Influence of Electronic Use Media on Sleep Disturbance Severity among Adolescents

Background: Adolescents' growth, cognitive development, learning, and general well-being are all affected by sleep, which is both a physiological phenomenon and a behavioral process. Adolescents' physiological and psychological development has a negative effect on their sleep


INTRODUCTION
Adolescence is a distinct period of transition from dependent childhood to independent adulthood, and it marks the beginning of a person's journey toward good health. Adolescents also go through a rapid period of physical, cognitive, and psychological development (1) .
One of the biggest populations of technology users are adolescents. Students interact with one another using electronic media. Globally, the use of electronic media is expanding at an unheard-of rate. Adolescents today are unduly reliant on electronic media, which raises doubts about how this will affect adolescents' physical and mental development (4,7) .
Electronic media refers to actions carried out directly by using a computer, playing video games, or watching television, all of which involve spending time in direct contact with a screen. Television and computer usage use very little energy. The average American child watches television for roughly three hours every day (19) .
Sleep disturbances are Regular sleep patterns are disrupted by a variety of conditions known as sleep disturbances. Sleep disturbances are among the most prevalent medical problems. Normal physical, mental, social, and emotional functioning can be impaired by inadequate or non-restorative sleep. A person's entire health, safety, and quality of life may be impacted by sleep issues (20) .
The physiological and psychological changes that occur in adolescence have a negative effect on sleep, but it is also possible that access to electronic media and other outside variables like early school starts and unfavorable bedroom conditions contribute to poor sleep (3) .
A complex interplay between the biological stage of development, genetic, behavioral, environmental, and social factors affects sleep patterns and requirements. Sleep is crucial for good health because it strengthens the immune system, lowers calorie intake, and enhances cognitive function (8,9) .
Due to physiological and environmental changes, sleep significantly changes during adolescence. Adolescents' reduced sleep duration requirements, increased tolerance to sleep deprivation, and later sleep and waking hours because of a typical delayed circadian rhythm are all physiological considerations. This happens as a result of the body's melatonin, a hormone released in the evening to get ready for sleep, being released later (10) .
According to the US National Sleep Foundation, adolescents (ages 13 to 18) need 8 to 10 hours of sleep per night to maintain their basic health and growth. 75% of those aged 17 to 18 say they don't get enough sleep, and young people in other wealthy nations also have this problem (11) .

AIMS OF THE STUDY
The Objective of the Study aimed to assess influence of electronic use media on sleep disturbance severity among adolescents, to find out differences between electronic use media and sleep disturbance severity among socio-demographic characteristics of adolescents, and to find out relationship between sleep disturbance severity and socio-demographic characteristics of adolescents.

METHODOLOGY
A descriptive design was used to guide this study. Data were collected for the period of October 10th, 2022, to December 20th, 2023. The study was carried out through different secondary schools in Holy Kerbala city to assess the effect of excessive use of electronic media on sleep disturbances among adolescents. The samples were selected nonrandomly (a convenience sample) from separate areas of the center of Kerbala Holy Governorate, where the samples were chosen from the population only because they were available to the researcher. A sample of 382 total students was chosen to obtain the data. The sample of the study includes 139 females and 243 males.

Study Instrument:
Questionnaire of the Study: The scale was reconstructed from the scale of sleep disturbances according to the appropriate items for the sample population (Al Bana, 2007). The questionnaire divided into three parts: Part 1: Demographic Characteristics: contained the following items ( age, gender, educational level, and socioeconomic status, the type of device used as a means of electronic media , the number of hours spent in front of electronic media, and the number of hours of sleep) . The data of the present study were analyzed through the use of statistical package of social sciences (SPSS) version (25). Descriptive data is reported as mean standard approach Statistical analyses were performed by using SPSS, and The level of significance was set at p < 0.05. The study results reveal that the mean age is 15.90 ± 1.36; less than a half age 14-15-years (45.3%), followed by those who age 16-17-years (41.1%), and those who age 18-19-years (13.6%). Concerning the gender, most are males (63.6%) compared to females (36.4%). Regarding the families' socioeconomic status, most reported that their socioeconomic status is fair (73.8%), followed by those whose socioeconomic status is good (16.5%), and those who reported that their socioeconomic status is poor (9.7%).With respect to the school stage, most are middle school students (n = 239; 62.6%) compared to those high school students (37.4%). The study results reveal that the mean of hours students spend in internet is 6.18 ± 3.82; less than a half spend 2-5-hours in internet use (47.4%), followed by those who spend 6-10-hours in internet use (36.3%), those who spend 11-15-hours (9.2%), those who spend less than hour in internet use (5.8%), and those who spend 16-20hours in internet use (1.3%). The study results reveal that more than a half experience sleep disturbance moderately (58.1%), followed by those who experience sleep disturbance mildly (35.1%), and those who experience sleep disturbance severely (6.8%). The study results reveal that the number of hours students spend on internet every day and sleep hours positively predict excessive use of social media (p-value = .000, .024) respectively. The study results reveal that the sleep hours negatively predict sleep disturbance (p-value .004). On the other hand, excessive use of electronic media positively predict sleep disturbance (p-value = .000).

DISCUSSION
The results of this study repeatedly shown that adolescents' reporting of sleep problems was unaffected by their age. Other research that confirmed the findings of our study shown that reporting of sleep issues varied by age, with early to mid-adolescents having less of an issue than late adolescents (2) .
According to the study's findings, more than half of participants have a moderate sleep disturbance. The quantity of time spent using electronic media had an impact on the adolescents' sleep length, which was 7 hours or less. There is compelling evidence connecting the use of general electronic media and the Internet with poor sleep, including shorter sleep duration and 6 longer sleep latency (12) .
According to the study's findings, excessive use of electronic media is positively predicted by the number of hours students spend using electronic media each day and by how much sleep they get. The extensive use of the internet and other electronic media may be responsible for this finding. A study of the research revealed that increasing one's online time substantially disturbs their sleep-wake cycle and increases their risk of insomnia, morning fatigue, and irregular sleeping patterns (13) .
As a result of their late-night logins, they stay up later. People who experience such sleep deprivation are unable to get a full night's sleep, which causes them to feel overly tired, perform poorly in school or at work, and generally weaken their immune systems (8,14) .
However, excessive use of electronic media is a strong predictor of disturbed sleep. A 2017 survey found that nearly 50% of teenagers slept for less than 6 hours per night (16) , despite experts' advice that adolescents receive 7 to 9 hours of sleep every day to keep healthy (15,16) . The study's findings show that there was a statistically significant difference in the amount of sleep disturbance between the socioeconomic status groups. Further post-hoc analysis reveals that participants with low socioeconomic family status had the highest value of sleep disruption, followed by those with intermediate socioeconomic positions and those with high socioeconomic status. Adolescents who reside in low socioeconomic (SES) environments are more likely than those who do not to experience brief, poorquality naps. This is due to socioeconomic differences in adolescent sleep. Given that the majority of adolescents suffer from sleep deprivation, these differences are alarming (17) .
Also, adolescents from lower socioeconomic status families are more likely to experience negative consequences linked to sleep issues than adolescents from higher-SES families (18) .

CONCLUSION
The results of the current study showed that sleep disturbance is strongly correlated with excessive use of electronic media and that the more excessive use of electronic media, the higher the incidence of sleep disturbances. Students who use alcohol and other drugs excessively often have trouble sleeping. The findings of the current study support this, came to the conclusion that excessive use of electronic media affects sleep disturbances in the majority of secondary school students and that there are differences based on gender when it comes to such use.