Abstract

Emerging research has shown that social media services are
being used as tools to disclose a range of personal health
information. To explore the role of social media in the
discussion of mental health issues, and with particular
reference to insomnia and sleep disorders, a corpus of
18,901 messages - or Tweets - posted to the microblogging
social media service Twitter were analysed using a mixed
methods approach. We present a content analysis which
revealed that Tweets that contained the word “insomnia”
contained significantly more negative health information
than a random sample, strongly suggesting that individuals
were making disclosures about their sleep disorder. A
subsequent thematic analysis then revealed two themes:
coping with insomnia, and describing the experience of
insomnia. We discuss these themes as well as the
implications of our research for those in the interaction
design community interested in integrating online social
media systems in health interventions.