HOUSTON — A study of adolescents has revealed significant interactions between sleep duration, social media use, and brain activity across frontolimbic regions crucial for executive control and reward processing.
Notably, analysis of data on participants in the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study revealed that shorter sleep duration correlated strongly with greater social media use and alterations in brain activity.
"As these young brains undergo significant changes, our findings suggest that poor sleep and high social media engagement could potentially alter neural reward sensitivity," Orsolya Kiss, PhD, research scientist at SRI International, Center for Health Sciences, Menlo Park, California, said in a statement.
"Understanding these factors is essential for assessing the impact of social media on the health and well-being of adolescents, marking a significant step forward in our approach to digital health and adolescent development," Kiss told Medscape Medical News.
The findings were presented on June 2 at SLEEP 2024: 38th Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies.
Brain-Behavior Interactions
In the United States, 45% of teens are online almost constantly. Because neural emotion and reward networks mature earlier than inhibitory control and executive function networks, early adolescents are at a particularly high risk for mental health and sleep problems.
Although adequate sleep is essential for brain development and emotion regulation, heavy screen use may replace sleep and activities that better enhance cognitive abilities.
The researchers analyzed data on 1982 adolescents (mean age, 12 years; 50% girls) participating in the ABCD study.
Sleep duration was assessed using the Munich Chronotype Questionnaire, and recreational social media use was assessed through the Youth Screen Time Survey.
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scans were used to analyze neural activity during the monetary incentive delay task, designed to elicit responses in brain regions associated with reward processing. The results were adjusted for age, COVID-19 pandemic timing, and sociodemographic characteristics.
There was a significant correlation between shorter sleep duration and greater social media usage (P < .001), the researchers reported. fMRI analysis showed that higher social media use was also associated with lower activation in the inferior (P = .019) and middle frontal gyrus (P = .018) — brain regions involved in executive function.
In predicting brain activity, longer sleep duration was associated with higher activation in the nucleus accumbens (P = .041), caudate (P = .003), and putamen (P = .010), areas involved in reward processing.
For sleep duration predictions, interactions were important between social media use and brain activation spanning five areas, namely, the nucleus accumbens (P = .007), cingulate (P =.009), insula (P = .003), putamen (P = .008), and thalamus proper.
The results suggest that adolescents' responses to rewards may be influenced by their sleep habits and social media use, shedding light on brain-behavior interactions, the researchers noted.
"For some adolescents, high engagement with social media may lead to shorter sleep periods or excessively long sleep as a compensatory response, while others maintain normal sleep patterns," Kiss said.
Importance of Promoting Healthy Habits
It's important for health providers and parents to appreciate the importance of social connections for adolescents while also fostering an understanding of personal physiological needs, including sleep, Kiss added.
"Discussions about sleep hygiene should become a regular part of family dialogues, as they can be more constructive and less contentious than imposing strict limitations on social media use," she said.
"By equipping both parents and adolescents with knowledge on sleep and strategies to navigate digital and social media landscapes, we can better support adolescent health and healthy brain development," Kiss added.
This study provides "valuable insights" into the complex dynamics between sleep, social media use, and brain activity in adolescents, Shaheen Lakhan, MD, PhD, a neurologist and researcher in Miami, Florida, told Medscape Medical News.
"As a neurologist, I believe these findings underscore the importance of promoting healthy sleep and balanced digital media habits during this critical period of brain development," said Lakhan, who was not involved in the study.
"Poor sleep and excessive social media could be throwing adolescent frontal gyrus activity off balance, potentially derailing critical cognitive development," Lakhan added.
"We can't simply expect people to drop these rather addictive behaviors cold turkey. In fact, one day there very well may be a social media wind-down that primes brain balance for optimal sleep. Extending this further, we may have social media breaks with limited 'dosing.' Soon enough, we will have sensors that determine whether our brains are in a risk state and, in a closed-loop manner, initiate this whole process," Lakhan predicted.
"The development of such technology seemingly goes against the financial drivers of social media platform businesses; therefore, this is a prime market for other stakeholders to step in," Lakhan added.
This research was supported by the National Institutes of Health. Kiss and Lakhan had no relevant disclosures.
