How yoga helped Bengaluru teenagers break away from gaming habit – The South First

Yoga might symbolize a possible and scalable complementary intervention for adolescents with IGD, significantly inside school-based and resource-limited settings.

Published Apr 19, 2026 | 6:56 AM ⚊ Updated Apr 19, 2026 | 6:56 AM

Synopsis: Cognitive behavioural remedy is at the moment probably the most established psychological therapy for IGD. It has proven actual ends in lowering gaming behaviours and bettering emotional regulation. But CBT requires educated psychological well being professionals to ship, and in most Indian faculties, these professionals aren’t out there. The researchers felt that yoga interventions could also be extra possible and scalable inside college settings, significantly in resource-limited contexts.

Across India, thousands and thousands of youngsters attain for his or her telephones the second they get up and begin gaming earlier than breakfast.

By the time they sleep, hours have handed, homework is left pending, and arguments with mother and father are routine. For many, this isn’t only a dangerous behavior. It is a scientific situation.

Internet Gaming Disorder, or IGD, is now formally recognised by the World Health Organisation below the ICD-11. It impacts an estimated 9 to 10 % of adolescents globally.

In India, the place smartphone penetration is deep and psychological well being infrastructure is skinny, the issue is rising sooner than the options.

A brand new study from Bengaluru means that one reply might exist already in Indian school rooms, ready to be employed.

What the researchers did

A workforce of researchers from Swami Vivekananda Yoga Anusandhana Samsthana (SVYASA), Bengaluru and National Institute of Mental Health & Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), Bengaluru, performed a randomised managed trial at a co-educational college in Bengaluru between December 2022 and February 2023. They screened 380 college students and recognized 120 adolescents aged 14 and 15, who met the factors for IGD. All of them have been gaming for no less than two hours a day.

The college students have been divided into two equal teams. One group of 60 pupils underwent a structured yoga programme over eight weeks. The different 60 continued their regular educational routine with none intervention.

The yoga classes have been held 3 times per week throughout college hours, with every session lasting 40 minutes. The programme was not an informal stretching class. It was a validated Integrated Yoga Module developed particularly to deal with IGD, combining bodily postures, respiratory strategies, solar salutations, mindfulness meditation, and deep leisure.

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Inside the yoga module

The module was constructed on the Pancha Kosha framework from the Taittiriya Upanishad, which describes human existence throughout 5 interrelated ranges: bodily, vitality, emotional, mental, and bliss. Practices have been chosen to work throughout all 5 ranges.

The classes included loosening workout routines, standing and seated postures similar to Vrikshasana and Paschimothanasana, Pranayama strategies together with alternate nostril respiratory and Bhramari, Surya Namaskar, and a five-minute deep leisure method. Each session closed with mindfulness meditation.

The module was finalised via structured discussions with 5 yoga consultants and a psychiatrist skilled in treating IGD, drawing from classical texts together with the Hatha Yoga Pradipika and Patanjali Yoga Sutras, in addition to up to date scientific literature.

Also Read: At NIMHANS, mother and father be taught to sign off so their children can too

The outcomes

The findings have been constant and placing throughout each measure the researchers tracked.

Students within the yoga group confirmed vital reductions throughout all six core symptom domains of IGD: salience, temper modification, tolerance, withdrawal, battle, and relapse. The management group confirmed no comparable enchancment.

As the authors famous, these “significant Group x Time interaction effects” throughout all IGD domains indicated that reductions have been “directly associated with the yoga intervention” reasonably than coincidental.

The advantages went past gaming behaviour. Depression, anxiousness, and stress scores all fell considerably within the yoga group. Loneliness diminished sharply. Mind wandering, a measure of consideration and focus, additionally improved. Quality of life scores rose throughout bodily, psychological, social, and environmental domains.

Crucially, the enhancements weren’t simply self-reported. Parents independently confirmed the modifications. Scores on the Parental IGD Scale dropped sharply within the yoga group, whereas it remained largely unchanged within the management group.

The authors famous that “the convergence of self-reported and parent-reported outcomes strengthens confidence in the behavioural changes associated with the intervention and reduces concerns related to mono-informant bias.”

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Why have been these youngsters weak

Adolescents are significantly inclined to gaming habit for neurological causes. The authors defined that their “ongoing neurobiological maturation, heightened sensitivity to rewards, and still-developing executive control mechanisms” make them extra more likely to fall into compulsive patterns.

Gaming exploits precisely these vulnerabilities, providing fixed rewards, social connection, and an escape from educational or emotional stress. For youngsters already battling anxiousness or loneliness, the pull is very sturdy.

Neuroimaging research cited within the paper recommend that adolescents with IGD present modifications in mind areas linked to reward processing and impulse management, patterns that resemble these seen in substance-related addictions.

Why yoga, not remedy

Cognitive behavioural remedy, or CBT, is at the moment probably the most established psychological therapy for IGD. It has proven actual ends in lowering gaming behaviours and bettering emotional regulation.

But CBT has a major sensible limitation. It requires educated psychological well being professionals to ship, and in most Indian faculties, these professionals aren’t out there.

Yoga, the researchers argued, provides a unique type of alternative. As they put it, “yoga interventions may be more feasible and scalable within school settings, particularly in resource-limited contexts.”

The authors have been cautious to not overclaim. They didn’t recommend that yoga is superior to CBT. Instead, they proposed it as “a complementary or alternative intervention, especially for adolescents with limited access to psychological services or those who prefer non-stigmatising, group-based approaches.”

The cultural dimension additionally issues. Yoga is extensively accepted in Indian faculties and carries no stigma. It requires no specialist tools, no scientific referral, and no excessive value.

What the research can’t inform us

The researchers are candid about what this research doesn’t show. It was performed in a single city college in Bengaluru, which limits how broadly the findings will be utilized.

The management group acquired no lively different intervention, which makes it more durable to isolate yoga’s particular results from basic advantages like structured exercise or time away from screens.

There was additionally no long-term follow-up. The research measured modifications instantly after the eight-week programme ended, however whether or not these positive aspects held weeks or months later stays unknown.

The authors known as for future trials with “active or attention-matched control conditions,” goal measures similar to digital utilization monitoring, and physiological markers like coronary heart charge variability. Longitudinal research, they stated, are wanted to evaluate whether or not the behavioural modifications final.

A low-cost reply to a rising disaster

Despite these caveats, the research’s consistency is tough to disregard. Every single end result measure, throughout self-reports and mother or father experiences, throughout gaming behaviour and psychological well being, moved in the identical path.

The authors concluded that yoga “may represent a feasible and scalable complementary intervention for adolescents with IGD, particularly within school-based and resource-limited settings.”

India is just not in need of faculties. It is just not in need of yoga. What it has been in need of is proof that the 2 can work collectively to deal with a psychological well being disaster unfolding quietly in school rooms and bedrooms throughout the nation.

This research begins to offer that proof.