Difficulties falling asleep and psychosocial factors among Swedish adolescents aged 11-15 years: A population-based...

To investigate the associations of difficulties falling asleep with problematic social media use, cyberbullying, and mental well-being among Swedish adolescents aged 11-15 years and to explore age-related differences while adjusting for gender and perceived family financial situation.

This study employed a large population-based cross-sectional design based on data from the Swedish sample of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children survey. The sample included 40,748 adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years. Descriptive and bivariate analyses were conducted, followed by binary logistic regression analyses.

Difficulties falling asleep more than once a week were associated with problematic social media use, cyberbullying, lower mental well-being, and a less favorable family financial situation across all age groups. Among the psychosocial factors, lower mental well-being exhibited the strongest association with difficulties falling asleep, with approximately threefold higher odds among 11-year-olds and fourfold higher odds among 13- and 15-year-olds. Problematic social media use was more strongly associated with difficulties falling asleep in younger adolescents, while exposure to cyberbullying was linked to roughly twofold higher odds across all ages; cyberbullying perpetration was associated with difficulties falling asleep mainly among 11- and 13-year-olds.

The study reveals that difficulties falling asleep among adolescents are associated with problematic social media use and lower mental well-being, suggesting that interventions targeting difficulties falling asleep and healthy digital media use in early adolescence might be an important strategy to promote mental well-being.