Page 59 - GTM-4-2

Global Translational Medicine

PERSPECTIVE ARTICLE
YeeZzzy does it: Using Kanye West’s tweets

to identify sleep and emotional disturbances
through digital rest-activity rhythms analysis

Matthew J. Reid * , Darlynn M. Rojo-Wissar 2,3 , Michelle Mei , Moira Differding ,
1
4
1
Michael T. Smith 1 , and Michael G. Smith 5
1 Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine,
Baltimore, MD, United States of America
2 Department of Psychiatry and Human Behavior, Alpert Medical School of Brown University,
Providence, Rhode Island, United States of America
3 Bradley/Hasbro Children’s Research Center, E.P. Bradley Hospital, East Providence, Rhode Island,
United States of America
4 Department of Epidemiology, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, Baltimore,
Maryland, United States of America
5 Department of Occupational and Environmental Medicine, School of Public Health and Community
Medicine, University of Gothenburg, Gothenburg, Västra Götaland, Sweeden

Abstract

One of the greatest challenges faced by precision medicine is the identification of
*Corresponding author: biomarkers capable of detecting clinically meaningful change at the individual level,
Matthew J. Reid not just among large-scale population studies. To this end, the high-volume nature
(mreid27@jhmi.edu)
of an individual’s social media data could be leveraged with single-user precision to
Citation: Reid MJ, Rojo-Wissar DM, monitor sleep patterns and tweet content to determine emotional state. However,
Mei M, Differding M, Smith MT,
Smith MG. YeeZzzy does it: Using there is a lack of established methods to detect and estimate sleep and mood
Kanye West’s tweets to identify using social-media activity. We present here a new approach (digital rest-activity
sleep and emotional disturbances rhythms analysis) to using social media to track both sleep and mood, with potential
through digital rest-activity rhythms
analysis. Global Transl Med. applications to mental health monitoring and prevention. Our proof-of-concept
2025;4(2):51-57. showed that the emotional content of a single user’s tweets (Kanye West “@Ye”)
doi: 10.36922/gtm.5176 were influenced by sleep disturbances inferred from usage over a 2-year period. We
Received: October 17, 2024 herein provide an ethical and theoretical-framework of how to proceed among this
Revised: December 7, 2024 sensitive yet potentially fruitful field.
Accepted: December 13, 2024
Published online: January 9, 2025 Keywords: Sleep; Twitter; Social media; Depression; Emotion; Mood
Copyright: © 2025 Author(s).
This is an Open-Access article
distributed under the terms of the
Creative Commons Attribution 1. Introduction
License, permitting distribution,
and reproduction in any medium, One of the greatest challenges faced by the field of precision medicine is the identification
provided the original work is of biomarkers capable of detecting clinically meaningful change at the individual level,
properly cited. not just among large-scale population studies. To this end, the evermore present social
Publisher’s Note: AccScience mediaverse provides unparalleled access to ecologically valid databases of digital
Publishing remains neutral with biomarkers that could be leveraged with single-user precision to support mental health
regard to jurisdictional claims in 1
published maps and institutional care by monitoring use patterns and emotional state. An illustrative study published in
affiliations. Science demonstrated the presence of circadian rhythmicity in the emotional content

Volume 4 Issue 2 (2025) 51 doi: 10.36922/gtm.5176