The age old myth of abstaining from sex before big games that was thrust upon athletes has taken a big twist. Game Politics is reporting that Dr. Marco Cardinale, a PhD and head of Sports, Science and Research of the British Olympic Association, has said on his blog that playing video games before big games or matches might be detrimental to an athlete’s performance in the game.
Cardinale’s argument is that now-a-days athletes take their games, movies and other forms of entrainment along with them on the road. And he believes that exposure to light from such types of electronics could negatively impact an athlete’s sleep patterns to a great extent, especially when traveling to different time zones.
His research says that children playing Need for Speed Most Wanted for 60 minutes show impaired sleep patterns and a reduction in verbal cognitive performance. His advice is simple: When traveling (especially across time zones) brush aside the laptop, DVD player, iPod and similar gadgets and video game devices and just go to sleep. We reported on something similar in June last year.