When sleep advice goes viral: medical reliability of insomnia content on TikTok.

Authors

Styliani Papadopoulou, Aliki Karkala, Ellen Engelshove, Dries Testelmans, Paschalis Steiropoulos, Alexandros Kalkanis

Published in

Journal of clinical sleep medicine : JCSM : official publication of the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. Volume 22. Issue 1. Sep 09, 2026. Epub Sep 09, 2026.

Abstract

The reliability and educational quality of TikTok videos addressing insomnia management remain uncertain. A total of 127 TikTok videos were assessed with Global Quality Score (GQS) for educational value and with Viewing and Engagement Index for popularity. Among these, 66 videos by general users, 20 by physicians, 32 by other healthcare professionals, and 9 by brand-affiliated accounts showed overall poor quality: only 20 videos (15.7%) had high educational value, while another 11 (8.7%) had moderate educational value; only 5 videos received the highest score for consistency with guidelines, only 5 videos recommended consulting a physician, and only 2 included scientific references. Approximately 55% of physicians' videos had GQS ≥ 3, compared with 25%, 18%, and 0% of other healthcare professionals, general users, and brand accounts respectively. GQS was not correlated with engagement metrics. Sponsored videos were associated with lower-quality content. In conclusion, TikTok videos related to insomnia management generally do not provide reliable, guidelines-based information, raising concerns regarding the use of TikTok as a source of insomnia management information.

PMID:
42717129
Bibliographic data and abstract were imported from PubMed on 10 Sep 2026.

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