Over the last two decades, social media has become an important part of our daily lives. Approximately, two-thirds of the world’s population are active social media users and spend on average two and a half hours daily. With increasing social media use (SMU), there is also a growing concern among scientists, parents, users, and policy makers about the maladaptive SMU, often referred as Problematic social media use (PSMU). Although the concern is about the negative impacts on wellbeing and daily functioning, the causal relationships with sleep and mental health are not well-established. Evidence regarding the associations between PSMU, sleep, and mental health is inconsistent, and understanding of how these factors interconnected is insufficient. Therefore, this thesis aims to investigate the causal associations between PSMU, sleep, and mental health using a longitudinal design. To thoroughly identify research gaps, a systematic review with meta-analysis was conducted. Subsequently, data from the eMediate Study was analysed to  investigate the causal relationships between the variables.

The systematic review with meta-analysis confirmed the inconsistency in findings about the associations between PSMU, sleep, and mental health. Empirical studies with longitudinal data revealed that symptoms of depression and anxiety, wellbeing, and sleep problems were associated with later PSMU. Furthermore, motives for social media use, such as coping (SMU for diminishing negative feelings), enhancing (SMU for entertainment), and escapism (SMU for escaping from stressful situations), mediated these associations. Moreover, PSMU also associated with subsequent sleep problems and poor mental health, with sleep problems mediating the associations between PSMU and later poor mental health.

Additionally, approximately one-third of the participants were identified as high risk problematic social media users, with higher tolerance, mood modification, and withdrawal symptoms serving as key indicators of being in this ‘high-risk’ group. This group demonstrated significant increase in subsequent insomnia symptoms, poor sleep quality, symptoms of depression and anxiety, and decreased wellbeing compared to the ‘no-risk’ group.

The findings from this thesis provide insights into the motivational processes that may drive the associations between sleep problems, poor mental health and PSMU, which could be targeted for intervention. This thesis also highlights the importance of addressing sleep problems and poor mental health when addressing PSMU. Mental health practitioners may benefit from this thesis in developing intervention programmes and control strategies for high-risk users to reduce dependency on social media and mitigate its negative impacts on sleep and mental health.

Speaker: Oli Ahmed

Oli Ahmed is a social media researcher and a psychometrician. He is a PhD candidate at the Department of Health Economics Wellbeing and Society at the NCEPH, ANU. He completed a Master of Science and a Bachelor of Science (hons.) degree in Psychology from the University of Dhaka, Bangladesh. His research interests include digital media use, mental health, sleep, and psychometrics.