Health Spirit Body

Menu
  • Home
  • Health
  • Weight Loss
  • Nutrition
Home
Health
7 Reasons Video Games Might Just Be Better for You Than Books
Health

7 Reasons Video Games Might Just Be Better for You Than Books

Don Patrick August 26, 2021

Gamers have gotten a bad rap for a long time, but now, science supports the notion than gaming might actually be better for you than books!

7 Reasons Video Games Might Be Better for You Than Books

  1. Helps you quit smoking
  2. Help reduce pain
  3. Help reclaim control of your memory
  4. Reduce Anxiety
  5. Motivate you to exercise
  6. Help fight depression
  7. Help make you more resistant / optimistic

Helps You Quit Smoking

When we play games, we devote a special quality of mental attention that activities like reading or watching TV often don’t demand. Games demand full engagement—and when our brains are fully engaged, incredible things can happen. 

A 2014 study conducted jointly by Brown University, the American Cancer Society and Stony Brook University found that smokers deprived of nicotine could reduce their cravings simply by playing two-player games or solving puzzles with their romantic partners.

But how? According to MRI scans of the participating couples’ brains, teamwork and puzzle solving activated the exact same reward centers as nicotine does. Many games—especially the casual mobile variety—are designed to offer persistent rewards for completing challenges (ie think of the satisfying visual and sound effects when you obliterate a row of tiles in Candy Crush). So, the next time you feel a craving: reward yourself with a game first. 

Games Reduce Pain

Games offer players a break from reality. In one experiment at the University of Washington Harborview Burn Center, patients undergoing treatment for severe burns were given virtual reality headsets to play a game called Snow World, allowing them to explore an immersive 3-D landscape of hidden ice caves, jolly snowmen, and a pleasant dusting of snowflakes even as caregivers provided painful wound treatments. Patients who played Snow World reported being able to ignore the pain 92% of the time, while those who didn’t typically spent 100 percent of treatment thinking about their own suffering. What’s more, Snow World patients felt an average of 30% – 50% in total pain reduction, providing even greater relief than morphine.

Scientists say this works due to what’s called the  “spotlight theory of attention,” suggesting that our brains work like a spotlight able to focus on a limited amount of information at a time. When our cognitive resources are focused on a mentally-demanding game (say, Candy Crush or Temple Run on your phone), we have less attention to give external stimuli like smells, sounds, and even pain. 

Games Help You Reclaim Control Of Your Memory

Engaging your brain with a challenging puzzle not only helps ease immediate physical pain, but also helps control painful recollections of past trauma. For proof of this we turn to a series of Oxford University studies around everyone’s favorite Russian block-stacking game, Tetris. Study participants were shown a sequence of graphic, gory images in order to simulate post-traumatic stress disorder, then broken off into two groups.

One group played Tetris for ten minutes while the other group did nothing. When they checked in a week later, researchers found that the Tetris group experienced half as many flashbacks of the violent images as the group that did not play, and overall showed significantly fewer symptoms of PTSD. Why does this work? Pattern-matching games like Tetris and Candy Crush occupy the visual processing power of the brain so effectively that involuntary visual memories (flashbacks) are severely disrupted. The Oxford study notes that this is only true of visual-heavy games like Tetris; a more text-based game like Words With Friends would not have this memory-hijacking effect.

Games Reduce Anxiety

Researchers at the New Jersey Medical School’s anesthesiology department found that children who were allowed to play handheld video games before surgery felt virtually no anxiety. What’s more, when they woke from anesthesia after their surgery, game-playing kids felt less than half as much anxiety as the kids who were given medication instead.  As with the Tetris and Snow World experiments, this handheld anxiety-reduction is a simple case of shifting the mental spotlight.

Games Motivate You To Exercise

According to research from Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction lab, study participants who watched virtual avatars of themselves running on a treadmill reported feeling remarkably higher confidence that they could get in shape, and exercised a full hour longer than participants who merely watched their digital twins stand around onscreen.

VHIL founder Jeremy Bailenson, PhD, says that the avatar experiment offers participants the instant gratification of immediate virtual weight loss. “Working out with a virtual doppelgänger means you can see physical rewards of exercise right away,” he says, “which is something that doesn’t typically happen in the real world. In the real world, it takes days or weeks to notice any positive physical changes.” 

Games Help Fight Depression

In a formal survey of PopCap Games (Plants Vs. Zombies, Bejeweled, and Peggle) players, it was found that 77% of players admitted to seeking mental of emotional health benefits from playing, and that casual games were an effective tool for reducing stress, improving mood, and stopping anxiety.

To gain a better understanding why this works, PopCap partnered with biofeedback researchers at East Carolina University to monitor the actual shifts in brain activity experienced by casual players. The results were mind-blowing: After just 20 minutes of playing, gamers simultaneously showed an increased heart-rate variability (tied to reduced stress and higher resilience) and decreased left frontal alpha brain waves (tied to improved mood, which players corroborated on a written survey). Participants who spent their 20 minutes surfing the Internet saw no such improvements in mood or heart-rate. 

Games Make You More Resistant / Optimistic

Anyone who has ever picked up a controller knows that “game over” is a temporary state of being. A team of 25 scientists from Europe and North America recently reported that people who play nine or more hours of video games every week have higher gray matter volume in the reward-processing area of their brains.

Neuroscientist Judy Willis, MD, explains, “When you have constant opportunities to try different strategies and get feedback, you get more frequent and more intense bursts of dopamine… not only do you get minute-to-minute pleasure, but the mindset starts changing in long-term ways. Your brain adapts to seek out more challenge, to be less afraid of failure, and to be more resilient in the face of setbacks.” 

If you found this article helpful, please be sure to share with your friends and family by clicking the link below!

 

Share
Tweet
Email
Prev Article
Next Article

Related Articles

wrapped ginger cough remedy
There are few cold symptoms more frustrating than a persistent …

Treat Cough And Remove Mucus From Lungs in One Night With Wrapped Ginger

CANNABIS PATCH
Cannabis Science, a company focused on the healing power of …

Innovative Cannabis Patch Effectively Treats Diabetic Nerve Pain And Fibromyalgia

sleeping naked benefits
Do you sleep naked? If you answered “yes”, you fall …

Sleeping Naked: 7 Scientific Reasons To Wear Your Birthday Suit To Bed

happy people
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about happiness. This is …

12 Things Happy People Do That Unhappy People Do Not

Popular Posts

  • Can you eat pizza with braces
    Can You Eat Pizza With Braces? How …
    February 6, 2023 0
  • Why am I craving milk
    Why Am I Craving Milk? What Does …
    February 7, 2023 0
  • Do cherries make you poop
    Do Cherries Make You Poop? Everything Explained …
    February 9, 2023 0
  • Vaginal Whitening
    Vaginal Whitening: Safety Vaginal Bleaching Alternatives in …
    February 10, 2023 0
  • how to get rid of knee fat
    How to Get Rid of Knee Fat …
    February 11, 2023 0

Related Posts

  • tick repellent
    Keep Ticks Off Of You All Summer …
    October 27, 2021 0
  • china chicken processing
    USDA Ship U.S. Chickens To China For …
    August 16, 2021 0
  • eating personality
    Identify Your Eating Personality And Start Eating …
    August 29, 2017 0
  • embryo from stem cell development
    Scientists Create Embryo Without Egg OR Sperm
    May 9, 2018 0
  • kids sleep own bed
    This Is Where The Magic Doesn’t Happen: …
    August 21, 2021 0

Health Spirit Body

Health Information For A Better You
Copyright © 2023 Health Spirit Body
About | DMCA | Privacy Policy | Terms Of Use | Contact
We use cookies on our website to give you the most relevant experience by remembering your preferences and repeat visits. By clicking “Accept All”, you consent to the use of ALL the cookies. However, you may visit "Cookie Settings" to provide a controlled consent.
Cookie SettingsAccept All
Manage consent

Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies to improve your experience while you navigate through the website. Out of these, the cookies that are categorized as necessary are stored on your browser as they are essential for the working of basic functionalities of the website. We also use third-party cookies that help us analyze and understand how you use this website. These cookies will be stored in your browser only with your consent. You also have the option to opt-out of these cookies. But opting out of some of these cookies may affect your browsing experience.
Necessary
Always Enabled
Necessary cookies are absolutely essential for the website to function properly. These cookies ensure basic functionalities and security features of the website, anonymously.
CookieDurationDescription
cookielawinfo-checkbox-analytics11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Analytics".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-functional11 monthsThe cookie is set by GDPR cookie consent to record the user consent for the cookies in the category "Functional".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-necessary11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookies is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Necessary".
cookielawinfo-checkbox-others11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Other.
cookielawinfo-checkbox-performance11 monthsThis cookie is set by GDPR Cookie Consent plugin. The cookie is used to store the user consent for the cookies in the category "Performance".
viewed_cookie_policy11 monthsThe cookie is set by the GDPR Cookie Consent plugin and is used to store whether or not user has consented to the use of cookies. It does not store any personal data.
Functional
Functional cookies help to perform certain functionalities like sharing the content of the website on social media platforms, collect feedbacks, and other third-party features.
Performance
Performance cookies are used to understand and analyze the key performance indexes of the website which helps in delivering a better user experience for the visitors.
Analytics
Analytical cookies are used to understand how visitors interact with the website. These cookies help provide information on metrics the number of visitors, bounce rate, traffic source, etc.
Advertisement
Advertisement cookies are used to provide visitors with relevant ads and marketing campaigns. These cookies track visitors across websites and collect information to provide customized ads.
Others
Other uncategorized cookies are those that are being analyzed and have not been classified into a category as yet.
SAVE & ACCEPT