Adolescents and young adults with videogame addiction tendencies are likely to be sleep deprived or have problems with obesity, a study published in PLOS One finds.

Video gaming is more popular than ever among teenagers and children. Some spend hours upon hours every week in front of a television playing the latest game. These gaming habits interfere with other activities, like exercise, and have negative health effects.

Researchers from McMaster and California State University, Fullerton looked deeper into this subject to see exactly how these habits affect the health of teens and adolescents. They studied a group of children between the ages of 10 and 17 who were part of lifestyle management programs for either weight management issues or other lipid disorders. They looked at if video game habits affected these youths sleep, obesity rates and cardio-metabolic health.

The researchers used fitness trackers to monitor sleep. They found that those who played video games longer had less sleep, elevated blood pressure and a change in cholesterol. The video gaming addiction in these children explained the sleep differences in one third of the children.

Although these results are specific only to this group of children, it could point to how videogame addiction affects the general population.