Social media use, mental health and sleep: A systematic review with meta-analyses

Abstract

Background: The literature investigating the relationship between social media use, mental health, and sleep has produced inconsistent findings. Younger people spend more time on social media than other age groups, and are more likely to be impacted by social media use. This systematic review with meta-analysis aimed to synthesise the evidence on the associations between social media use, mental health, and sleep of young individuals.

Methods: Electronic databases PubMed, Scopus and PsycINFO were searched using an established methodology and pre-determined search terms for studies that reported the association between social media use, mental health, and sleep.

Results: The search yielded 6108 articles, of which 182 (n = 1,169,396) were eligible for the systematic review, and 98 (n = 102,683) could be included in the meta-analyses. The systematic review identified a high level of heterogeneity in the study results. Meta-analyses found small but significant positive associations between social media use, depression, and anxiety. In addition, problematic social media use was positively associated with depression, anxiety, and sleep problems, and negatively associated with wellbeing. Geographical location, anxiety measure type, study design, age, and gender were identified as potential moderators.

Limitations: Associations for specific social media platforms as well as some moderator effects were not examined due to an insufficient number of studies.

Conclusions: This study provides important evidence of an association between social media use/ problematic social media use, mental health, and sleep. The findings support future longitudinal research to identify the directions and underlying mechanisms of the inter-relationship between these variables.

Keywords: Anxiety; Depression; Problematic social media use; Sleep; Social media use; Wellbeing.