What’s more important than getting a good night’s sleep?

For men the answer appears to be staying up to play video games and drinking alcohol.

Those are two of the findings of a survey commissioned in February of this year. Seventy-five percent of the men surveyed said they stay up “past their bedtime” to play video games, while 61 percent of men report they have stayed up to drink alcohol. By contrast, fewer women (64 percent) skip sleep to play video games or drink alcohol (51 percent).

The blue light emitted by digital devices such as computers, phones and tablets triggers the brain to produce more of the hormone melatonin. This overproduction disrupts sleep cycles with harmful results.

The highest rates of video-deprived sleep occurred among adults under 44 years of age, with 18- to 24-year-olds leading the pack, according to the American Academy of Sleep Medicine (AASM) online survey of 2,010 U.S. adults. The responses did not vary by geographic region.

The restorative value of sleep is a medical fact. Without adequate sleep — at least seven hours daily for adults says the AASM — a person is risking higher rates of heart disease, diabetes, weight gain and emotional dysregulation.

Research has repeatedly shown, for example, that the blue light emitted by digital devices (computers, phones, tablets) triggers the brain to produce more melatonin, a hormone very much involved in the regulation of the sleep cycle and that this overproduction disrupts sleep cycles with harmful results.

You can see the survey results here.