Interaction on Social Media Moderates the Effect of Stress on Insomnia

Abstract

Psychosocial stress has been positively associated with sleep difficulties. We wondered whether stress during the COVID-19 pandemic would have a negative effect on insomnia in adolescents and whether this relationship would be moderated by virtual interaction with friends via social media and text messages, given previous evidence on friends being stress buffers for adolescents. In the present study, we collected self-reported frequency of insomnia (i.e., having an extremely hard time falling asleep), the stress level during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the experience of using social media and text messages to interact with friends from 138 healthy adolescents/young adults (62 females) aged 12-21.4 years (Mage=15.42 years, SDage=2.31 years). A multiple regression model revealed a significant main effect of stress (B= 0.57, p<.01), sex (B=0.45, p<.05) and an interaction effect of stress and the use of social media and text messages (B= -0.38, p= <.05) on the frequency of insomnia. The frequency of insomnia increased as a function of stress in adolescents/young adults, however, this sleep-stress association was weaker for those who used social media and text messages to communicate with friends than those who did not have these virtual interactions. These findings suggested that interaction with friends, albeit virtually, could serve as social buffers for adolescents, which may alleviate the impact of stress on sleep problems.