Social media use is associated with sleep duration and disturbance among adolescents in Bangladesh

Objectives: Prolonged social media usage is linked to poor sleep among adolescents; however, little is known about these associations in developing countries. The aim of this study was to examine the associations of social media use with sleep duration and sleep disturbance among adolescents in Bangladesh. Methods: We used a self-administered survey to collect data on sleep duration and social media use from secondary school students in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Parents reported about their child's sleep disturbance. Binary logistic regression models were estimated to examine the associations. Results: For every 10 minutes/day increase in social media use during school days, the odds of reporting sleep disturbance was increased by 14% (95% CI: 1.08–1.21). The odds of reporting sleep ≤7 h/day was increased by 3% (1.01–1.06) for every 10 minutes increase in social media use during weekend days. Conclusions: Limiting social media use can be a pragmatic strategy to improve sleep, which can improve health and wellbeing of adolescents in urban Bangladesh.