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NOPE
Low reported severity

First-person post: Character.AI user says about two and a half years of after-school roleplay from 2023 cost them sleep, concentration and better grades

In a post to r/ChatbotAddiction on 16 October 2026, a person writes that they found Character.AI in 2023, when the site was new, and call that the worst mistake of their life. They say that for almost two and a half years they spent hours on the site after school, thought about new roleplay ideas when they were not on it, and stopped only for about a month before exams. They write that they lost the ability to concentrate in class, went to school on about three hours of sleep because they used the site until they fell asleep, and that their grades suffered: not badly, they say, but they could have done much better. They say they have mostly quit for a few months, with relapses after which they delete their account, and that their sleep, attention span and hobbies have since improved. The account is uncorroborated and no chat content is shown.

AI system
Character.AI (reported)
Occurred
2023
Reported
16 October 2026
Event location
Unknown
What the AI did
Communicated with the person
Reported harm
Educational HarmFunctional Impairment
Whose AI use
Their own AI use
Setting
Education · Everyday life · Health
Evidence
AI involvement reported · Causal attribution alleged · 1 source
4 claims: 4 reported. 5 open questions
People reported harmed
1 person

AI system as recorded: Character.AI, a character chatbot site the poster calls c.ai and used for roleplay (poster's account; no chats or usage records shown)

What Happened

Use from 2023. The poster writes that they found Character.AI "back in 2023 when the site was new" and calls it "the worst mistake I’ve ever made in my life". They describe coming back from school and sitting on the site for hours, and thinking about new roleplay ideas while away from it.

Effects they describe. They say they spent almost 2.5 years living like that, quitting for about a month before exams and then returning. "I lost my ability to concentrate in class and I would go to school with like 3 hours of sleep because I’d be using c.ai until I feel asleep." They write that it affected their grades: "I didn’t do bad but could’ve done so much better than I had done." They add that they stopped watching shows and films because they only wanted to be on the site.

Quitting. They say they have mostly quit for a few months, relapsing here and there, and delete their account after about a day when they do, so that roleplay scenarios do not build up. After a few months away they say their sleep, cognitive abilities and attention span have improved and that they can draw, run, read and watch films again.

Thread. At retrieval on 21 October 2026 the post had an automatic moderator message, two supportive replies and one reply by the poster thanking a commenter.

Reported harm

The poster says about two and a half years of after-school Character.AI roleplay from 2023 left them going to school on about three hours of sleep, unable to concentrate in class and with lower grades than they could have achieved (first-person account, uncorroborated).

How Harm Occurred

By the poster's own account, hours of after-school roleplay with Character.AI's character chatbots, continued until they fell asleep, displaced sleep and attention over about two and a half years and lowered the grades they achieved.

Outcome

Ongoing

The poster says they have mostly quit for a few months, relapse occasionally and delete their account within about a day when they do, and that their sleep, cognitive abilities, attention span and hobbies have improved since quitting. No clinical assessment, school record or company contact is reported.

What remains unknown

  • How many hours a day the poster spent on the site and what the roleplay contained; no chats are shown.
  • The poster's age and type of school during the years of use.
  • The poster's actual grades; no school record is shown.
  • Where the poster lives or used the site.
  • The poster gives the period of use as almost two and a half years in this post and as almost three years in comments elsewhere the same day.

What the evidence supports

AI involvement: reported. The poster says the experience is their own roleplay with Character.AI's character chatbots from 2023: hours on the site after school, continued until they fell asleep. They connect those exchanges to lost sleep, lost concentration in class and lower grades, and say these improved after they stopped. No chat content or usage record is shown.

4 claims: 4 reported. What the statuses mean

Reported The poster says they found Character.AI in 2023 and spent almost two and a half years using it for hours after school, thinking about roleplay ideas when away from it.

Causal attribution. Poster's account of their own use.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'back in 2023 when the site was new and I found out about it'; 'I would come back from school and sit on character ai for hours'; 'I spent almost 2.5 years living like that'
Reported The poster says the use cost them their ability to concentrate in class and sent them to school on about three hours of sleep because they used the site until they fell asleep.

Causal attribution. Poster's attribution of the lost sleep and concentration to their Character.AI use.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'I lost my ability to concentrate in class and I would go to school with like 3 hours of sleep because I’d be using c.ai until I feel asleep'
Reported The poster says the use affected their grades: they did not do badly but could have done much better.

Causal attribution. Poster's attribution; no school record is shown.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'it really affected my grades, I didn’t do bad but could’ve done so much better than I had done'
Reported The poster says they have mostly quit for a few months, delete their account after relapses, and that their sleep, attention span and hobbies have improved since.

Causal attribution. Poster's account of recovery after stopping use.

  • reddit.com(opens in new tab) supports · English
    'now that I have kind of quit for a few months, relapsing here and there'; 'after quitting for a few months I’ve noticed my sleep has improved, my cognitive abilities have improved'

Sources

1 source inspected. Sources that repeat one account do not corroborate each other.

How the sources were read, and where the events happened

Read in English on 2026-10-21 through the arctic_shift archive API (post ID search, link_id comment search and the author's post and comment searches); self-text and all four comments at retrieval, one of them by the poster. reddit.com is not fetched from this host. The poster handle is not recorded. Applies to s1.

Event countries: Unknown. Affected-person countries: Unknown. Court countries: Unknown.

The post does not say where the poster lives, studies or used the site; the subreddit and the language of the post are not evidence of location.

Reviewed for publication 2026-10-21: Published under the public-forum rule as a first-person account of about two and a half years of Character.AI roleplay from 2023 that the poster says displaced sleep and concentration and lowered their grades, with the recovery they report after quitting. Described with attribution and without corroboration.

People described

The poster, a school student during the years of use they describe (age, gender and country not used)

People reported harmed in this case

1 person

1 AI participant · 0 other people harmed

One person: the poster, who describes their own use of Character.AI. Commenters are not counted.

Counted once within this case. The same person may appear in other cases. This count does not establish AI causation.

Tags

#first-person#reddit#character-ai#dependency#sleep#education

Cite this case

Compiled per our published methodology: verification statuses, sourcing standards, and corrections process.

APA

NOPE. (2026). First-person post: Character.AI user says about two and a half years of after-school roleplay from 2023 cost them sleep, concentration and better grades. AI incidents. https://nope.net/incidents/2023-character-ai-user-says-years-of-after-school-roleplay-cost-sleep-concentration-and-grades-first-person

BibTeX

@misc{2023_character_ai_user_says_years_of_after_school_roleplay_cost_sleep_concentration_and_grades_first_person,
  title = {First-person post: Character.AI user says about two and a half years of after-school roleplay from 2023 cost them sleep, concentration and better grades},
  author = {NOPE},
  year = {2026},
  howpublished = {AI incidents},
  url = {https://nope.net/incidents/2023-character-ai-user-says-years-of-after-school-roleplay-cost-sleep-concentration-and-grades-first-person}
}

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