Doctors might not condone many of the ways pop stars choose to blow off steam.
However, scientists say that Raye‘s unusual daily habit could be the secret to beating the stress of the superstar lifestyle.
In a recent interview, the award-winning singer claimed that a daily dose of video games helps her to ‘escape from her everyday life’.
While it might seem strange, scientists say that developing a healthy gaming habit really could be the key to a clean bill of mental health.
Studies have shown that gaming can boost emotional well-being, help fight stress, and even tackle the symptoms of depression and anxiety.
Dr Nicholas Bowman, an expert on the psychology of gaming from Syracuse University, told MailOnline: ‘The interactive and immersive nature of video games is especially powerful at providing us a chance to “step out of ourselves” a bit.’
However, experts also warn that overdoing it could lead to bad habits and even addiction.
Here’s how you can take a leaf out of Raye’s book and get the most out of your gaming sessions.
Brit award-winning singer Raye (pictured) says that playing video games each day is her secret to beating the stress of the popstar lifestyle
Are video games good for you?
Raye recently opened up about her long-term love affair with gaming after appearing in a Nintendo advert alongside her sisters.
Speaking to BBC Newsbeat, Raye said: ‘Almost every day, when I need to just turn off, I’m just playing a game, finding someone on tour who wants to play games with me.’
Raye added: ‘I’m really one of those people who loves to hyper-focus on something, and when I’m playing a game, nothing else matters in that moment.’
While Raye claims that this helps her to ‘recharge’ and ‘connect’, the notion that spending hours gaming is good for you seems to fly in the face of conventional wisdom.
Anyone who grew up playing video games has probably heard repeated warnings that their hobby ruins the attention span, increases rates of violence, and generally rots your brain.
However, scientists are now beginning to discover that this could not be further from the truth.
On the contrary, experts now say that spending a bit of time playing games each day can be the basis of a healthy life balance.
Raye says that her favourite game is ‘Overcooked’ (pictured). She claims that the stressful and challenging game helps her to ‘escape’ from everyday life – and scientists say this theory holds up to scrutiny
Psychologists have found that the interactive and achievement-based nature of games can make them great tools for satisfying our psychological needs.
Professor Bowman says: ‘Basic psychological needs associated with competence (the need to feel good at something), autonomy (the need to have control over one’s choices) and relatedness (the need to feel connected to others) are all things that video games are especially good at.
‘Games challenge us, they provide us with interesting choices to make, and they help us connect with people, other characters and even ourselves.’
Recent research suggests that this is actually a big part of why games are so enjoyable to begin with.
In 2022, the largest study of gaming ever conducted looked at the habits of 40,000 gamers over six weeks.
The researchers, led by Professor Andrew Przybylski of Oxford University, found that people got a strong positive feeling from playing games they loved.
The study concluded that gamers who experienced competence and connection got genuine enjoyment from the game and experienced more positive well-being.
Likewise, in a 2014 study participants were asked to take a ‘highly stressing’ maths test before playing a few competitive games of Mario Kart.
Research has shown that playing games like Mario Kart (pictured) can reduce stress and anger while increasing happiness, joy and balance
On Instagram, Raye shared a picture of her Nintendo Switch console and matching pink headphones. Scientists agree that spending some time each day gaming can be a powerful antidote to stress and worry
By satisfying the need for connection and autonomy, the game triggered a reduction in stress and anger and increased happiness and balance.
Professor Bowman adds: ‘Games can be frustrating and are typically more difficult to engage than other types of media, but the “payoff” is an engaging experience that lets us get a win, make our own choices, and connect with a few others.’
Can video games improve your mental health?
In even better news for gamers, it also appears that playing games provides more than a temporary mood boost.
There is now a growing body of evidence which suggests that regular video game use can help reduce the symptoms of anxiety and depression.
A review of current research published in 2021 by scientists from the University of Limerick found that a wide range of games had powerful beneficial effects.
The researchers noted that games such as Minecraft or Animal Crossing: New Horizons were effective for ‘social connectedness, fighting loneliness, maintenance of social interaction, and ultimately the alleviation of depressive symptoms.’
In one particularly striking study highlighted by the researchers, participants with anxiety were either prescribed 30-45 minutes of the game ‘Plants vs Zombies’ or a dose of traditional serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRIs).
Studies now suggest that video games can be as powerful for combatting the symptoms of depression and anxiety as some prescription medications
Researchers support Raye’s (pictured) claim that gaming helps her to feel connected as studies show that this feature of games can even help limit the impact of depression
One study found that playing 30-45 minutes of Plants vs Zombies (pictured) each day could reduce anxiety more than a prescription of serotonin reuptake inhibitors (SSRI)
Surprisingly, this study found that those who had been assigned the gaming prescription showed a greater reduction in anxiety than those taking medication.
Overall, the researchers concluded: ‘Commercial video games show great promise as inexpensive, readily accessible, internationally available, effective, and stigma-free resources for the mitigation of some mental health issues in the absence of, or in addition to, traditional therapeutic treatments.’
This is because the effects of gaming are a strong countermeasure to many depression or anxiety symptoms.
For instance, people with depression often suffer from ‘anhedonia’ which is the inability to experience joy or pleasure.
Research has shown that by fostering genuine connections and simply by being good fun, gaming can trigger feelings of joy and happiness in people suffering from the condition.
‘Anxiety can be reduced by gaming experiences that help focus our attention towards a goal and, likewise, depressive symptoms could be addressed by providing a space for social interaction and the chance to be good at something,’ says Professor Bowman.
Can video games be bad for your mental health?
Of course, not everyone who plays video games has a clean bill of mental health.
Raye is such a fan of video games that she recently appeared in an advert for the Nintendo Switch. However, some researchers also point out that spending too long on consoles can be associated with poor mental health
In fact, spending excessive amounts of time playing video games each day could be a sign of an underlying mental health condition such as depression.
Professor Bader Chaarani, an expert on the effects of media on the brain at Vermont University, told MailOnline: ‘Previous studies have shown that playing video games, especially for extended periods, can be associated with negative effects on mental health such as ADHD, anxiety and depression.’
In his own 2022 research paper, Professor Chaarani scanned the brains of more than 2,000 children using FMRI to determine how gaming affected neural development.
‘We found that playing video games for more than 3 hours per day may be associated with ADHD and depression,’ he said.
Likewise, research from Nihon University in Tokyo found that having a Nintendo Switch only improved the mental health of people aged 10-69 if didn’t play for more than three hours per day.
However, Professor Chanaari argues that this does not prove that video games have any negative effects.
He says: ‘A critical thing to note is that all of these findings are cross-sectional and do not imply causation.’
Additionally, Professor Chanaari adds that previous research claiming to show the negative impacts of gaming has used small sample sizes and lacked robust controls to ensure their findings are robust.
One study scanned the brains of 2,000 children to find that there was a significant association between playing three hours of games per day and increased rates of anxiety and depression. However, the brains of gamers also showed more activation in the regions associated with inhibition control and working memory (pictured)
On the contrary, Professor Chanaari’s research actually ‘showed cognitive benefits in video gamers, who overperformed non-video gamers on tasks assessing working memory performance and response time.’
Likewise, Professor Bowman says that any negative mental health impacts would be ‘extreme outliers and remarkably uncommon.’
As some researchers have argued, the likely explanation for these mixed results is that people with bad mental health are more likely to choose to spend more time gaming.
In other words, players whose psychological needs aren’t being met in the real world are more prone to seeking that satisfaction in the virtual world.
How to play games healthily
If you want to follow Raye’s advice without risking any negative side effects, scientists say there are simple factors to bear in mind.
Research from the University of Oxford suggests that the most important criterion for healthy enjoyment of video games is motivation.
Writing in Royal Society Open Science, Professor Przybylski and his co-authors concluded: ‘We found little to no evidence for a causal connection between game play and well-being.
A study found that children who played video games were significantly faster at various cognitive tasks (illustrated). However, the researchers suggest that gaming still needs to be done in moderation
The experts say that gaming needs to be done in moderation and alongside a healthy mix of other daily leisure activities. Pictured: Super Mario Party Jamboree
‘However, results suggested that motivations play a role in players’ well-being.’
The researchers noted that gaming may only be a negative influence on those who feel compelled to play while those who choose to play, and enjoy that choice, experience better outcomes.
That means if you find yourself leaning on gaming to modify your mood in some way or escape your responsibilities, it could be a sign of underlying mental issues.
For people who are missing out on some basic psychological needs, that can make gaming just as dangerous as any other potential addiction.
Like almost any habit, the moment that gaming starts to become a compulsion rather than a pleasure, any potential benefits vanish.
Likewise, even if they are good for your brain, sitting motionless for several hours a day can be bad for your health if you are not also getting exercise elsewhere.
This means that gaming needs to be one part of a whole mix of things you do to ensure that you get the most out of it.
Professor Bowman concludes: ‘The best way to ensure positive benefits is to play in moderate doses and to balance gaming within a broader mix of daily leisure activities.’
This article was originally published by a www.dailymail.co.uk . Read the Original article here. .
