Scrolling past bedtime? Examining problematic social media use and sleep quality via bedtime procrastination and the moderating role of mindfulness

Inadequate sleep is a health concern and a common college student experience. Recent studies have found social media addiction to be increasingly associated with poor sleep. Bedtime procrastination (BP), an under-researched sleep-related behaviour in which individuals delay going to bed, has also been shown to impact sleep. However, research examining the association between maladaptive use of social media, sleep quality, and BP among minoritised college students in the U.S. is scarce. Thus, this cross-sectional study explored the degree to which problematic social media use (PSMU) is associated with sleep quality via BP among 233 undergraduate students (77% female; avg. age = 23.1; > 64% racial/ethnic minorities) from a U.S. minority-serving institution. Because prior studies have found BP to be associated with inattention, we examined whether mindfulness moderates the association between PSMU and BP. Mediation analysis indicated that BP had a significant role in the association between PSMU and sleep quality. Moreover, mindfulness and the mindfulness facet acting with awareness attenuated the relationship between PSMU and BP. Our results extend prior research by demonstrating similar trends among a diverse student sample comprised of mostly minoritised students and highlights mindfulness as a practice suitable for bringing attention to an individual’s pre-sleep behaviours.