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Not content with preventing you from sleeping, social networks could follow you even in your dreams. This is the observation made by a team of researchers who reveal that the more time users spend on social media, the more likely they are to have nightmares, synonymous with stress and poorer quality sleep.
We know that social networks can impact physical and mental health. Several scientific studies have already looked into the subject, suggesting that these new media could be the cause of sleep disorders, weight problems, and mental health disorders – stress and anxiety in particular. But social networks can also play an indirect role on the health of users, particularly young ones. This was recently demonstrated by researchers whose work established a link between use of digital media, including social networks and streaming platforms, and smoking in adolescence. New research goes even further and now shows that social networks could encourage… nightmares.
“As social media becomes more and more intertwined in our lives, its impact extends beyond waking hours and can influence our dreams“, emphasizes Reza Shabahang of Flinders University, Australia, in a press release. The researcher, who developed a scale intended to assess the way in which social networks could promote nightmares (the Social Media Nightmare-Related Scale), indicates that this type of media can, in the case of excessive use, influence the realm of dreams. A surprising observation that he managed to demonstrate in collaboration with other international researchers.
“Our study introduces the concept of social media nightmares, which are defined as nightmares involving social media-related themes, such as cyberbullying, online hatred, or excessive use of social media.“, continues the main author of this work published in BMC Psychology.
An impact on mental health
Thanks to this measurement scale, researchers conclude that nightmares linked to social media remain rare – good news – but that they are nevertheless associated, when they occur, with indicators of mental health, namely well-being emotional and quality of sleep. And this, in a negative way. This link between social networks and bad dreams, although weak, once again shows the potential impact of such media on the mental health of the most engaged users.
An observation that could become more pronounced with future technologies. “With the rapid advancements in technology and media, including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality, as well as the increasing reliance on these technologies and their deeper integration, it is expected that dreams with technological and media content become more frequent“, says Reza Shabahang.
To counter such effects, the authors of this research simply recommend, as many experts and health professionals do, to ease up on social networks, and “to adopt responsible and thoughtful use“. Future work could this time look at the impact of dangers perceived by artificial intelligence on nightmares.
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