Abstract Introduction Esports, or electronic sports, is a rapidly expanding competitive domain involving individual- or team-based video gaming organized around structured tournaments and ranking systems. The intensive training demands, heavy screen exposure, and irregular routines of collegiate Esports may contribute to elevated sleep disturbance and burnout, yet the mechanisms linking insomnia to burnout remain unclear. Self-Determination Theory (SDT) posits that well-being depends on satisfying autonomy, competence, and relatedness needs, and that the frustration (thwarting) of these needs contributes to stress and exhaustion, making it important to test both need satisfaction and thwarting as explanatory pathways. From this perspective, insomnia may function as an upstream stressor that undermines athletes’ sense of control, efficacy, and social connection. Guided by SDT, we examined whether insomnia severity was associated with burnout through basic psychological need processes. Methods Collegiate Esports athletes (N =112; M =20.38, SD=1.73) from universities across all major U.S. regions completed validated measures of insomnia, need satisfaction and thwarting, and burnout. Parallel mediation models tested satisfaction- and thwarting-based pathways linking insomnia to burnout (controlling for training hours). An exploratory reverse model (Burnout→Need Processes→Insomnia) probed potential bidirectionality. Results In the need-thwarting model, insomnia was associated with burnout through competence thwarting (β = .11, SE = .05, 95% CI .01, .23), representing a moderate indirect effect, with the direct effect nonsignificant—consistent with full mediation. No significant indirect effects emerged in the need-satisfaction model. In the exploratory reverse model, burnout was associated with insomnia through relatedness thwarting (β = .14, SE = .06, 95% CI .04, .28), also a moderate effect, again with a nonsignificant direct effect. Together, these findings support bidirectional need-based mechanisms linking insomnia and burnout. Conclusion This study provides the first mechanistic evidence linking insomnia and burnout in Esports athletes. Competence thwarting (but not need satisfaction) explained the insomnia→burnout pathway, whereas relatedness thwarting explained the burnout→insomnia pathway. Together, these findings reinforce SDT’s position that psychological need thwarting, rather than low satisfaction, is the more proximal driver of burnout and other maladaptive outcomes. Targeting both sleep and factors that thwart psychological needs may help reduce burnout risk in this population. Support (if any)
Assar et al. (Fri,) studied this question.