Researchers found a tipping point where too much gaming may start crowding out healthy habits.
Spending more than 10 hours a week playing video games may start to affect young people’s eating habits, sleep quality, and body weight, according to new research led by Curtin University and published in Nutrition.
The study involved 317 students from five universities across Australia. Participants had a median age of 20 years, making the findings especially relevant to young adults during a formative stage of life.
How the Study Grouped Gamers
Researchers categorized students based on how much time they reported spending on video games each week. The groups included low gamers (0-5 hours per week), moderate gamers (5-10 hours per week), and high gamers (10+ hours per week).
Students in the low and moderate groups showed very similar health patterns. In contrast, once weekly gaming time went beyond 10 hours, health outcomes began to worsen noticeably.
Professor Mario Siervo from the Curtin School of Population Health explained that the results point to excessive gaming as the main concern rather than gaming itself.
“What stood out was students gaming up to 10 hours a week all looked very similar in terms of diet, sleep and body weight,” Professor Siervo said.
“The real differences emerged in those gaming more than 10 hours a week, who showed clear divergence from the rest of the sample.”
