International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health | June 2021 | Vol 8 | Issue 6 Page 2799 International Journal of Community Medicine and Public Health Chandramoorthy K et al. Int J Community Med Public Health. 2021 Jun;8(6):2799-2804 http://www.ijcmph.com pISSN 2394-6032 | eISSN 2394-6040 Original Research Article Pattern of WhatsApp and Facebook usage and its impact on sleep quality among nursing students in Pondicherry Karthikraja Chandramoorthy 1 , Prahankumar Rajendran 2 *, Ariarathinam Newtonraj 2 , Rajalakshmi Rajamanickam 3 , Anil J. Purty 2 INTRODUCTION Social media is a term used to describe the interaction between groups or individuals in which they produce, share, and sometimes exchange ideas, images, videos and other content over the internet and in virtual communities. 1 Social networking sites are easy to learn, cheaper, convenient, reliable, entertaining, and can be accessed anywhere. 2 Among the various social media platforms, Facebook and WhatsApp are the two most common applications used by today’s younger generation in India. Also, with the growing market of smartphone industry and easy availability of mobile phones, the younger generation even in remote rural areas are using WhatsApp and Facebook. In India, the growth in number of mobile phone users has been rapid and has permeated all segments of society, especially the young. 3 ABSTRACT Background: Usage of social networking sites like WhatsApp and Facebook in smartphones has become a basic necessity in today’s life, especially among college students. However, the excess usage of mobile phone affects sleep quality and attention span. Nursing students are prone to sleep disturbance due to their academics and work pattern. The aim of the study was to assess the pattern of WhatsApp and Facebook usage among nursing students and its impact on their sleep quality. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted among 168 nursing students of a nursing college in Puducherry. Participants were explained about the purpose of study and written informed consent was obtained. Data was collected using a self-administered questionnaire. Sleep quality was assessed using PSQI scale. Institutional ethics committee approval was obtained for the study. The data was entered in Microsoft Excel and analyzed using STATA 14. Results: Among the study participants, most of them prefer WhatsApp over Facebook. Almost 40% of the students had poor quality of sleep. There was statistically significant association between usage of WhatsApp while feeling sleepy, while having food and poor quality of sleep. However, the adjusted prevalence ratio of poor sleep quality did not show statistical significance. Conclusions: The current study showed statistical significance between certain pattern of WhatsApp usage leading to poor sleep quality among nursing students. Thus, corrective measures have to be implemented to moderate the mobile phone usage and improve the sleep quality of nursing students. Keywords: WhatsApp, Sleep quality, Social media, Smartphone 1 Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India 2 Department of Community Medicine, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India 3 Department of Medical Surgical Nursing, College of Nursing, Pondicherry Institute of Medical Sciences, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu, India Received: 27 April 2021 Accepted: 13 May 2021 *Correspondence: Dr. Prahankumar Rajendran, E-mail: rrprahan@yahoo.com Copyright: © the author(s), publisher and licensee Medip Academy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License, which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.18203/2394-6040.ijcmph20211918