[sn41]

Just a general question, is it known why overwork and things like playing games for long hours has not just benign effects like fatigue, but actually leads to sudden death? There is the notion of karoshi in Japan which is death due to overwork. I also remember some news articles about a gamer in South Korea who collapsed and died after 4 days of continuous gameplay.

[futhey]

I only have anecdotal answers, but a few of the South Korean and Chinese video-game related deaths were caused by cardiac arrest and dehydration. I always assumed the unspoken part was that the gamers were using some mild stimulants (at least large doses of caffeine), combined with long bouts of inactivity.

This became a somewhat related issue in Japan a few years back, sometimes tied to karoshi incidents, and led to very strict regulation of stimulants, including how energy drinks and caffeine pills can be packaged / sold.

There are many other examples of cardiac arrest after several days of low activity and sleep deprivation though, so the medical reasoning may be simpler.

[sn41]

oh wow. I thought junk food might be involved with such long bouts. But I didn't correlate caffeine with this.

What I wondered originally was, whether sleep deprivation/loss of quality sleep for as little as one week could lead to death.

[djeiasbsbo]

I'd assume that this is even more of a problem with focus enhancing drugs such as amphetamines, because they also will keep you awake and alert.