Teenagers with high social media use at bedtime suffer disturbed sleep, which in turn leads to depressed mood, according to new research being presented at the Australian Psychological Society’s 50th Annual Conference on the Gold Coast this week.
Murdoch University PhD candidate Lynette Vernon, says the research followed teenagers over a four-year period, and found a strong relationship between high social media use, sleep disturbance and increased depressed mood.
Ms Vernon says, “Poor sleep can result in students feeling tired and moody, with feelings of sadness and declines in long-term wellbeing.”
She added that many adolescents were using social networking sites as a way to feel good.
“Investing in social media for some teenagers improves the way they feel. But overuse disturbs their sleep and leads to tired, moody students who then invest further into their online connections to help them feel good,” says Ms Vernon.
Her research is part of the Youth Activity Participation Study (YAPS) of Western Australia, a nine-year longitudinal study of over 1800 WA young people and their leisure pursuits. It seeks to understand how experiences in sport, performing arts, or social networking can facilitate positive development or exacerbate health risks.
Ms Vernon recorded the social media activities of the more than 1800 adolescents for four years from 2010 to 2014, and each year analysed their sleep quality and their mood, including feelings about things to look forward to, whether difficulties were piling up and how unhappy or depressed they felt.
She says data obtained on social media use included posting on or looking through social networking sites and rating how invested teenagers were in connecting with their network of friends online.
“We also looked at whether the teenagers got into arguments about the time they spent on social media and whether they felt moody and irritable if they couldn’t logon to their social networking sites,” says Ms Vernon.
She says the results highlighted the important role that parents could play in teaching their children to kerb their social media use.
“Many parents encourage young children to develop good rituals for bedtime but this study shows that rituals could also be reinforced during the teenage years,” says Ms Vernon.
The study was funded by the Australia Research Council in collaboration with Griffith University.
Ms Vernon will present her research at the 50th APS Annual Conference being held 29 September to 2 October on the Gold Coast.
Note to editor:
Ms Vernon is available for interview at all times except Wednesday 30 September from 4 – 5 pm.
For more information, or to arrange an interview call the APS Media team on 03 8662 3358 / 0435 896 444, or email. Find the APS Media team on Twitter: @AustPsych
The APS is the largest professional organisation for psychologists in Australia, representing more than 27,000 members. The APS is committed to advancing psychology as a discipline and profession. It spreads the message that psychologists make a difference to people’s lives, through improving psychological knowledge and community wellbeing.