Lifestyle Mediates the Associations of Social Media and Smartphone Use Addiction with Sleep Quality and Mental Health Problems in Adults: An Exploratory Study.

Background: Excessive time spent on social media and smartphones, as well as inappropriate use, has raised concerns about their potential impact on mental health. Many studies have shown that social media addiction and smartphone addiction are associated with poor sleep quality and increased risk of depression and anxiety. This study examined the mediating role of lifestyle on the relationship between social media and smartphone use addictions with poor sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 1324 undergraduate and graduate students aged 20-40 years. Participants completed validated self-report measures assessing social media addiction, smartphone addiction, sleep quality, anxiety symptoms, depressive symptoms, and lifestyle behaviors, including smoking, alcohol consumption, eating behaviors, and physical activity. Results: The mean scores for sleep quality, anxiety, and depressive symptoms were 6.9 ± 3.4, 6.7 ± 5.4, and 8.6 ± 5.8, respectively. In this cross-sectional study, mediation analysis indicated statistically significant indirect associations through lifestyle between social media addiction and poor sleep quality (the indirect effects: unstandardized coefficient [B] = 0.006, 95% confidence interval [CI] [0.002-0.014]), anxiety symptoms (B = 0.007, 95% CI [0.001-0.016]), and depressive symptoms (B = 0.013, 95% CI [0.006-0.025]). Similarly, lifestyle was observed to mediate the association between smartphone use addiction and poor sleep quality (the indirect effects: B = 0.005, 95% CI [0.002-0.010]), anxiety symptoms (B = 0.006, 95% CI [0.001-0.015]), and depressive symptoms (B = 0.012, 95% CI [0.005-0.020]). Although the indirect effects were statistically significant, their magnitude was small, indicating that lifestyle accounted for a limited proportion of the associations between technology-related addictions and sleep quality and mental health problems. Conclusion: Lifestyle behaviors statistically mediated the associations of social media or smartphone use addiction with poor sleep quality, anxiety, and depression. Although causal inferences cannot be made, these findings suggest that lifestyle practices may be important in understanding and addressing the mental health challenges associated with excessive technology use.