As an industry, esports is growing by leaps and bounds. While 2020 saw over 215 million viewers tune in to watch the latest esports championship, the growth in viewership has been exponential. More and more people are discovering esports, and their enthusiasm is spreading across the globe at staggering speeds. As a result, a growing number of people are now considering Esports a legitimate sport. This popularity has led to novice gamers wanting to get in on the action. However, it requires intense concentration and the ability to solve problems quickly, so rest is so essential when it comes to this sport.
What is Esports?
If you’re not familiar with the term, esports (short for electronic sports) is a way to describe professional video game competitions. The competitions are highly competitive, both in their prize money and their viewership. While most people think of video games when they think of esports, it is actually a very competitive and cerebral sport with huge monetary rewards on the table. It is a rapidly growing, global phenomenon that has taken over the world. Its popularity is defined by its intensity, passion, and excitement. Competitive video gaming, or esports, is the fastest-growing sport globally, often referred to as “e-sports” or “video game leagues.” Today, in many countries, there are professional teams, stadiums, leagues, and tournaments.
The Best Way To Get Enough Sleep
It would be best to attempt to make a routine that will enable you to fall asleep and wake at regular intervals. This routine is essential because high-quality sleep is not merely about how many hours a night you get but also how many times you cycle between deep and REM sleep. To fully understand this, you need to calculate your sleep to know how many hours you should need in theory to cycle through the different stages of sleep. Once you have calculated the correct amount, the next step is to follow this routine as best as you can. You will experience an increase in your comparative gaming skills once you follow this schedule over a certain period.
What Makes Rest So Important For Competitive Gaming?
A healthy brain is essential for a healthy body. While the brain creates new connections every day, sleep uses the same brain areas every night. Therefore, a healthy amount of sleep is essential for a healthy brain. Sleep has been shown to play an indispensable role in learning and concentration. In studies, sleep is shown to improve memory and consolidate information. Scientists now believe that sleep is primarily a process that restores the brain to a pre-sleep state, begins the process of memory consolidation, and can induce significant changes in brain chemistry. By ensuring that you are getting the right amount of sleep, your brain will form new connections, and over time, your ability to concentrate will improve. If you are overworked and under-slept, you may have some of these problems:
- Reduced productivity.
- Sleep deprivation.
- Mood problems.
- Memory and concentration problems.
What does this mean? In the absence of proper sleep, your ability to game properly will diminish over time. Sleep is a vital component of healthy living and never more so when it comes to competitive sports. Gaming requires a great deal of concentration and the ability to make split-second decisions. If you hesitate for even a millisecond, you could lose the game and the winnings that come with it. So how does a restful night’s sleep help you to get to the top of your game?
Increased Concentration
The importance of concentration cannot be overstated when it comes to being at the top of your game. Any game that you have specialized in will require vast amounts of attention to gain the upper hand and outwit your opponent. Without enough restful sleep, you will simply lose your ability to process information over long periods, and this will eventually ensure that you lose.
Reaction Times
Reaction time is defined as the time required to make a reflexive response to an unexpected stimulus. The faster a person can make an instinctive response to a stimulus, the quicker his or her reaction time. Reaction times are a widely used metric to quantify an individual’s ability to respond to stimuli. Therefore, immediate reactions are arguably the most critical skill that a competitive gamer will need. It is vital because computer manufacturers are bringing out ever more sophisticated hardware that increases the frame rate of games. When a person lacks sleep, it takes them longer to respond to a stimulus and remain competitive. While a lack of sleep will hinder your reaction times slightly at the start, a continued lack of rest will compromise your ability to react in a sufficient time to win a match.
Inability To Communicate
Although the inability to communicate may seem like an odd addition to this article, it makes a world of difference depending on the game you’re playing. As part of some games, such as multiplayer online battle arenas, you play with others. This requires excellent coordination and communication. If a team member has not slept well, he or she will be unable to communicate effectively. So what is sleep’s role in it? An often overlooked part of sleep is how it helps you to process information from your environment, which is all-important for communication. As it turns out, sleep is crucial for your ability to understand and correctly process new information, as well as your memory abilities. Without enough rest, you will not have a chance to process information efficiently, resulting in your inability to communicate with other team members.
Increased Stress Levels
Chronic sleep deprivation may be a severe cause of stress. There are several ways in which lack of sleep can cause anxiety, but the main culprit is cortisol, which increases the less you sleep. When you have increased stress levels, your decision-making abilities drop rapidly. Needless to say, this will be a massive disadvantage when you are playing.
Being at the top of your game requires that you are well-rested. Without the right amount and quality of sleep, your concentration, reaction times, and ability to work with others will significantly diminish.
