Study explores links between social media use, mental health, and sleep quality

The more time you spend on social media, the more likely you are to have unpleasant social media-related dreams, which can cause distress, disrupt sleep, and affect your peace of mind.

Flinders University’s Reza Shabahan said the widespread and rapid adoption of social media could impact many aspects of life, including the realm of dreams.

“As social media becomes more and more involved in our lives, its influence extends beyond our waking hours and can impact our dreams,” says the College of Education, Psychology, and Social Work. says Shabahan.

Shabahan has developed a new scale, the Social Media Nightmare Association Scale (SMNS), that can quantify how social media contributes to our nightmares.

SMNS was developed by integrating literature on dreams, nightmares, and the relationship between media and dreams, focusing on specific themes related to social media use, such as feelings of helplessness, loss of control, and victimhood. .

The paper, “Social media-related nightmares: A potential explanation for poor sleep quality and reduced emotional well-being in the age of social media?” BMC Psychology.

“Our study introduces the concept of social media-related nightmares, defined as nightmares that involve social media-related themes such as cyberbullying, online hate, and excessive use of social media. ” said Shabahan.

“Although social media-related nightmares are relatively rare, people who use social media frequently in their daily lives experience social media-related nightmares that are associated with negative mental health outcomes such as anxiety, depression, and sleep quality. more likely to see it.

“This study provides insight into the complex relationship between social media use, mental health and sleep quality,” he says.

He cautions that as the technological landscape continues to evolve, more research is needed to examine the impact of social media on users’ dream experiences.

“Due to rapid advances in technology and media, including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality, as well as increased reliance on and deeper integration of these technologies, dreams featuring technology and media content will become more frequent. We expect to see more of that,” he says. .

“Future research could extend the scope of this investigation by delving into areas such as AI dangers and perceived nightmares.

“We encourage you to use social media responsibly and carefully to reduce the occurrence of social media-related nightmares,” he added.