Best Nootropics for Gaming

Best Nootropics for Gaming

Staying Alive: Your Nootropic Walkthrough to Gaming

Video games are a popular way to spend free time, but it’s not always the relaxing experience you anticipated. Some games, no matter how many walkthrough guides you reference, seem impossible to beat.

After hours of button mashing, taking breaks, and swearing, you might eventually get lucky and complete your objective. However, this Cro-Magnon approach to gaming achieves little other than frustration and carpal tunnel. There are better ways to improve your gaming prowess so you can enjoy your video games rather than cursing at them.

Gaming and Sleep Deprivation

More often than many would like to admit, gaming can keep you awake well into the wee hours of the morning. The longer you play, the more tired you become. The more tired you are, the more your performance will suffer. If you are at the climax of the game and simply cannot put down the controller, this can result in a vicious cycle of game death, rage, and repeating the same game sequence for hours.

Studies show sleep deprivation has a negative effect on fine motor skills. [1] Fine motor skills determine how coordinated your small muscle groups interact, such as hand-eye coordination. During periods of prolonged wakefulness, your ability to control your hands and fingers based on what you are seeing suffers which directly translates to poor gaming performance. By boosting your energy and your focus, you can avoid mistakes and maintain the finesse you need to execute your plan of attack.

Nootropics for Energy and Focus

The glitch of your nightmares.

Lack of sleep is not the only thing that can hurt your gaming performance. Repeating a level over and over is not only frustrating, it also reduces your drive to complete the sequence.

This lack of focus and motivation are detrimental to video game success. Unless a well-timed glitch comes along, your likelihood of beating the level without energy and focus is slim.

Focus3d Capsules

Your go-to gaming supplement should be Focus3d to improve energy and attention. These capsules contain caffeine citrate, dicaffeine malate, theacrine, and theanine. This potent stack enhances your energy and concentration without making you so jittery you can’t grasp your controller. This supplement also wards off the nervousness that is a side effect of many energy boosters.

Here is how the energy portion of these capsules works. Because caffeine citrate is caffeine anhydrous combined with citric acid, your body absorbs it much faster than caffeine alone. [2] Dicaffeine malate is caffeine combined with malic acid. This prevents the crash that typically follows energy booster consumption. Plus, the addition of malic acid makes this supplement easier on the stomach than standard caffeine. [3]

The theacrine and l-theanine content provide the focus element of these capsules. While theacrine can boost energy, it also provides a boost in motivation, focus, and mood. [4, 5] This allows you to concentrate and stay in a positive frame of mind during difficult levels or boss battles.

The l-theanine ensures that the energy aspect of these capsules does not overwhelm you. Energy supplements can make you shaky and irritable which is not conducive to gaming.

L-theanine cuts out these side effects to provide a smooth, focused energy. [6] Theanine also helps you to relax so that your hands are not wound so tightly around the controller that you need a crowbar to pry your fingers from it. [7]

Caffeine + Theanine Capsules

This combination is the little brother of Focus3d capsules. The same basic idea applies: improve your energy and focus without succumbing to energy booster side effects. If larger supplement stacks intimidate you, this combination of caffeine and l-theanine is a great starting point to improve your gaming skills.

The caffeine content enhances your focus and ability to process information while increasing your energy. [8] It is also able to improve your reaction time. [8] This means you will have quick wits and improved ability to respond to the demands of your game.  The addition of l-theanine cuts out the jitters, improves your mental performance, and reduces your likelihood to fall prey to distractions. [6]

Supplements for Sleep

Playing video games all night can have unwanted side effects, most of which are sleep related. If you need to get your sleep cycles back on track, there are a couple of options available to you.

Valerian Root Extract

If you find you cannot sleep due to racing thoughts or anxiousness, valerian root extract can help. Some video games are downright terrifying.

If your latest survival horror video game is keeping you up at night, valerian can help induce calmness and relaxation. It also helps you fall asleep faster. [9]

Valerian is also great at reducing stress. This supplement is able to decrease and inhibit the release of stress hormones. [10] If your video game is stressing you out, valerian is a great way to calm your nerves. 

Melatonin

Melatonin naturally occurs in the brain, telling your body when it is time to be awake and when it is time to be asleep. By pushing your body outside the normal sleep cycle, you can disturb your circadian rhythm. Supplementing with melatonin signals to your brain that it is time to sleep. As such, it can reduce the amount of time it takes for you to fall asleep. [11] Take melatonin close to your desired bedtime to help get your sleep cycles back on track.

Game Over

Whether you need to stay awake to save the princess, improve your dexterity to avoid detection, or get your sleep back in sync, there are supplements available to you.

If you are looking to improve your gaming abilities, take action now. Don’t be like Sarah. Ford that river with confidence and leave your old gaming ways behind in favor of newfound skills.

Sources

  1. http://www.ajog.org/article/S0002-9378(08)00712-6/pdfSummary
  2. https://ncimeta.nci.nih.gov/ncimbrowser/ConceptReport.jsp?dictionary=NCI%20MetaThesaurus&code=C0054436
  3. http://www.vitalhealthpartners.com/dicaffeine-malate-review/
  4. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23678853
  5. http://www.nature.com/nrn/journal/v5/n6/abs/nrn1406.html
  6. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18681988
  7. http://espace.library.uq.edu.au/view/UQ:284103
  8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/18006208
  9. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12895671
  10. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24055511
  11. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/23691095

About Samantha Bookwalter

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Samantha Bookwalter is an internet marketing specialist. She specializes in web editing, copy editing, copy writing, social media management, content management, HTML, CSS, and other web-related acronyms. Samantha has an affinity for health and fitness; in her free time she enjoys working out with her husband and researching recipes that are not only healthy but delicious too.

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