Yoga can reduce gaming addiction, shows Nimhans study

Bengaluru: If you thought the answer to your teenager’s gaming addiction was to unplug the router, science has a better plan. And it involves a lot of deep breathing. A study by Nimhans has found that structured yoga can reduce the growing concern of gaming disorder in adolescents.

The research was conducted by Nagalakshmi S Rao, PhD scholar, Department of Yoga and Life Sciences, SVYASA-Jigani, under the guidance of Dr Raghavendra Bhat, Professor, Department of Yoga, Central University of Rajasthan and Dr Manoj Kumar Sharma, Professor of Clinical Psychology, Nimhans. Published in Frontiers in Public Health, the study is relevant owing to the overlap between Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) and generalised internet addiction.

IGD is defined as an uncontrollable urge to game that begins to damage schoolwork, relationships and mental health.

The Nimhans study involved 120 participants of the age group 14-15, who demonstrated symptoms of IGD.

They were divided into two groups of 60 each. While one group attended 24 sessions of yoga intervention over eight weeks, the other group was involved in more conventional activities like sports and crafts.

The groups were then studied based on seven globally recognised scales, including the Internet Gaming Disorder Scale, the WHO

Quality of Life, Mind Wandering and the UCLA loneliness scale. The findings demonstrated that adolescents who participated in the yoga intervention exhibited significantly greater reductions over time, relative to the control group, across all core IGD symptoms.

“With the internet becoming more accessible, free games and social media boom, gaming addiction has become more rampant. It acts like any other substance abuse addiction. Once the addiction sets in, the body’s stress system is always running in overdrive. Gaming keeps triggering the fight-or-flight response — stress, aggression, withdrawal,” researcher Nagalakshmi told DH.

The researcher highlighted that the addiction was found to be more prevalent in males, with first-person shooter games like PUBG remaining the most popular. The addiction usually starts with stress, quickly transforming into anxiety and finally depression. “Yoga does the exact opposite. It brings the body back to calm from stress,” Nagalakshmi added.

The yoga intervention was designed for screen-addicted teenagers, starting with exercises for the wrists, fingers, neck and eyes, the body parts that gaming quietly impacts.

Subsequently, joint-loosening exercises were replaced with Suryanamaskara, Veerabhadrasana, and Vrukshasana, especially to rebuild focus and attention that gaming quietly erodes. “For oxygenation of the brain, we included Ushtrasana. For the spine, Setubandhasana and Poornanavasana. We wanted to address every part of the body, not just the mind,” Nagalakshmi said.

Globally, IGD affects roughly 10% of adolescents. In India, estimates range from 3.5% to 10% overall, with prevalence among boys reaching as high as 15%. While Cognitive behavioural therapy remains the clinical gold standard for IGD, yoga intervention can certainly be of help. Hence, the routers can stay plugged in for now.