More social media use linked to poorer sleep and self-rated health among college students

Mary Cunningham — Mon, 21 Sep 2026 18:01:02 +0000

More social media use linked to poorer sleep and self-rated health among college students Mary Cunningham Mon, 09/21/2026 - 14:01

College students who spend more time on social media tend to sleep worse, and that may have consequences for how they perceive their own health, according to a new 911�� study.

The study, published in Public Health Reports, found that greater social media use at the start of the school year predicted poorer sleep quality six months later, which in turn predicted worse self-rated health six months after that. According to the researchers, it’s the first study to indicate that poor sleep quality may be a pathway connecting social media use with self-rated health.

“These findings suggest that students’ social media habits early may have effects beyond the time spent on the phone,” said study lead author and College of Public Health alumna Akosua Mainoo, BS Community Health '20, MPH '22. “Sleep appears to be one way those habits may carry over into how students perceive their health months later.”

One finding ran counter to the researchers’ expectations: Greater overall social media use was associated with poorer sleep, but nighttime use specifically was not. Researchers noted that previous studies on nighttime social media use and sleep have been mixed, and that the effects may depend on other factors, such as light exposure affecting melatonin levels.

Lawrence Cheskin, Distinguished University Professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies, serves as principal investigator. Photo by Emma Anderson.

The research is part of Mason: Health Starts Here, the university’s landmark cohort study following students across their four undergraduate years. Distinguished University Professor Lawrence Cheskin in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies serves as principal investigator.

Why it matters

Young adults spend about five hours a day on social media, and more than 85% of students in the 911�� study used YouTube, Instagram, and Snapchat daily. Although seven to nine hours of sleep is recommended for young adults, previous research has found that one-third of college students get fewer than seven. Over time, not getting enough sleep is linked to health problems, including depression, obesity, heart disease, and diabetes.

The new study goes a step further in examining how sleep may connect social media use with students’ broader health over time.

Asked in an interview what students should take from the findings, the researchers pointed to the value of reducing social media use.

“Social media is a part of everyday life for college students, so the expectation isn’t to eliminate it,” said Mainoo. “But young people can be more intentional about setting time limits and creating phone-free zones.”

Cheskin said, “Less is more when it comes to social media use by young college students,” and that reducing use can leave more time for “direct interactions with peers and others.”

More study information

The researchers analyzed data from 349 first-year students ages 18 to 24 participating in Mason: Health Starts Here, the broader longitudinal study examining predictors of physical and mental health throughout college. Students completed surveys in August 2019, February 2020, and August 2020.

The researchers noted limitations including self-reported data and participant drop-off over time, and called for more longitudinal research on how social media use may affect sleep and health.

The research team also included Lilian de Jonge and Fritz Nii Tettey Lokko of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies; and Jerome L. Short, Eleanor A. Speidel, Jeremy Maciarz, Patricia J. Mejia, and Emmarose Logan Price of the Department of Psychology.

The study was funded by the 911�� Institute for Biohealth Innovation.

Thumbnail by Andrii Lysenko from Adobe Stock.

Key Takeaways

911�� research links greater social media use among college students with poorer sleep quality.
Poor sleep may help explain how social media use relates to college students’ perceptions of their health.
The findings come from the longitudinal Mason: Health Starts Here study, which tracked 911�� students’ health throughout college.

More Health Starts Here Findings

More social media use linked to poorer sleep and self-rated health among college students
September 21, 2026
New Study Finds that College Freshmen Exceed Many U.S. Dietary Guidelines, Increasing Risk of Chronic Health Conditions
February 9, 2022

In This Story

Lawrence J. Cheskin, MD

Lilian de Jonge, PhD

Topics

Institute for Biohealth Innovation

Health Starts Here

Research

Mason as a Living Lab

Students

In the George

New Study Finds that College Freshmen Exceed Many U.S. Dietary Guidelines, Increasing Risk of Chronic Health Conditions

John Brandon Cantrell — Wed, 09 Feb 2022 15:31:52 +0000

New Study Finds that College Freshmen Exceed Many U.S. Dietary Guidelines, Increasing Risk of Chronic Health Conditions John Brandon C… Wed, 02/09/2022 - 10:31

Topics

Mason: Health Starts Here study finds most college freshmen exceed U.S. dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat.

Photo by Armin Rimoldi from Pexels

The “Freshman 15” is common among college students, when newfound independence and unrestricted access to dining halls make them more susceptible to poor nutritional intake. Poor nutrition in college students is correlated with an increased risk of a variety of chronic health conditions.

Mason: Health Starts Here (HSH), a longitudinal cohort study, finds that most college freshmen exceed U.S. dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat, which are all nutrients that should be limited. Physical activity, race/ethnicity, and living on campus contributed to the excess intake of these nutrients.

Why don’t college freshmen meet the US dietary guidelines for added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat? is published in the Journal of American College Health.

The data analysis in the study was conducted by Ziaul Rana, a former postdoctoral research fellow at Mason and current researcher at the New York Academy of Sciences; Erika Kennedy, Master of Public Health student; Lilian De Jonge, associate professor in the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies; Lawrence Cheskin, chair of the Department of Nutrition and Food Studies; Cara Frankenfeld, associate professor at the University of Puget Sound; and Jaclyn Bertoldo from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

“There’s very little published information on young adult college students’ diets,” said Cheskin. “While it is known that college students suffer from poorer nutrition on average, less is known about the food source contributors to nutrients recommended for limited consumption and personal characteristics associated with meeting dietary guidelines.” This study has filled in some of those gaps.

One-third of participants met added sugar guidelines and only 4% met daily refined grains requirements. Fewer than half met saturated fat guidelines, and slightly over half met recommended sodium guidelines. Recommendations for each nutrient came from Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which is released by the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services. Most sugar intake was from fruits, soda, and sweetened water. Pizza and rice were the most popular source of refined grains and sodium with pizza hitting the trifecta and also coming in at the top of the saturated fat category.

Funded by Mason’s Institute of BioHealth Innovation, HSH is a first-of-its-kind transdisciplinary student cohort study to understand and improve the health and well-being of university students. It follows a broad sample of young adults, specifically Mason students, over time to capture the diversity of their experiences in college and how it affects their health and well-being. The added sugar, refined grains, sodium, and saturated fat study was done using the 2019-20 HSH cohort using a food frequency questionnaire that reflected the past month’s food with portion size designed to assess food and dietary intakes.

In order to determine whether this study can be used to generalize across other college-aged students, the team compared it with similar age and education data from the 2015-16 and 2017-18 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES), a representative sample collected by the National Center for Health Statistics of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Most participants in the HSH study resided in urban areas and had mid-level socio-economic status. Thus, the results may not be generalizable to students living in rural areas or those with a lower level of income,” says Cheskin.