One of the Causes of Internet Addiction May Be Poor Sleep Quality: A Case-controlled Study

Abstract

Objective:Internet users in the world are increasing day by day and internet addiction is becoming an important problem. The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of sleep disorder and poor sleep quality on internet addiction levels.Materials and Methods:One hundred and four people aged between 18-65 years old who stated that they had a sleep disorder and 116 healthy controls without any known sleep disorder were included in the study. Young’s Internet Addiction Test-short Form (YIAT-SF) and the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality index (PSQI) were applied to the participant via face-to-face interviews.Results:According to the PSQI, 74 of the total of 220 participants included in the study had poor sleep quality. YIAT-SF scores of those with poor sleep quality were significantly higher than those with good sleep quality (p<0.001). There was a positive correlation between PSQI and YIAT-SF scores (r=0.310; p<0.001). In the simple linear regression analysis, PSQI scores were found to be a significant predictor of YIAT-SF scores. When a multiple regression analysis was performed, the effect of PSQI subscales scores [daytime dysfunction (15.4%; p<0.001) and sleep disturbances (2.2%; p=0.018)] on YIAT-SF scores was found to be 17.5%.Conclusion:According to PSQI, internet addiction levels of those with poor sleep quality were found significantly higher than those with good sleep quality. This result shows that poor sleep quality may increase the level of internet addiction by increasing internet use. Therefore, effective treatment of sleep disorders may contribute to reducing addiction, which is an important public health problem.

Keywords

• internet addiction
• sleep quality
• sleep schedule
• pittsburgh sleep quality index