Late 'posters' are more likely to experience poor mental health

An overall examination of 18,288 tweets and retweets over a span of 15 years correlates with long-term health data in the West of England, indicating that individuals posting overnight are more likely to experience poor mental well-being and report higher symptoms of depression and anxiety.  

The study shows users whose posting habits averaged from 11p.m. to 5a.m. to have "meaningfully worse mental well-being than those who tweeted during the daytime", linking the source to sleep displacement, "cognitive arousal", and an inhibition in melatonin production caused by the blue light of your screen.

Daniel Joinson, lead author of the research at the University of Bristol, said: "Whilst social media is often treated like a monolith, its impact on mental health will depend on the exact behaviours the user performs and the experiences they have on these platforms.
He added: "Our paper highlights the potential harm of a very specific behaviour: nighttime content posting.

"Research like ours could help inform interventions or legislation that aim to deter harmful social media use, whilst enabling beneficial behaviours or experiences."

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