Teenagers lack of sleep linked to lower wellbeing - study

While many parents worry about how social media is affecting teenagers, a new study shows it's really a good night's sleep that many young people are lacking.

Research from the University of Otago proves that sleep is critical to improving mental health and depression.

Dr Damien Scarf co-authored the study and he told Morning Report the aim was to find out if taking a break from social media helped people's wellbeing.

"We did that for a week and we found a little improvement in wellbeing. Stopping social media actually made them sleep better, they ended up not using [it] at night and ... getting better quality sleep when they were disconnected."

He said turning on airplane mode was one way to stop being tempted to use social media.

It was important for teenagers to get a good amount of sleep for better mental health, he said. And parents could form methods or practices to help children wind down before bed.