A new study has revealed that young adults with insomnia are at great risk of having major depression.

In order to prove the findings, Dr. Jules Angst, of Zurich University Psychiatric Hospital in Switzerland, carried out a long-term study, which involves 591 young adults who were interviewed around six times over the period of 20 years.

The research team noticed that 1 in 5 participants in the study with annual one-month bouts of insomnia discovered that the rates of sleeplessness progressively increased over two decades.

In contrast, in 40% of participants insomnia got more chronic forms in due course. Women were twice as expected to experience one-month insomnia as compared to men.

The study titled “Prevalence, Course and Comorbidity of Insomnia and Depression in Young Adults” was published in the April 1 issue of the journal ‘Sleep.’

Study author Dr. Daniel J. Buysse, of the University of Pittsburgh stated, “The results show that insomnia seems to be followed by depression more consistently than the other way around. In addition, we found that insomnia tended to be a chronic problem that gets more persistent over time, whereas depression was a more intermittent problem.”

“We used to think that insomnia was most often just a symptom of depression. However, a growing body of evidence suggests that insomnia is not just a symptom of depression, but that it may actually precede depression. In other words, people who have insomnia but no depression are at increased risk for later developing depression,” Mr. Buysee added.

Insomnia is a sleeping disorder, which is characterized by unrelenting difficulty falling asleep or staying asleep regardless of the opportunity. It is typically accompanied by functional impairment while awake.