Top 5 Gaming Supplements 2024: Boost Your Energy & Protect Your Brain
Key Points:
- Competitive online gaming is a popular way to recharge and connect with friends. However, late nights and dopamine highs can create unwanted symptoms. These supplements for gamers help you safeguard your brain and mental health without giving up the activities you love.
- When picking a gaming supplement, it’s important to look at any symptoms you may have. Sleep, mental health, and focus are commonly disturbed by too much gaming.
- Alongside supplements, we recommend including other natural dopamine boosts in your lifestyle. These include things like early morning sunshine, artistic hobbies, and exercise.
Competitive gaming offers a fun way to recharge, connect with friends, and even build a side hustle. But as soon as you get serious about gaming (think: gaming chairs, gaming keyboard, and mouse) it’s time to get serious about your supplements, too.
Just like any sport or activity, competitive gaming can come with some health side effects. Things like carpal tunnel, dopamine imbalance, dehydration (from long gaming sessions), and even symptoms of anxiety.
It’s important to understand what you’re getting into when you begin gaming competitively — and “get ahead of the game” with gaming supplements to support your mental and physical well-being.
Table of Contents:
- 5 Best Supplements for Gamers, According to Research
- Healthy Lifestyle Habits to Balance Dopamine
- Our Favorite Gaming Supplement
5 Best Supplements for Gamers, According to Research
Before you dive into the best gaming supplements for you, think about any symptoms you may experience as a result of competitive gaming. Some of them may be hard to recognize — and you might not even notice them at first.
Consider symptoms like:
- Dopamine imbalance (rollercoaster of highs and lows)
- Abnormal circadian rhythm (especially if you’re a late-night gamer)
- Carpal tunnel
- Anxiety from overstimulation
- Fatigue
- Headaches
- Sore muscles
Now that you have an idea of how gaming might affect you, let’s dive into the best gaming supplements for you.
1. Phospholipids for Optimal Brain Function
No matter how you look at it, gaming impacts the brain. The bright colors and dopamine hits can take a toll on your mind over time — which is not what you want when you’re trying to reach Ascendant in Valorant or Diamond in Fortnite.
We recommend supplementing with phospholipids because they are a type of healthy fat that makes up approximately 60% of the brain, and we don’t get enough from diet alone.
Phospholipids also work to keep your cell membranes in check — helping them filter out toxins and soak in nutrients. It’s a win-win.
2. Nootropics for Gaming Focus
If you’ve never heard of nootropics (or “smart drugs”), they’re the latest and greatest safe supplement that helps to quicken memory and sharpen the mind. They do this by targeting brain metabolism (energy production) and balancing the central nervous system. They also improve glucose and oxygen levels in the brain, so neurotransmitters are more effective.
If you have noticed a decline in your mood, sleep patterns, and word recall since you started gaming seriously, nootropics (synthetics, like deanol and pyritinol, or plant extracts, like ashwagandha, rhodiola, and ginseng) may be just the gaming supplement you need to improve your online performance and feel better offline.
3. Matcha Tea for Stable Energy
Many pro gamers recommend supplements to improve energy levels — and to help you stay focused well into late-night gaming hours. However, we recommend keeping a stable circadian rhythm and maintaining good sleep habits whenever possible (seriously, it pays off).
If you do need an energy boost for daytime gaming, try matcha tea. Since it’s a green tea, it’s packed full of the antioxidants your cells crave. In studies, it’s shown promising effects on brain function and memory. And, unlike energy drinks that make you jittery, matcha has the benefit of slow-release caffeine. This helps to protect your heart and gives you stable energy throughout the day, rather than a boost and a crash.
4. Electrolytes for Optimal Hydration
Ask yourself: Do you remember to bring your water bottle to streaming sessions? You take gaming seriously — and when you’re glued to a controller or keyboard for a few hours, hydration can seem like a low priority. We recommend electrolytes as gaming supplements because they can help you to feel better during your games — and often help to cut down on the post-game fatigue.
Since electrolytes are directly involved with sending electrical impulses in your body, they’re a great solution for those who experience muscle cramps, fatigue, and headaches as side effects of gaming.
5. Melatonin for Sleep
Most people have heard of melatonin as a supplement for sleep — but melatonin is a powerful resource that does much more. Melatonin is an antioxidant that helps to scavenge free radicals in the cell. In the body, it’s also converted from serotonin in your gut for natural nighttime calm.
Like serotonin, melatonin is similar to a neurotransmitter and works to balance your circadian rhythm. This supplement can be especially helpful for gamers who experience symptoms of neurotransmitter imbalance due to inconsistent sleep patterns.
Healthy Lifestyle Habits to Balance Dopamine
One of the unique challenges for gamers is dopamine imbalance. The risk and reward hormone is regularly released during high-stakes events, or following big accomplishments.
The brain can’t tell the difference between real-life survival and gaming systems — and over time, too much dopamine released during gaming can impact brain patterns.
The good news is, it’s totally possible to regulate dopamine levels with healthy lifestyle activities, so you don’t have to give up the games you enjoy.
1. Set Your Circadian Rhythm
As mammals, we have a built-in clock that tells us when to feel alert, hungry, energetic, calm, or sleepy. When balanced, this clock (our circadian rhythm) will regulate our sleep patterns, brain health, nervous system, and even our digestive system and body temperature.
Without a balanced circadian rhythm, you may feel anxious, unnerved, hungry at odd times, and unable to keep to a regular schedule.
Focus on healing your circadian rhythm by creating a routine with your sleep schedule. Wake up at the same time each day, get outside for early morning light exposure and watch the sunset if possible, and set a timer to remind you to eat regular meals. These healthy habits will help to stabilize your dopamine levels and help you to feel better online and offline.
2. Exercise Regularly
Regular physical activity (especially outdoors), is a natural way to boost dopamine levels in the body. Whether you choose high-energy activities like running, swimming, or weight lifting or low-impact workouts like pilates and yoga.
While a one-time workout can increase dopamine in the moment, long-term, consistent workout sessions are the best way to ensure dopamine levels are balanced and circulating throughout the body.
When you have high dopamine demands from gaming, it’s important to ensure that your body is used to getting dopamine naturally, too. Exercise is a great way to maintain dopamine levels.
3. Find an Artistic Hobby
Outside of gaming, there are a number of hobbies that provide stable dopamine release. Artistic pastimes, especially, can fill your brain with bright colors, creativity, and the reward of a job well done.
The more you boost dopamine levels in the brain, the more dopamine your brain will crave. So it’s important to have other healthy lifestyle activities besides gaming to help level out the highs.
Some satisfying artistic hobbies we love include painting, wood crafting, pottery, photography, dance, cooking, and writing.
Our Favorite Gaming Supplement
You’re researching the best gaming supplements for a reason. Maybe you want to boost your performance as a competitor, or you’ve noticed a rise in sneaky symptoms that you want to eliminate.
You don’t have to pick between a healthy lifestyle and your favorite games. There are so many healthy habits and supplements for gamers you can implement to improve your performance online and safeguard your mental health.
One of our favorite supplements for gamers is BodyBio Calm. A botanical blend rich in nootropics including rhodiola and phosphatidylserine, BodyBio Calm targets stress and helps improve mental clarity over time.
Take it before bedtime to help stabilize your circadian rhythm — or use it during high-stress gaming to keep your brain centered and focused.
Level Up Your Mental Health with BodyBio Calm
References
Dietz, C., Dekker, M., & Piqueras-Fiszman, B. (2017). An intervention study on the effect of matcha tea, in drink and snack bar formats, on mood and cognitive performance. Food research international (Ottawa, Ont.), 99(Pt 1), 72–83. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.foodres.2017.05.002
Malík, M., & Tlustoš, P. (2022). Nootropics as Cognitive Enhancers: Types, Dosage and Side Effects of Smart Drugs. Nutrients, 14(16), 3367. https://doi.org/10.3390/nu14163367
Riganello, F., Prada, V., Soddu, A., di Perri, C., & Sannita, W. G. (2019). Circadian Rhythms and Measures of CNS/Autonomic Interaction. International journal of environmental research and public health, 16(13), 2336. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph16132336
Costello, R. B., Lentino, C. V., Boyd, C. C., O'Connell, M. L., Crawford, C. C., Sprengel, M. L., & Deuster, P. A. (2014). The effectiveness of melatonin for promoting healthy sleep: a rapid evidence assessment of the literature. Nutrition journal, 13, 106. https://doi.org/10.1186/1475-2891-13-106
Glade, M. J., & Smith, K. (2015). Phosphatidylserine and the human brain. Nutrition (Burbank, Los Angeles County, Calif.), 31(6), 781–786. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.nut.2014.10.014
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