Social media-related nightmare — a potential explanation for poor sleep quality and low affective well-being in the social media era?

Abstract

Research has posited that social media use during the day may be reflected in nighttime dreams. Nevertheless, no prior studies have explored frightening, unpleasant dreams arising from social media use. This study introduces the construct of the social media-related nightmare by (a) developing and validating a scale capturing negative-valenced dreams with themes of helplessness, loss of control, inhibition, victimization, and making mistakes in social media, and (b) examining relationships between social media use, social media-related nightmares, sleep quality, and affective well-being. A convenience sample of 595 Iranian adult social media users (Mage = 27.45, SDage = 11.42) reported on social media-related nightmare, social media use integration, anxiety, peace of mind, sleep quality, and nightmare distress. The Social Media-Related Nightmare Scale (SMNS) demonstrated a unidimensional structure with sound psychometric properties. The most common nightmares involved the inability to log in to social media and the disruption of relationships with other users. Social media use intensity predicted frequency of social media-related nightmares. These nightmares were correlated with increased anxiety, lower peace of mind, poor sleep quality, and nightmare distress. Importantly, social media-related nightmares mediated the relationship between social media use intensity and low affective well-being (i.e., anxiety and peace of mind), poor sleeping, and nightmare distress. The findings suggest that social media-related nightmares could be a potential pathway through which social media engagement may lead to affective distress and sleep difficulties.