Scientists in Australia have identified a link between insomnia among teenagers and various mental health conditions.

Research by the University of Adelaide, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, found that insomnia among 12 to 18-year-olds can lead to issues such as depression and anxiety disorders getting worse.

This, it stated, can in turn make them vulnerable to problems such as alcohol and drug misuse during their teenage years.

Researchers behind the study expressed concern because being more active in the evenings is an independent risk factor for insomnia and depression.

"This is important because adolescents tend to develop a preference for evenings, which sometimes becomes a syndrome whereby they keep delaying going to sleep," said Pasquale Alvaro, a PhD student at the University of Adelaide's School of Psychology.

He added that the scientific community is becoming increasingly aware that insomnia, depression and anxiety disorders are related and that they contain "overlapping neurobiological, psychological and social risk factors".

Read an article on how the understanding of the psychological aspects of insomnia were slow to develop over the last century from the BPS monthly magazine The Psychologist here.

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