Association of Social Media Use on Sleep Quality and Performance Among Collegiate Athletes

Abstract

Objective: (1) To examine the effect of social media (SM) use on sleep quality and (2) to determine the effect of SM on competition performance among college athletes. Design: Cross-sectional study. Setting: Two local Division III colleges, MA, USA. Participants: National Collegiate Athletic Association Division III swim and track and field athletes. Intervention: Data were collected onsite through an SM use form, the lifestyle survey, and the Patient-Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System Sleep Disturbance Questionnaire. Participants were divided into 3 groups based on their SM volume: (1) less active SM users (#2 h/d), (2) moderately active SM users (.2-#5 h/d), and (3) active SM users (.5 h/d) for analysis. Main Outcome Measures:Sleep quality and sport performance data collected through publicly available competition results. The independent variable, SM volume (hours of SM use per day over 7 days), was collected using the iPhone screen time function. Results: The cohort consisted of 40 male track and field athletes and 47 female track and field (37, 79%) and swimming (10, 21%) athletes. Mean SM use was 4.6 6 3.4 h/d. The sleep quality of active SM users was worse than less active SM users (P 5 0.033). There was an independent association between increased Facebook time and poor performance after adjusting confounders (adjusted odds ratio: 0.990, 95% confidence interval: 0.981-0.999, P 5 0.049). Conclusions: High SM use has a negative impact on sleep quality and may hinder competition performance among college athletes. These findings may have implications for developing SM use guidelines for college athletes to improve their sleep quality and performance.

Likes and hashtags: Influence of athlete social media use

“…Soccer players showed impaired technical performance and endurance after pre-training social media scrolling, while swimmers who scrolled failed to make endurance training improvements [21]. A recent study showed decreased next day performance correlated with time spent on Facebook versus other social media apps [3]. The available studies indicate that social media use increases cognitive load on the athlete, decreasing the ability to attend to sport-specific tasks.…”

“…Poor sleep quality affects sports performance and injury recovery, impairs cognitive function and increases mental fatigue [3, 11, 14, 17]. The National Basketball Association (NBA) examined social media use in relation to sleep deprivation, finding that late night tweets correlated with decreased game performance the next day (measured by points and rebounds) [18].…”

“…One study found athletes engaged in social media use within one hour of sleep on 70% of the nights studied [11]. College student athletes reporting more than five hours of social media use showed far worse sleep [3]. Studies on gendered differences in sleep and social media use show positive correlation between stress caused by social media use and sleep latency in young females [15].…”

“…Reports suggest that American adults spend an average of 127 minutes daily on social media [2]. Athletes engage in higher volumes of social media consumption than the average person; over 80% of athletes reported two or more hours of social media use daily, with a mean of 4 hours of use per day [3, 6]. Athletes are subject to social media scrutiny of their physical appearance and competitive performance [1, 7, 8].…”

“…Popular social media formats Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), Instagram, TikTok and WhatsApp enable users to share information via text, audio, photographs, and video files [1, 2]. In 2023, 4.9 billion people used social media applications, with seventy to ninety percent of Americans accessing social media daily [2, 3]. Psychological implications of social media exposure in the general population have been studied; the data show longer time spent on social media positively correlates with levels of depression, anxiety, psychological distress, and body image disturbance [4, 5].…”