Introduction: The internet addiction disorder (IAD) is a medical and psychological disorder affecting social and personal life of persons and causing turmoil in it. The purpose of this study was to comparison sleep disturbance, social isolation and difficulties in emotion regulation in IAD and normal students.

Methods: In this descriptive-analytic study, which was from cross studies, 25 internet-dependent and 25 normal students were selected using the multistage sampling from the students of Islamic Azad University Ardabil Branch: medical and basic science faculties during the year 2012-2013. The internet addiction test (IAT), insomnia severity index (ISI), University of California Los Angeles Loneliness Scale (UCLA) and emotion regulation questionnaire were used to collect information. The obtained data were analyzed by with SPSS17 (MANOVA Test).

Results: It was found that in internet-dependent student’s emotion regulation (99.64±15.51) and waking up too early (2.24±1.05) had the highest and lowest means, respectively. Moreover, the variables of emotion regulation (93.32±16.17) and sleep continuity (2±1.22) had, respectively, the highest and lowest means among the normal students. Also, there was a significant relationship between the two groups in terms of sleep disorder (P=0.001) and social isolation (P=0.004). However, a significant relationship was not seen in terms of emotion regulation (P=0.165).

Conclusion: The findings showed that internet addiction plays an important role in creating sleep disorder and social isolation in students. Therefore, these students should be supported in social terms. Of course, more extensive studies are needed in this field.