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

Aim: 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. Methods: 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. Results: 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. Conclusions: 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.