Immersive experience of online gaming among Chinese college students: the enhanced effect of sleep deprivation on emotion regulation and problematic gaming within the I-PACE model.

Online gaming addiction has become an important issue affecting the physical and mental health of college students, but its formation mechanism remains incompletely understood. Based on the I-PACE (Interaction of Person-Affect-Cognition-Execution) model, this study explores the influence and mechanism of sleep deprivation on emotion regulation strategies (cognitive reappraisal and expressive suppression) and problematic online gaming among Chinese college students through experimental design. The study recruited 300 college students (mean age 20.5 years, 48% male) in China, randomly assigned to a sleep deprivation group (24 h awake, n = 150) and a control group (normal sleep, n = 150). Measurements were conducted using the Gaming Addiction Scale, Emotion Regulation Questionnaire, Cognitive Bias Scale, and other instruments. Results showed that ERQ scores (M = 36.7, SD = 5.2) and problematic online gaming scores (M = 42.3, SD = 6.4) in the sleep deprivation group were significantly higher than those in the control group (ERQ scores: M = 28.1, SD = 4.1; problematic online gaming scores: M = 35.5, SD = 5.9), with p values all less than 0.001. Mediation analysis indicated that emotion regulation strategies (ERQ scores) partially mediated the relationship between sleep deprivation and problematic online gaming (indirect effect = 0.24, 95%CI[0.19, 0.29]). Moderation analysis revealed that cognitive bias significantly moderated the relationship between emotion regulation strategies (ERQ scores) and problematic online gaming (β = 0.32, p < 0.01), with the indirect effect under high cognitive bias conditions (0.33) being 2.2 times that under low cognitive bias conditions (0.15). The findings support and extend the I-PACE model, suggesting the mechanism by which sleep deprivation may increase problematic online gaming risk through impaired emotion regulation processes, emphasizing the important role of sleep health, emotion regulation training, and cognitive bias correction in preventing problematic online gaming.