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Bedtime social media use, sleep, and affective wellbeing in young adults: an experience sampling study
Author(s) -
DasFriebel Ahuti,
Lenneis Anita,
Realo Anu,
Sanborn Adam,
Tang Nicole K. Y.,
Wolke Dieter,
Mühlenen Adrian,
Lemola Sakari
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of child psychology and psychiatry
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 3.652
H-Index - 211
eISSN - 1469-7610
pISSN - 0021-9630
DOI - 10.1111/jcpp.13326
Subject(s) - bedtime , psychology , sleep (system call) , experience sampling method , affect (linguistics) , actigraphy , multilevel model , clinical psychology , developmental psychology , psychiatry , insomnia , social psychology , communication , machine learning , computer science , operating system
Background Findings from primarily cross‐sectional studies have linked more extensive social media use to poorer sleep and affective wellbeing among adolescents and young adults. This study examined bedtime social media use, sleep, and affective wellbeing, using an experience sampling methodology with the aim of establishing a day‐to‐day temporal link between the variables. The study hypothesized a positive association between increased bedtime social media use and lower affective wellbeing the following day, mediated by poorer sleep. Methods Using a smartphone application, 101 undergraduate students ( M age = 19.70 years, SD = 1.09 years), completed daily questionnaires assessing the previous night’s bedtime social media use and sleep duration and satisfaction (one measurement per day, questionnaire sent at 08:00), and momentary affective wellbeing (five measurements per day, at randomly varying times between 08:00 and 22:00 on weekdays and 10:00 and 22:00 on weekends), for 14 consecutive days. Objective assessments of total sleep time and sleep efficiency were obtained via wrist‐worn actigraphs. By means of separate multilevel models, it was tested whether increased bedtime social media use predicted poorer sleep the same night, whether poorer sleep was predictive of positive and negative affect the following day, and whether sleep mediated the relationship between social media use and affective wellbeing. Results Increased bedtime social media use was not associated with poorer sleep the same night. Apart from subjective sleep satisfaction, no other sleep variable (i.e., subjective sleep duration, objective total sleep time and objective sleep efficiency) predicted positive or negative affect the following day. Conclusions This study found that bedtime social media use is not detrimental to the sleep and affective wellbeing of healthy young adults. However, it is possible that bedtime social media use may be harmful to the sleep of vulnerable individuals.