights like that, no doubt, but generally I've found as I get older (turn 28 next week) I'm much more disciplined and in control of what my body does.

If I want to go to sleep I go to sleep, used to be a big time insomnaic, no longer as I've mastered it.
 
7.5 minutes? Maybe if I'm exhausted. Average time for me I believe is ~15-20mins, whether or not I played some games before bed.
 
Wish I could go to sleep that fast! I take ambian and it still doesn't help much. I feel like I spend more time trying to go to sleep than sleeping. It doesn't matter if I play games or not.
 
I'm less interested in the study and more interested in the comments about March of the Penguins.

:)
 
Dead_D said:
Wish I could go to sleep that fast! I take ambian and it still doesn't help much. I feel like I spend more time trying to go to sleep than sleeping. It doesn't matter if I play games or not.
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me too, minus the ambian
 
video games dont interfere with my sleep, insomnia does. are you guys calling bs doing so with any sort of logical refutation in mind besides "nu-uhhh, they keep me up"? because it seems like if playing video games would "force" you awake, then doing anything that required your direct attention would do the same exact thing, thus invalidating your suppositions :p
 
They need to do a study with kids who play violent video games and crank one out before going to bed and kids who do everything else but don't crank one out...

I call it taking my "Handbian"
 
The Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, brought to you by Ambien, Sarotex, Temazepam.....

I love how a study involving 13 male teenagers from Australia becomes the definitive research in some people's minds.
 
Wow yeah, agree with all those who's first thought was, "people fall asleep that fast?".
30 min at least, unless I've exercised to complete exhaustion or something.
Heck, even in my "teenage years", from what I remember, I had no 3 minute sleep button on the back of my head.
 
Pfui. First Person Shooters are more fun when I'm dead tired. Like playing drunk but without the annoying hangover in the morning.
 
BravO))) said:
7.5 minutes? It takes me 2 hours to fall asleep. My mind is my worst enemy as I am constanly thinking.
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This sounds exactly like me.

I think we are in the minority though. Most people I know fall asleep so fast.

I keep myself entertained and thinking non-stop, but there seems to be no off-switch so I can actually fall asleep. :p
 
Same here, right now I am playing King's Bounty and have really gotten into the game. Certainly affects my sleep if I play right up to going to bed, mainly because I am thinking of strategies and ideas for what to do next. This more so bothers me if I feel I left in the middle of something like a quest.
 
i agree with the others here, takes me between 30min and 1hr 30 to fall asleep no matter what i have done during the day, even if ive exercised at the gym for a couple of hours i still cant just turn off. however both my mam and sister just need to put there head on there pillow and there asleep almost instantly.
 
Did any of the kids fall asleep while watching the penguin movie? Might as well have them watch hypnotoad.
 
I sometimes find I have a small window where if I don't fall asleep within 20 mins or so it can take a couple of hours, regardless of gaming or, ahem, other stuff I do before bed :)
 
It takes me ~10 minutes to fall asleep on a regular day, but I really never play video games until the moment before I lay down. I think it may be because I never drink coffee, havent had a pop for 7+ years, and really never touch anything with processed sugar in it.
 
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