Does playing video games affect your heart rate?

According to Science Daily, researchers from Stockholm University, Uppsala University and Karolinska Institutet have found that boys playing video games in the evening led to increased heart rate variability both while playing the game and later that night, while sleeping.

The study also found that games with violent content had an increased effect on the boys' heart rates, when compared to a control group of boys who were asked to play a game containing no violent elements.

According to the study, the boys reported that they felt refreshed after sleeping and thus they did not notice the effects of higher heart rate variability due to playing the games.