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BINGE TWITCH STREAMING RUINS SWEET DREAMING: A CASE STUDY

Abstract

Ian J. Schultz, Meral N. Culver, Braxton A. Linder, Austin T. Robinson. Auburn University, Auburn, AL.

BACKGROUND: Many college students have irregular lifestyles due to juggling schoolwork, living on their own for the first time, and socializing. This population is important to examine because lifestyle habits (e.g., sleep, physical activity) formed during this life period may persist into older adulthood. With the recent rise of gaming and social streaming platforms such as Twitch, many college students spend their free time sedentary on a screen. This case study aims to assess the habits of a college student who spent 4 days awake Twitch streaming followed by multiple days of sleep recovery. METHODS: Objective sleep quality, including sleep duration and efficiency, was assessed using a wrist-worn Philips Actiwatch Spectrum PLUS accelerometer for an 8-day observation period. To assess subjective sleep, the participant completed the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI). Actigraphy-derived physical activity was concurrently measured using an ActiGraph GT3X waist-worn accelerometer. We also assessed anthropometrics and resting brachial blood pressure (SunTech CT40 oscillometric monitor). RESULTS: The participant was a 22-year-old White male. He had a negligible amount of sleep totaling less than 2 hours during the first 4 days of the observation period and self-reported Adderall use and binge Twitch streaming. The binge streaming was followed by a single bout of sleep lasting 21.8 hours. During the entire observation period his sleep duration was 6.1 hours per night and sleep efficiency was 83.2%. Sleep regularity, defined as sleep duration standard deviation (SD), was 6.0, indicating that he had extremely irregular sleep when compared with published data in college students (SD of 1.2). He also reported a PSQI of 7, which is considered disturbed sleep. The participant engaged in 560 sedentary minutes per day and only 22 minutes of moderate or vigorous physical activity per day. His body mass index indicated he was overweight (26.5 kg/m2), and he had stage I hypertension (blood pressure: 130/89 mmHg). CONCLUSION: Based on our case study, we conclude that binge Twitch streaming may contribute to poor sleep regularity, low physical activity, and elevated blood pressure. Future studies should aim to characterize the cardiometabolic health of regular binge Twitch streamers compared to non-streamers.

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