#Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self esteem.
This study examined how social media use related to sleep quality, self esteem, anxiety and depression in 467 Scottish adolescents. We measured overall social media use, nighttime specific social media use, emotional investment in social media, sleep quality, self esteem and levels of anxiety and depression. Adolescents who used social media more both overall and at night and those who were more emotionally invested in social media experienced poorer sleep quality, lower self esteem and higher levels of anxiety and depression. Nighttime specific social media use predicted poorer sleep quality after controlling for anxiety, depression and self esteem. These findings contribute to the growing body of evidence that social media use is related to various aspects of wellbeing in adolescents. In addition, our results indicate that nighttime specific social media use and emotional investment in social media are two important factors that merit further investigation in relation to adolescent sleep and wellbeing.
Journal of adolescence