Gaming After Dark: Poor Sleep and Insomnia

Before we jump into this week's episode, I did an interview on the Mindclickers podcast, together with Lachlan Park (one of the most accomplished Rocket League coaches out there). We had a great conversation about all things gaming and esports, and the science behind it. Definitely a banger episode worth checking out!

Video game are accessible 24/7 and many people to relax until they go to bed. However, video games are known to evoke emotions such as tilt and other forms of arousal. Are those emotions linked to symptoms of insomnia, and what are the recommendations?

♻️ Why “Just One More Game” Can Ruin Tomorrow

In today's society, video games have become a central aspect and leisure activity for many people. Servers are running 24/7, making them available around the clock. Furthermore, games are highly immersive and often played at night—who didn't (or still does) play way too long not realizing it's already 2am? This is especially the case for FPS.

Studies have shown that "playing video games for a long period of time in the evening is believed by many to be a significant, common, and probable cause of sleep disturbances." [1]

In addition, even playing in the evening might lead to a lack of quality and quantity of sleep, causing negative effects the next day. For instance, concentrating—or doing cognitive work in general—is likely to not be at its peak.

Spending more time playing FPS can significantly increase aggression in-game, and also lead to toxic behavior such as flaming, trolling, or harassment. All the above often leave players with a dampened mood, worse performance, team coordination, and motivation.

"Arousal, on the other hand, is known as cognitive and physiological activation disturbing one’s ability to fall asleep." [1]

Being aroused was shown in FPS players to increase their heart rate and anxiety, and being aroused before sleep (unless it's sex, sex is fine) can also leave you with a night of poor sleep. Moreover, a heightened heart causes you to feel more tense and frustrated.. Frustration then turns into tilt, causing violent and impulsive behavior (no bueno if you're trying to climb the ladder).

😡 Tilt and Insomnia: The Science Explained

The figure above shows parts of the study's results. What they found was that tilt had an indirect effect on insomnia symptoms through pre-sleep arousal. This means that higher levels of tilt had a positive effect on pre-sleep arousal (tilt made players more aroused before going to bed). Being aroused, in turn, had a positive link to having symptoms of insomnia. However, a direct effect of tilt on insomnia was not found. In a nutshell: the harder you tilt, the more aroused you are, causing you to feel insomniac.

"However, the current finding shows that the severity of IGD has a direct significant impact on tilt, which in turn has a direct significant impact on insomnia symptoms." [1]

Players who have a strong, unhealthy relationship to gaming (Internet Gaming Disorder—IGD) will tilt easier. Then, tilt will cause them to show symptoms of insomnia. However, they did not find a direct link between the severity of IGD and a greater severity of insomnia symptoms.

🥡 Your Takeaways

There are really two things to take away from this study:

1. Don't play in the evening, especially not till very late. I know, I know... you've heard this a million times. But now you got the science-based knowledge to why.
2. Tilt decreases your sleep quality and quantity. If you recognize you're tilting. Just turn off the game—or computer. Your future you will thank you for it. Don't fall into the trap of "Just one more game"—it's not gonna end well.

Hope y'll have a great week. Read you next Sunday,

Christian 🙂

References

[1] Achab et al., 2011
[2] Sasseville et al., 2025