The impact of an action commercial video game on adult non-gamers psychological well-being, cognitive functioning, and sleep

Introduction: The ever-growing diffusion of video games (VG) prompts to investigate their effects on health. While different studies exist on the topic, their results are difficult to interpret, probably because modulating factors have been mostly neglected. Here, we explore VG type and gamers’ experience levels by assessing the impact of a violent VG on sleep, cognitive functioning, and psychological well-being in a sample of non-gamers. Methods: In a within-subjects design, 18 adult non-gamers (Mage = 24.4 ± 3.68 years, 12 F) underwent a baseline assessment including sleep logs and actigraphy for one week, one night of home polysomnography (PSG), administration of a cognitive testing battery, and questionnaires on psychological health. The baseline assessment was followed by an experimental condition and an active control condition, in balanced order between participants, each lasting four days: a) three nights of pre-sleep activity manipulation, in which participants either played an action VG or watched a familiar action TV series for an hour before bedtime, with PSG on the last night; b) administration of the cognitive battery and questionnaires on the 4th day. Results: After video gaming, participants reported better visuospatial working memory and reduced stress levels compared with the baseline and the active-control condition. Except for reduced efficiency in TVW, no between-condition difference emerged for sleep measures. Conclusions: In contrast to the common assumption that VGs are detrimental to several health-related variables, our data show that controlled, time-constrained video gaming may positively affect next-day cognitive functioning and stress, while not compromising objective sleep quality.