How social media affects teens’ sleep

A Perthshire charity is running a free online webinar on Tuesday, July 6 discussing the impact of social media use on teenagers’sleep.

Parents Supporting Parents was founded in Auchterarder to help families in Perth and Kinross support their children’s emotional and mental health and wellbeing.

Starting at 6.30pm, senior lecturer at the School of Psychology at the

University in Glasgow Dr Heather Cleland Woods will be presenting on this important topic, drawing from years of research on the relationship between young people’s social media use and its impact on social connectedness and health.

Dr Woods will be speaking about her highly regarded #sleepyteens project which has contributed to UK Government reports on screen time and the health of young people.

The webinar is open to all parents and carers of children aged 11yrs+ in Perth and Kinross. Teens and pre-teens are renowned for wanting to stay up late and sleep in late. This webinar aims to explain what is behind this behaviour and how parents can better understand their children, as well as offer the opportunity to ask questions of Dr Woods regarding her research.

There will also be an opportunity to get involved in Dr Woods’current study exploring the effect of social media on sleep and if this changes according to age and gender. The results will be shared at a later date.

Laura Kelly, development officer at Parents Supporting Parents, said: “We really listened to the concerns that parents and carers shared with us through our feedback surveys.

“Sleep, social media and technology use were high up on their list of areas they wanted to learn more about. The relationship between children and social media has long been a concern and will increasingly be so, particularly as so much of our lives are now organised through our smart phones.”

Visit: www. parentssupportingparents. co.uk/our-events for more information.