Gaming and your health: sorting the facts from fiction

Video games have a long history of polarising the community.

Back in 1999, when it was revealed that the shooters of the Columbine massacre were players of Doom — a retro first-person shooter with satanic themes — it created a moral panic about the impact of violent video games.

Further to this, an R-rating for video games wasn’t actually introduced in Australia until 2013. Before this, our classifications board banned games it considered to be too violent or graphic, while waving through movies and other mediums with a R18+ classification.

Debates around the impact of video game violence has somewhat died since. But regardless, the medium continues to split the room regarding its health impacts on gamers — especially amid the rise of professional gaming and e-sports.

Why does it matter? With over 80% of the Australian population engaging in gaming, it’s arguable that another moral panic into the health implications of games would have more of an impact on the gaming industry today than it would back in the 1990s.

It’s telling that one of the peak body for video games industry in Australia, Interactive Games and Entertainment Association commissioned its own research into the health impact of games just last year.

So, is gaming actually bad for you? The headlines on the matter tend to be polarising but the truth likely lies somewhere in the middle.

I can personally attest to this. As an aging gamer my thumbs ain’t what they used to be. But as someone who plays an above-average hours of games per week, I don’t feel like the addicted social hermit sometimes described in the news.

You can really get lost in the weeds with this topic and I’m not a doctor or an academic.

So, to keep it easy to follow, I’ve broken it down by the key things I’ve learned reading the research and where possible linked an academic study or survey (typically the primary source) for the information.

Over 3 hrs daily increases joint strain or pain risks

A 2022 study in the BMC Musculoskeletal Disorders points to extended periods of gaming (described as in excess of over three hours per day) leading to neck, back, wrist and hand issues for gamers. It also suggested that those most at risk are e-sports professionals, and programs should be set up to help them model appropriate gaming behaviours for other causal gamers. It also noted that similar issues have been seen excessive smartphone use — upwards of five hours per day.

A more recent global study in Computers in Human Behaviour elaborated that gamers tended to feel symptoms after sessions that last for more than three hours.

Late at night isn’t great for sleep, but social media is worse

It shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone the gaming late at night isn’t great for your sleep.

But, a 2024 article in Nature found that in general, scrolling on social media is worse for your sleep than gaming. It suggested that because games have natural stopping points (completing a quest or achieving an objective) they provided more indications to a sleep-deprived person to stop.

Meanwhile, social media has no such cues, with most platforms featuring endless scrolling and other usability functions aimed at maintain engagement and attention. The exception to this are those addicted to games.

As for why gaming is bad before bed: It stimluates the brain ahead of sleep, which reduced your quality of sleep and also increases your chance of waking in the middle of the night.

Addiction is real, but we’re struggling to define it

In 2020, the World Health organisation added Gaming Disorder to its list of diseases and disorders, legitimising the condition. But future studies are yet to quantify what level of gaming qualifies as a disorder.

A 2023 study in Cureus listed a number of symptoms including social withdrawal, lying about gaming use, and loss of interest in other hobbies as signs. It also lists Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) as a treatment — this is also used for treating anxiety and depression.

Addiction is a rabbit hole of a topic. One of the reasons why its so tricky for the gaming industry, is that making successful game revolves around crafting a ‘compulsion loop’ to keep the player engaged as they progress though the game. The formation of these loops — where activities are associated with reward — is part of the creation of an addiction.

But, curiously, other less stigmatised activities can also lead to addiction such as reading and exercise.

Gaming trains our brains & improves mental capabilities

On to some of the benefits of gaming. A 2014 article in American Psychology (PDF) generated a broad swath of headlines regarding the positive impacts of playing video games. It summarised a number of studies that showed that particular genres of games can enhance their players ability to solve logical and spatial problems. Also, frequent failing or requiring a change of strategy within a video game also enhanced players ability to regulate emotions and adapt to new situations. (If you’d rather not read the journal article but are curious, Forbes did a summary of the study here).

A 2019 article in Brain Sciences expanded on this idea. It detailed that playing various genres of games triggered parts of the brain (as mainly measured through brain scans) associated with various mental functions. It couldn’t link these findings to improvements, but did note the effects a particular genre of game may have on our brains generally noticeable after 16 hours of gameplay.

What to make of it all

Regardless of their findings, each study I read more or less ended with the same footnote: This topic requires more research.

That’s especially the case when it comes to studies that measure how gaming affects various activity centres of the brain. Most of the studies used self-reported data (mainly via in-person or online surveys), which comes with its own set of caveats for validity.

As for where gaming is unhealthy, this is typically the case if it’s done for long periods of time (research tends to agree on over 3 hours being long), and at the exclusion of other activities (sleep, socialising and exercise). That’s it. No long-term social consequences or (as of yet discovered) health implications in contrast to other hobbies.

Where experts tend to be worried is that the rise of e-sports and professional gaming will push more players towards forming unhealthy gaming habits — longer sessions on a more regular basis.

But the research also shows that gaming is not “dead” time.

Depending on the genre you play, you actually are engaging and training parts of your brain, perhaps more so than other activities like binging Netflix or even reading. Without realising, you may be inadvertently building skills that could help with your job or everyday life.

Will this nuance make it into the ongoing debate? Probably not. After all: It’s not easy to write a compelling headline that shows both sides of the story.