#Sleepyteens
Social Media Use in Adolescence is Associated with Poor Sleep Quality, Anxiety, Depression, and Low Self-Esteem
Social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram have quickly become an integral part of teens’ lives, with over 90% using social media day and night. While there’s a substantial body of research linking poor sleep to internet and computer use, there are fewer studies on how social media specifically affects sleep. The studies that do exist, however, have increasingly supported a link between social media use and aspects of adolescents’ well-being, like sleep quality and mental health.
There is no single definition of sleep quality, but in research settings it often encompasses how long it takes you to fall asleep, if you’re waking up and struggling to fall back asleep in the middle of the night, and how satisfied you are with your sleep.
Teens don’t always have the best sleep quality. This is not earth-shattering news by any means, but what is concerning is that previous research has shown poor sleep quality can contribute to anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem in adolescents.
This prompted us to ask the following three questions:
How is social media different from general internet use?
Could social media be fueling a #SleepyTeens epidemic and, by extension, an influx in depression and anxiety?
How can we reclaim our sleep once and for all?
To answer these questions, we looked to researchers Heather Cleland Woods and Holly Scott, who published an article in 2016 titled “Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem.”
How is Social Media Different from General Internet Use?
Unlike other uses of the internet, social media by default involves incoming alerts at all hours. A 2010 study on teens found that 86% of participants slept with their phones in the bedroom, often under their pillow (we can only assume that this figure has risen in the years since). As a result, social media could conceivably have an even greater impact on our sleep than other internet uses.
How is Social Media Affecting Teens’ Sleep and Health?
Woods and Scott realized that to answer this question, they needed to learn more about the factors that link social media to poor sleep. Could it be that teens who spend a lot of time on their phones are not exercising as much, leading to their worsened sleep quality? Or, that the light from their devices at night is interfering with their internal sleep-wake cycle? Or, is it something else entirely?
To uncover the mechanism underlying the relationship between teen’s sleep quality and social media use, the researchers examined 467 adolescents using a series of scales. (A scale is, in essence, a bunch of questions that result in an overall score that’s used to evaluate something.) They used three tried and true scales to assess sleep quality, self-esteem, and level of anxiety and depression. Next, the researchers used a modified version of a so-called Social Media Use Integration Scale to analyze emotional investment in social media, which refers to when people feel upset and disconnected from others after being unable to access social platforms. Lastly, Woods and Scott developed two scales to study social media use itself—one for overall social media use and one specifically for nighttime use.
According to Woods and Scott, "an association between poor sleep quality and overall social media use would support the role of a less physically active lifestyle." In other words, if they discovered a link between poor sleep quality and overall use, it would imply that a lack of physical activity is at least partially to blame for sleepy teens.
In contrast, the researchers stated that a relationship between nighttime-specific social media use and poor sleep would suggest that poor sleep is due, in part, to the devices disrupting sleep and teens' sleep-wake cycle. Furthermore, an association between poor sleep and emotional investment in social media would imply that anxiety about missing new content (a part of FOMO) is somewhat responsible.
In 2016, they published the results of their study in the Journal of Adolescence. What did they find? A mix of all three proposed mechanisms were at play. Consistent with previous research, Woods and Scott found that teens who used social media more tended to experience worse sleep quality, self-esteem, and anxiety and depression symptoms. Their findings also indicated that the timing of social media use—especially around bedtime and at night—played an important role.
A novel contribution of the study was that anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem were all more strongly associated with an emotional investment in social media than overall or nighttime-specific social media use. Put differently, Woods and Scott found that feeling stressed or anxious when separated from social media had a greater impact on teens’ anxiety, depression, and self-esteem than their amount of social media and nighttime social media use.
At the end of their article, Woods and Scott noted that their research had a few limitations. Girls and older adolescents are known to use social media more frequently. Despite the possibility that age and gender could influence the relationship between sleep and social media, these factors were not considered in the study. Moreover, the researchers pointed out that there are numerous mechanisms that ultimately blame social media for poor sleep. Nevertheless, it’s also possible that high social media use is a symptom of poor sleep—that it’s used as a coping strategy when people struggle with slumber. Research that follows people over time would need to be conducted to determine the direction of the relationship.
How can we reclaim our sleep once and for all?
If you or your teen is having trouble falling asleep or are waking up still feeling tired, try putting your devices away before bedtime. The National Sleep Foundation recommends that you refrain from using electronic devices at least 30 minutes before going to sleep.
If, like many people, you use your phone to wind down and wake up in the morning, or if you find it difficult to put away in the first place, consider these low and high tech solutions:
| Problem | Low-Tech Solution | High-Tech Solution |
|---|---|---|
| You listen to a podcast or music while getting ready for bed. | Radio is still out there! | Set a timer on your music or podcast app for how long you'd like to listen, or invest in a smart speaker and use it to set a timer on your tunes. If listening out loud could be disruptive to your household, take a look at sleep phones—a type of audio headband! |
| You use your phone as an alarm. | Purchase an alarm clock, or if you have one packed away somewhere, dig it out of your storage. | Smart speaker to the rescue once again! Did you know you can ask Alexa to set an alarm for you? Alternatively: Try a smart watch. |
| Notifications distract you or wake you up. | Leave your phone in another room. | Turn off notifications for apps you'd like to silence and schedule when you'd like Do Not Disturb mode to be activated. (Turning Do Not Disturb on will silence all incoming calls, alerts, and notifications.) |
| You don't want to miss an important notification. | If you don't already have one, consider getting a home/landline phone that people can call in an emergency, and then sleep soundly with your cell off or set to Do Not Disturb. | Customize who you receive calls from when your phone is set to Do Not Disturb. With Apple, you can also select whether a second call within three minutes will be silenced. On Android, you can select which notifications you'd still like to receive. To learn more about setting up Do Not Disturb on Apple click here and for setting it up on Android click here. |
| You experience FOMO (Fear of Missing Out). | Previous research suggests that people who are dissatisfied with their lives are more likely to experience FOMO. Try focusing on what you have versus what you don’t; consider keeping a gratitude journal or setting a reminder to practice gratitude. See our earlier blog on FOMO for more information on how it impacts teens. |
Turn off the likes and views on the posts in your feed. (Did you know that you can also choose whether or not others can see the likes and views on your posts?) To learn how to do this, click here. In addition, be mindful about which accounts or features lead you to feel FOMO. If watching stories sparks this feeling—limit or stop watching stories. If a particular account makes you feel this way—consider muting or unfollowing it and following accounts that bring you joy. |
We'd love to hear about your experience with sleep and social media! How do you avoid being startled awake by notifications? Share your sleep story with us on social media (we’re @Ethical_Digital on Twitter and Instagram, and @EthicalDigitalCA on Facebook and LinkedIn) or by email at hello@ethicaldigital.ca.
Study Objective & Methods
#Sleepyteens: Social media use in adolescence is associated with poor sleep quality, anxiety, depression and low self-esteem
Heather Cleland Woods, PhD; Holly Scott, PhD
Published in Journal of Adolescence, 2016.
Woods and Scott’s objective was to examine the timing of social media use and the level of emotional investment in social media, as opposed to the daily duration of use, to inform our understanding of the mechanism linking social media and poor sleep. To do this, they examined 467 students aged 11-17 using the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index, the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, a variation of the Social Integration and Emotional Connection subscale of the Social Media Use Integration Scale, and two measures they developed to assess overall social media use and nighttime-specific social media use. Participants aged 11-15 years old completed the questionnaire in class, either on paper or online. Participants aged 15-17 completed the questionnaire online outside of class.
Become E Certified
This research (and all our social media and well-being articles) have laid the foundation for our E Certification training: a 3-course program for anyone wanting to approach social media and communications in a way that protects well-being and puts people first. Learn more here.
