[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.