Disrupted sleep is the primary pathway linking problematic social media use to reduced wellbeing

A new study published in Addictive Behaviors suggests that struggling to control your social media habits takes a toll on your mental health by disrupting how well you sleep. The research provides evidence that the way screen time interferes with our nights tends to be a primary pathway leading to symptoms of depression and anxiety. Protecting our sleep habits might be one of the most practical steps we can take to defend our psychological wellbeing.

Previous studies exploring the connection between heavy social media use and mental health have produced mixed results. Some research suggests a clear link to later depression and anxiety, while other work points to weak or no significant connection at all.

The scientists noticed a gap in understanding exactly how these factors connect over time. Sleep is often the first thing people compromise when endlessly scrolling through apps late at night. Yet, the specific role of sleep in bridging the gap between digital habits and psychological distress had not been tested over an extended period.

“This research is the part of the larger project titled ‘Social media use, sleep, and mental health: eMediate study,‘” said study author Oli Ahmed of the Department of Psychology at the University of Chittagong.

“This study was designed to address two issues: an inconsistency in the existing evidence and a real-world concern about addictive social media use which termed as ‘problematic social media use (PSMU)’ in this study. Some longitudinal studies have found evidence about the relationships between PSMU and later depression and anxiety symptoms, while no evidence related to how they are linked. However, other studies found no associations between these factors.”

Free daily newsletter

“Furthermore, there is no evidence about the relationship between PSMU and later wellbeing. In this study, we wanted to understand are there really any associations between these factors, if so, then how they are linked. Sleep is something that people often compromise while using social media, yet its role in connection between PSMU and mental health had not tested longitudinally.”

The sample included exactly 437 young adult social media users from Bangladesh. This group had an average age of 22.62 years, and 49.7 percent of the participants were female. The participants completed four detailed surveys spaced three months apart over the course of nine months. The researchers excluded anyone who failed basic attention filter questions to ensure the data remained highly accurate. The surveys measured several specific aspects of the participants’ lives using standardized psychological questionnaires.

First, the researchers assessed problematic social media use. This concept is defined as a compulsive urge to spend excessive time on social platforms in a way that disrupts daily life. The team also measured symptoms of depression and generalized anxiety.

To evaluate sleep, the scientists looked at two distinct concepts: insomnia symptoms and overall sleep quality. Insomnia refers to specific clinical difficulties with falling or staying asleep. Sleep quality is a broader measure that includes how rested a person feels, how many hours they sleep, and how often they wake up in the night.

Finally, the researchers measured overall psychological wellbeing. This concept reflects a person’s general sense of daily functioning, calmness, and life satisfaction. The researchers then used complex statistical models to examine how changes in one area predicted changes in another over the nine-month period.

The researchers found that problematic social media use consistently predicted subsequent increases in depressive and anxiety symptoms. Specifically, when individuals reported social media habits that were harder to control than their usual baseline, they were likely to develop greater symptoms of mental distress later on. When comparing different people, those with higher average use also exhibited higher average distress.

The researchers found that poor sleep acts as a mediator in this relationship. In scientific terms, a mediator is a middle step or pathway that explains how one event causes another. The findings suggest that compulsive social media use leads to poor sleep, which then triggers increased depression and anxiety.

Insomnia symptoms proved to be a stronger mediating factor than general sleep quality. This suggests that specific, severe sleep disruptions play a larger role in mental health decline than just having an occasionally restless night. The researchers noted that delayed bedtimes driven by a fear of missing out likely trigger a cascade of neurobiological changes linked to negative moods.

The study also revealed a unique relationship regarding general psychological wellbeing. Problematic social media use did not directly reduce a person’s overall wellbeing on its own. Instead, it was indirectly linked to poorer wellbeing entirely through the pathway of insomnia. This indicates that disrupted sleep is the primary mechanism stripping away a person’s general sense of flourishing.

“If one psychologically engages with social media use like compulsive use or hard to control, one’s sleep is likely one of the first things to suffer,” Ahmed told PsyPost. “This disrupted sleep can then contribute to depression, anxiety and poorer wellbeing. It’s not just about screen time; it’s about what that screen time does to our nights. Protecting our sleep may be one of the most practical things we can do to protect our mental health.”

The scientists noted that the effects observed were small to medium in size. This means that a few late nights on a smartphone will not instantly cause a mental health crisis, but the cumulative impact over months tends to be highly meaningful. They were also surprised to find that digital habits affect distinct areas of mental health differently.

“The link the between PSMU and later mental health is not same for depression, anxiety and wellbeing,” Ahmed explained. “PSMU didn’t have a direct association with later wellbeing, instead, this link ran through increased insomnia symptoms. That suggests that for wellbeing specifically, insomnia is not just a contributing factor but the primary pathway. In contrast, the links to depression and anxiety were only partially contributed by insomnia and poor sleep quality, suggesting that other mechanisms are also at play.”

The data also highlighted specific gender differences. Female social media users who exhibited high levels of compulsive use were found to be more vulnerable to a decline in general wellbeing than male users. The researchers suggest this might happen because women typically spend more time on social media for interpersonal interactions, which can increase exposure to negative comparisons or cyberbullying.

As with all research, there are some limitations. Because the study relies on observational data, it cannot definitively prove an absolute cause-and-effect relationship in the way a controlled laboratory experiment would. It is possible that individuals already experiencing a decline in mental health might turn to their phones more often, creating a cycle that reinforces itself.

The study also has a few specific limitations. The sample was also primarily composed of young adults and students. This demographic focus means the findings might not apply perfectly to older adults or different occupational groups. The scientists looked at overall social media engagement without separating the data by specific apps. Scrolling through short videos on one platform might affect the brain and sleep differently than messaging friends on another app.

“We’d like to look at whether specific platforms differ in their associations with sleep and mental health, scrolling TikTok before bed may not be the same as messaging on WhatsApp,” Ahmed said. “We’re also interested in testing whether interventions targeting sleep (such as cognitive behavioral therapy for insomnia) can break the chain between PSMU and poor mental health.”

“Although this is not directly from this study, I want to share the main findings which we derived from the larger eMediate study project. The associations between PSMU, sleep and symptoms of anxiety and depression are mutually reinforcing each other. However, the association between PSMU and wellbeing are not same. Findings shows that better wellbeing could lead to PSMU for some users who use social media to enhance positive emotion and in turn leads to poor wellbeing. You will find the details of this in the General Discussion section of the following link: https://hdl.handle.net/1885/733794665.”

The study, “Longitudinal associations between problematic social media use and mental health: Mediating role of sleep,” was authored by Oli Ahmed, Amy Dawel, Erin I. Walsh, and Nicolas Cherbuin.