Screen time and social media use were positively associated with anxiety while sleep duration showed a protective effect, with a high-screen and low-sleep behavioral profile comprising 34.3% of the sample exhibiting the highest mean anxiety levels.
Screen time was positively associated with anxiety in a global adult sample across 2020–2024.
Social media use was positively associated with anxiety, independently of general screen time.
Sleep duration showed a protective effect against anxiety.
The association between screen time and anxiety was stronger among adults younger than 40 years than among those aged 40 years and older.
A high-screen and low-sleep behavioral profile was identified that comprised 34.3% of the sample and exhibited the highest mean anxiety level.
The study used a repeated cross-sectional design applied to a publicly available global dataset on adult mental health and lifestyle.
This research suggests that spending more time on screens and social media is linked to higher anxiety levels in adults, while getting more sleep is linked to lower anxiety levels. The study analyzed data from 3,000 adults globally between 2020 and 2024, finding that each extra hour of screen time corresponded to a meaningful increase in anxiety scores, each extra hour of social media use was also associated with higher anxiety, and each extra hour of sleep was associated with lower anxiety — with sleep appearing to have the strongest relationship of the three factors studied. The research also found that younger adults (under 40) appeared more vulnerable to the anxiety-related effects of screen time than older adults, suggesting that age matters when thinking about who might be most at risk. Additionally, by grouping participants into behavioral profiles, the researchers identified that about one in three people in the sample fell into a 'high-screen, low-sleep' pattern, and this group had the highest average anxiety levels of any subgroup identified. This research suggests that public health and clinical efforts to address anxiety might benefit from targeting both screen use habits and sleep quality together, particularly for younger adults. However, because this was a cross-sectional study — meaning it captured snapshots of people's behavior rather than following individuals over time — it cannot definitively prove that screen time causes anxiety or that better sleep directly reduces it. The authors call for future studies using objective measurements and longer follow-up periods to better understand these relationships and inform targeted interventions.
Liu W. (2026). Digital behavior and anxiety in the post-pandemic era: a five-year analysis of screen time, sleep, and behavioral risk profiles.. Frontiers in public health. https://doi.org/10.3389/fpubh.2026.1766808