Smart phone usage, sleep quality and depression in university students

The smart phone contains various mobile applications specifically targeting their contents, such as information, messages, e-mail, education and entertainment towards youths. Problematic and excessive smart phone usage can cause many health problems including anxiety, depression and sleep disorders.

The aim of this study is to analyse the relationship between smart phone usage, sleep quality and depression.

Eight hundred and four students who owned smart phones were given the Information Form, Smart Phone Addiction Scale-Short Version, Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) and Beck Depression Inventory (BDI). The descriptive statistics, independent sample t-test, one-way ANOVA, correlation analysis and multivariate regression analysis were used for analysis data.

The mean age of the students in the sample was 20.93 ± 2.44. It comprised female (65.0%) and male (35.0%) students. All of the students used smart phones. The daily smart phone usage duration was 7.85 ± 4.55 hour. According to the multivariate linear regression analysis results, significant relationships were statistically determined in the positive way between the smart phone addiction and PSQI point (p < .01) and BDI point (p < .01).

Consequently, a relationship exists between smart phone usage, poor sleep quality and depressive symptoms in university students. The university students, whose depression point is high and sleep quality is poor, should be followed up with regarding the smart phone addiction.