Nighttime Doomscrolling and Sleep Disturbance in Young Adults

Abstract

The is an increase of nighttime doomscrolling, which is defined as the heavy engagement with negative social media usage at bedtime, which causes a threat to sleep among young adults. Building on the cognitive model of insomnia by Harvey et al., Gross’s emotion regulation theory, and arousal continuity theory, the current research explored the relationship between nighttime doomscrolling and sleep disturbance among young adults. 200 young adults (18-35 years; M = 26.12, SD = 5.29; 63.5% females) participated in this cross-sectional study. Data is collected online. Nighttime doomscrolling was measured using Doomscrolling Questionnaire IV (DQ-IV), and sleep disturbance was measured through Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) disturbance subscale. Correlation analysis and simple linear regression analysis were performed via SPSS. Results show a significant and positive correlation between nighttime doomscrolling and sleep disturbance r(198) = .46, p < .001.