TikTok steps in to help those suffering from insomnia: The Chinese video app has launched a new feature designed to assist with falling asleep. At the same time, TikTok announced a donation of $2.3M in advertising to mental health organizations across 22 countries.
In honor of Mental Health Awareness Month, TikTok is introducing guided meditation exercises within the app for the entire user community. For teenagers under the age of 18, the feature will be enabled by default, while older users will be able to activate it at any time through the screen time settings in the app.
Recently, TikTok announced that it is testing a new feature aimed at encouraging young people to turn off the app at night. During internal trials conducted by TikTok, it was found that 98% of teens kept the meditation feature activated. Research shows that mindful meditation can improve sleep quality for people of all ages, which led TikTok to introduce the evening meditation feature to all its users, regardless of age.
If a teenager chooses to use TikTok after 10:00 p.m., a guided meditation exercise will appear in their feed to help them unwind before bed. If the teen continues using TikTok after the first reminder, a second reminder will appear, this time as a full-screen prompt, encouraging them to take a moment to relax at the end of the day and improve their expected sleep quality.
Additionally, TikTok announced that it will donate $2.3M in advertising credits to 31 mental health organizations in 22 countries worldwide, as part of its Mental Health Education Fund. Combined with training provided by TikTok, the funding will help these organizations create informative content about mental health for audiences across the globe.
According to TikTok, since the Mental Health Education Fund was established in 2023, it has helped organizations achieve over 173 million views on their content, gain more than 600,000 new followers to their accounts, generate over 200,000 website visits, and recruit 486 new volunteers.
Johanna S. Kandel, founder and CEO of the National Alliance for Eating Disorders, said: “TikTok has had a life-changing impact on our reach to different audiences and the effectiveness of our organization. Through the platform, we’ve been able to reach more than 44 million people and create an unprecedented level of awareness around eating disorders. This exposure has directly translated into real-world support, allowing us to connect more individuals and families to the life-saving resources they need.”