The lazy teenager lounging on the couch, sleeping 12 hours a day living the life of a cat, is a stereotype that has some merit to it. Also, researchers are now saying this is a healthy alternative to not getting enough sleep in the teenage years.

A recent study from the University of North Texas suggests that teens who experience sleep loss are also more prone to depression and other mental disorders plus illicit drug use. Teens who had insomnia were 2 to 3 times more likely to experience depression in later adolescence and young adulthood.

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Twenty-five percent of those with insomnia had thoughts of suicide compared to 11 percent in the non-insomnia group.

The group of teens with sleep loss were also 50-percent more likely to use alcohol or marijuana than the group that slept well.

One of the shortcomings of this study, however is the chicken-or-the-egg syndrome, which the University of North Texas researchers say they could not address. For instance, did the insomnia in teens cause the depression and drug use or did the depression and drug use cause the insomnia?

Further studies will need to take a clinical history of the teens first to determine level of mental health before the insomnia occurs and draw conclusions based upon this.

Meanwhile, researchers at the University of South Australia have concluded that sleep loss in teens contributes to weight gain and obesity. And, the researchers here have ruled out the chicken-or-the-egg syndrome as a contributing factor.

In fact, the researchers have narrowed down the nights of the week the teens usually experience sleep loss: Sundays. They say lean teens usually get plenty of sleep on the Sabbath while overweight and obese teens do not.

Saturdays and holidays are of particular interest since both lean and overweight teens will get relatively the same amount of sleep during these times. School nights and particularly Sundays are another matter altogether as this is generally when insomnia is greatest in the overweight crowd.

It used to be thought that sleep apnea may cause sleeplessness in overweight and obese teens, but because the insomnia is night specific, this has been ruled out.