Social Media Use and Sleep Health among Adolescents
Abstract
This paper examines the proposed association between social media use and sleep health among adolescents. It uses an exploratory, school-based cross-sectional questionnaire with a planned convenience sample of 40 students aged 13–18 years. The study distinguishes total daily use from use in the hour before attempted sleep, checking after lights out, notification disruption, and difficulty disengaging from social media. Sleep outcomes are usual sleep duration, sleep-onset latency, nocturnal waking, self-rated sleep quality, and daytime sleepiness. The accompanying questionnaire uses a 7-day recall period and does not diagnose any sleep, mental-health, or addiction condition. Analyses will primarily be descriptive and exploratory because the small sample is not suitable for complex adjusted modelling. The report provides a transparent basis for collecting and interpreting preliminary evidence while protecting participants' privacy and voluntary participation. Given the exploratory design and convenience sampling approach, the findings will be interpreted cautiously and will not be generalized to adolescents beyond the participating sample. The results may nevertheless help identify potentially relevant behavioural patterns and variables for future studies using larger samples, broader populations, and more rigorous research designs.
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