Late-night competitive gaming may be undermining sleep recovery for millions of esports participants worldwide. While digital entertainment often gets blamed for sleep disruption, this research provides the first precise measurement of how gaming proximity to bedtime specifically degrades sleep quality in competitive players. Australian researchers tracked 24 esports athletes across 187 nights using both wrist-worn devices and daily sleep logs. The multilevel analysis revealed that gaming within two hours of bedtime significantly reduced subjective sleep quality ratings the following morning, with effects persisting even when controlling for individual sleep patterns and timing preferences. Players averaged later bedtimes and shorter sleep duration compared to general population norms, confirming earlier observational studies. However, the night-to-night variability data showed that timing mattered more than total gaming exposure—athletes who maintained longer gaps between their final game session and sleep onset reported better sleep quality regardless of how late they played overall. The findings challenge the assumption that all screen time before bed is equally disruptive. For esports athletes, the cognitive and physiological arousal from competitive gaming appears particularly potent in the two-hour pre-sleep window. This represents actionable intelligence for the rapidly growing esports industry, where sleep optimization could translate directly to performance gains. The research methodology—combining objective sleep measurement with daily subjective ratings—offers a more nuanced view than previous cross-sectional surveys. However, the small sample size and short observation period limit broader generalizability across different gaming genres and skill levels.