The Correlation between Stress, Social Media Usage, Sleep Quality, and Insomnia among University Students: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background: Insomnia is a frequent clinical sign of various psychopathological disorders and affects millions of people worldwide. Although stress is recognized as the primary factor of insomnia, the relationship between social media and sleep quality among students remains unclear. Such relationships can have significant implications on the public sleep health that clinicians and researchers have to understand better. This study aimed to explore the relationship between stress, social media usage, sleep quality, and insomnia among university students. Methods: This study was conducted through an observational analysis while using a cross-sectional design of the study which was conducted in 2023. Purposive sampling techniques were used to select 311 students as respondents of the study. The questionnaires used were DASS 42 questionnaire, Intensity of Social Media Usage questionnaire, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI), and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). This study used Chi-Square analysis to examine the associations between stress, social media activity, sleep quality, and insomnia using SPSS version 26.Results: The average age of the students were ranging from 17 years to 22 years. There was a lack of significant association between stress and insomnia (p = 0.876) and between social media activity and insomnia (p = 0.402). Sleep quality demonstrated a highly significant relationship with insomnia (p 0.001), highlighting its importance as a contributing factor to insomnia occurrences among university students. Conclusion: These results highlight the importance of improving sleep quality to reduce insomnia among university students.