What effect does watching the Super Bowl have on your health?
Watching sporting events like the Super Bowl can affect our minds and bodies—and not always in a good way.
Fans watch the Patriots face off against the Seattle Seahawks in Super Bowl XLIX on February 1, 2015
For American football fans, the Super Bowl is the pinnacle of the sports calendar. Even if your team doesn’t make the big night, watching the game is undeniably exciting, with a combination of yelling, cursing, crying, drinking, praying, cheering, and, for some lucky fans, cheering. That emotional roller-coaster is part of the fun, right? OK, not to spoil anyone’s parade, but science suggests that big sporting events like the Super Bowl may have some hidden health risks.
Unfortunately, all the excitement doesn’t come without some physical effects. Watching sports can increase your blood pressure and heart rate-and sporting events are associated with higher rates cardiovascular eventsLike a heart attack.
In a recent study, researchers found that Fans of German football team Arminia Bielefeld-who competed in the German Cup final for the first time in 2025 – saw their stress levels increase by 41 percent during the game compared to normal days. Results were published on Thursday scientific report.
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“It was the game of the century, kind of like a Cinderella story,” says study author Christian Deutscher, professor of sports economics at Bielefeld University. Using smartwatch data, researchers monitored fans’ heart rates and stress levels for 10 days before and 10 weeks after the game. Deutscher says that during the study, game day was the most stressful day “by far.”
Fans who consume alcohol have higher heart rates, as well as fans who watch the game on television, compared to fans who watch the game in person. The study found that after a heartbreaking defeat to VfB Stuttgart, stress levels among Arminia Bielefeld fans remained high throughout the day.
The results echo similar experiments involving American sports fans. For example, in a 2009 study, researchers observed a increase in cardiovascular deaths In Los Angeles in the days following the Rams’ defeat in the 1980 Super Bowl. And when the L.A.-based Raiders won the Super Bowl four years later, all deaths were reduced.
The Super Bowl phenomenon parallels another holiday trend – the increase in heart attacks During Christmas and New Years, says Keith Churchwell, former president of the American Heart Association. “For people with underlying disease,” the stress of these events “puts them at higher risk,” he says. Also, people forget to take their medications for things like high blood pressure, heart rate or cholesterol. He says that betting in sports can also increase stress.
However, watching sports in general is not harmful. In fact, there is strong evidence that sports fans can have a positive psychological impact. “Like any hobby, there will be pros and cons,” says Daniel Wan, a psychology professor at Murray State University. “Sports fans are not unique in this.”
According to Wan, people who identify with a local sports team often feel greater sense of connection to otherswhich is Correlated With high levels of collective self-esteem and low levels of loneliness. Wan and colleagues in a 2024 study Sports fans surveyed about what they get from being a fan and found that many people felt a deep sense of belonging.
“It gives you the ability to satisfy this innate need of ours,” says Wan. “We are very social creatures.”
To safely enjoy this Sunday’s Super Bowl, Churchwell advises fans to make sure they take their regular medications, avoid drinking too much alcohol and eat as healthily as possible — and get a good night’s sleep the night before.
For those of us most invested in the game—looking at you, Seattle and New England—a loss in the Super Bowl can be devastating. To avoid any negative mental health consequences, Wan suggests that viewers try to remember their team’s entire season and keep in mind why they are fans.
“It doesn’t make the outcome less important,” says Wan, “but it gives them other reasons to understand that the outcome isn’t the only thing that’s important.”
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