#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 e both overall and at night e 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 nighttimespecific social media use and emotional investment in social media are two important factors that merit further investigation in relation to adolescent sleep and wellbeing.

"greater overall social media use, nighttime-specific social media use and emotional investment in social media were each associated with poorer sleep quality and higher levels of anxiety and depression. In addition we found that overall use, nighttime-specific use and emotional investment were each associated with lower self-esteem. Taking the three social media measures together nighttime-specific social media use and emotional investment in social media significantly predicted poorer sleep quality, whereas overall use did not. Nighttime-specific social media use still predicted poorer sleep quality after controlling for anxiety, depression and self-esteem, whereas the link between emotional investment and poor sleep was mediated by these variables... Nighttime-specific social media use significantly predicted poorer sleep, whereas overall use did not. This suggests that social media behaviours around bedtime are more important in explaining the link between social media use and poor sleep than general behaviours throughout the day, such as lower levels of physical activity... Emotional investment in social media also predicted poorer sleep quality... overall social media use was associated with higher levels of anxiety and depression... [There was an] indirect link between social media use and anxiety and depression, mediated by poor sleep, our findings concerning emotional investment in social media also point towards a direct relationship. Emotional investment in social mediawas most strongly associated with anxiety and depression, compared to overall or nighttime-specific use. This suggests that adolescents who are more emotionally invested in social media sites are at increased risk of anxiety and depression due to the feelings of distress and isolation they experience when they are not connected to social media... social media use was also related to lower self-esteem" (Woods and Scott, 2016: 45-7).