(PS3-57) Sleep and Body Image: Examining the Relationship Between Sleep, Body Image, and Appearance-related Social Media Consciousness

Poor sleep health can have negative effects on adolescents’ mental and emotional well-being, including body image disturbances. Given the increase in social media (SM) use among adolescents, the effects of poor sleep on body image may extend to consciousness of how others view their appearance and body on SM (i.e., appearance-related SM consciousness; ASMC). In this study, associations between sleep (insomnia symptoms and sleep duration) and both body image and ASMC were examined. A total of 123 adolescents (49% female; 57% White) completed surveys assessing body image, ASMC, insomnia symptoms, sleep duration, as well as depressive symptoms, time spent using SM, and demographic information. Descriptive statistics, t-tests, and ANOVAs were used to examine demographic differences, specifically for age and gender. No significant demographic differences were found. Multiple linear regression analyses were conducted to determine whether sleep (insomnia symptoms and sleep duration) predicted poorer body image and/or higher levels of ASMC. Results indicated that there was a significant relationship between insomnia symptoms and ASMC (β= 0.28, p < .00145), such that greater insomnia symptoms were associated with higher levels of ASMC. Contrary to our hypotheses, insomnia symptoms did not have a significant relationship with body image (β= 0.06, p > 0.05), and sleep duration was not significantly associated with body image (β= -0.09, p > 0.05) or ASMC (β= 0.84, p > 0.05). Duration of SM use, age, gender, and depressive symptoms were included in analyses as covariates. Our findings suggest that adolescents with insomnia symptoms may be more likely to experience ASMC, which may inform prevention efforts around the negative impacts of SM to include conversations regarding sleep health. Given that ASMC is linked with insomnia symptoms, targeting sleep may be one critical intervention that could be used to reduce the negative effects of SM on teen mental health.