Electronic Media use and Sleep Disorders among adolescents during the Covid-19 Pandemic

Background: One of the negative impacts of electronic media use is the occurrence of sleep disturbances. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the use of electronic media in families, including in adolescent, has been increasing.
Objective: This study aimed to describe the association between electronic media use and sleep disturbances in adolescents in Palembang.
Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted in January to February 2021. Participants were 14–17-year-old high school students who completed a questionnaire to assess electronic media use and a Sleep Disturbance Scale for Children (SDSC) questionnaire to assess sleep disturbances.
Results: One hundred and fifty-seven participants enrolled in this study. The majority of the participants were 16 years old or older (56.7%), used smartphones (93%) with a median of media use 10 hours a day. None of the participants’ characteristic variables showed statistically significant correlations. Similarly, none of the electronic media use variables showed statistically significant correlations.
Conclusion: Most of adolescents in this study have used electronic media for more than 6 years, with median use 10 hours per day, for non-educative purposes. Despite findings that most of them experience sleep disturbances, there was no statistically significant association between electronic media use and sleep disturbances in adolescents.