The Impact of Smartphone Addiction on Sleep Quality Among High School Students in Makkah, Saudi Arabia

Background Smartphones are Internet-accessible devices that everyone can use in any setting, and their popularity is growing. However, the pervasiveness of smartphone technology has raised concerns owing to its addictive effect among adolescents and its association with sleep quality and mental and physical health issues. Objectives This study aimed to determine the effect of smartphone addiction on sleep quality among secondary high schools in Makkah, Saudi Arabia. Methods The study was conducted on high school students in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, using an analytical cross-sectional design, from January 2023 to August 2023. The study used a multistage stratified random sampling technique to select participants. The data were collected from an online self-administered survey and analyzed using IBM SPSS Statistics for Windows (IBM Corp., Armonk, New York, United States). Results This study included 373 respondents. Among those, males represent two-thirds of the study population (66%), while females are 34%. The median age of the participants is 16 years old, and the interquartile range (IQR) is 6. Our results show that the median number of hours spent on mobile phones is six per day, and the IQR is 5. Furthermore, our findings reveal that the mean Smartphone Addiction Scale-Short Version (SAS-SV) score is 38.5 ± 10.8 out of 60, and the average global PSQI score is 6.63 ± 3.03 out of 21. The results show that the study participants have problems using smartphones longer than they intended, constantly checking them, and missing planned works due to smartphone use. There is a positive correlation between smartphone addiction and sleep quality (r = 0.261; p < 0.001), indicating that the respondents have worse sleep quality when smartphone addiction and the global PSQI increased. Conclusion Our study concluded that high school students in Makkah, Saudi Arabia, have high smartphone addiction. Moreover, high smartphone addiction is significantly associated with poor sleep quality. This study can help with the development of measures to improve better sleep quality among high school students.