Sleep plays a crucial role in cognitive ability and electronic sports (esports) performance. Although gamers are often known for having poor sleep conditions, few studies have investigated sleep quality among electronic sports players. This study aimed to clarify the prevalence of poor subjective sleep quality among esports players, including the differences between professionals and amateurs, as well as the associated factors in esports activities. A web-based cross-sectional survey was conducted to professional and amateur esports players. The survey included attributes (age, gender, living arrangement, and esports level), subjective sleep quality, and esports activities (device, career duration, playing frequency by time of day, playing time per day on weekdays and holidays, distance between the screen and face, and food and beverage consumption during play). The analysis focused on 90 participants (35 professionals, 55 amateurs; mean age, 22.4 ± 6.6 years) who provided complete responses. The proportion of esports players with poor sleep quality was 43.3%, indicating that a relatively large proportion experienced poor subjective sleep quality. No statistical differences in poor sleep quality were observed between the professional and amateur players. However, professionals had statistically later bedtimes and wake-up times and longer sleep time than amateurs. Attribute-adjusted modified Poisson regression with robust error variance showed statistical associations between playing esports during 3:00 to 5:59 AM and 6:00 to 8:59 AM and poor subjective sleep quality. However, only a few players were active during these hours. Further investigation is needed into the factors beyond esports activities that affect sleep quality.
Monma et al. (Wed,) studied this question.