Australian teenagers experiencing increased levels of psychological distress and high social media use are more likely to sleep less than the recommended amount, according to a new study.
Published in BMJ Open , the study found teens with high levels of psychological distress had a higher chance of sleeping less than the 8-10 hours recommended a night.
Similarly, teens who had high social media usage and spent longer periods on homework were also more likely to sleep less than 8 hours.
The 1,295* participants initially recruited for the study via social media were from Sydney, and most of those surveyed were females aged between 16-18.
Vikas Arya, Research Fellow in the Centre for Mental Health and Community Wellbeing at the Melbourne School of Population and Global Health, said the study is novel in that it shows how mental wellbeing impacts sleep, and also how sleep impacts levels of psychological distress.
"This study highlights the adverse impacts of higher psychological distress and greater numbers of hours spent on social media and homework on sleep duration," he said.
"There's a negative feedback loop that happens with sleep and mental wellbeing, so we found that psychological distress was associated with fewer hours of sleep at night while decreasing sleep duration was linked with increased psychological distress.
"Looking ahead, we'd encourage health education programs in schools focusing on the significant benefits of mental well-being and restful, restorative sleep at night."
Dr Sithum Munasinghe, Post-Doctoral Associate Research Fellow from the Translational Health Research Institute at Western Sydney University said the impact of social media use on sleep could be explained in a few different ways.
"It's possible that significant social media use may actually replace sleep hours, or that social media use may stimulate emotional or psychological arousal which impedes sleep," he said.
"It may also be the case that using phones before bed might prolong the time it takes to fall asleep."
The study was led by the University of Melbourne, Western Sydney University and University of Sydney.
*Note: Just over 25 per cent of those recruited responded to at least one follow-up.
