Nootropics are cognitive-enhancing substances such as supplements or pharmaceutical drugs that are on the rise in gaming for their performance-enhancing qualities. While a large portion of the supplement market targets physical benefits, like weight loss or muscle growth, nootropics target the your brain.
The five categories of nootropics include biochemical, locomotor-exploratory and emotional behavior, coordination, cognition, and adaptation. All gamers can benefit from improved attention, reaction time, energy levels, and short-term memory. But do nootropics really work? And can taking them regularly make you a better gamer?
How Nootropics Improve Gaming Performance
When sports psychologist out of New York wrote about mental performance training for eSports athletes, he looked at their emotional and physical reactions to situations. By measuring things like heart rate and skin temperature, they can determine whether that gamer was alert or anxious, and then compare it to output with in the game. His findings echoed something well-known in performance psychology for physical athletes and soldiers – gamers need to manage their emotional reactions and alertness to stay in “the zone”.
eSports athletes experience similar demands to physical athletes, especially when it comes to managing stress and anxiety. The ideal performance mindset hovers atop an inverted-U shape for arousal management. Play while too stressed and you’ll make mistakes, freeze, or otherwise experience negative anxiety. Not enough stress and arousal ruins alertness, and you’re too relaxed to react in time. Navigating that thin line is critical to elite gaming performance.
While lots of eSports athletes reach for an energy drink or even a pharmaceutical to help, neither are highly recommended for your long-term health. And the ESL is cracking down on use of drugs like adderall. Rather than risk your health or being banned from competition, we’ve got some natural nootropics for your gaming performance.
Best Biochemical and Adaptive Nootropic – Performance Lab Energy
This energy supplement from Performance Lab comes with all the focus-enhancing, stimulating benefits of coffee or an energy drink, but it does so in a much more natural way. Rather than launch a barrage of an attack from the outside, Performance Lab Energy infiltrates the main power source – neural mitochondria. It’s like a cheat code to get straight to the boss.
High-pressure situations demand elite neuronal function. Creating energy to fuel fast signal transmission comes from the mitochondria in your brain cells, but it can also form damaging byproducts.Performance Lab Energy protects your mitochondria like a shield while simultaneously healing it. Its secret weapons? Acetyl-L-Carnitine, R-Lipoic acid, Coenzyme Q10, and PQQ – all bioavailable compounds that bring mitochondria back to full fighting strength.
Don’t keep searching around for health amulets like energy drinks. Instead, supercharge the existing power source within your brain to keep it from depleting, and then take that into your gaming prowess.
Best Cognitive, Coordination and Emotional Behavior Nootropic – Performance Lab Mind
Performance Lab Mind utilizes amino acids to maximize catecholamine levels for optimal attention and focus. Supplementing with tyrosine and citicoline found in Performance Lab’s Mind sharpens your cognition without and jittery side effects that could ruin your game. These compounds work with dopamine and acetylcholine levels to stimulate communication amongst neurons and increase brain energy.
On a more holistic level, this Mind nootropic treats total brain health with phosphatidylserine and maritime bark. The first, phosphatidylserine, maintains smooth operation by lubricating cell membranes through supplying good fats and removing toxic and damaged cells. Maritime bark extract contributes specific antioxidants that promote blood flow to the brain. Better brain health = longer playing time, more practice, and higher competition.
Conclusion – Can Nootropics Improve Gaming Performance?
In a sense, yes. Getting optimal blood flow and nutrients to your brain to optimize hormone levels and attention helps access a “flow state”. But there’s much more to it than just nootropics. Getting a good night’s rest, learning to manage your emotional reactions with mindfulness, and lots of practice should come first. But once you’ve become a Jedi master at that, nootropics will only add to your already elite mastery.
