BY HANNAH GRAHAM

According to a new study from The Children’s Society one in three older teenagers in the South West, aged 16 to 17, feel that they are 'too stressed to sleep' with 70 per cent feel they are 'judged simply for being a teenager'.

In Weymouth and Portland there are as many as 540 teenagers who have suffered sleepless nights in the last year due to anxiety.

Most parents of teenagers would put this problem down to social media taking over their children’s lives, causing them to be on their phones all through the night.

However, does this problem run deeper than first thought?

We now live in a world where the media never sleeps; but does that mean that we have to stay awake with it?

Young people are being pressured into being a certain way, causing many of them anxiety and sleepless nights, and in extreme cases, depression.

The study said that we are on track to create a ‘worried generation’, with 38 per cent of teenagers saying they frequently feel anxious.

It further stated that with the advances in technology the new generation are at a much higher risk of domestic violence and sexual exploitation.

This concern has been noted with parents as well, with 70 per cent of them saying that life is harder for their teenagers now than it was for them.

There are so many more choices and tough decisions for young people now.

With career prospects and further education teenagers are expected to act more and more like adults.

However, they are often let down by their local authorities in times of need.

All this link together to create one big pressuring problem on teenagers.

It makes them unnecessarily worried for the future and the expectations they have to live up to, with 25 per cent of older teenagers reporting that they often feel sad due to the pressures of everyday life.

But can we just blame it on one thing like social media or the authorities?

Or is this an ongoing problem where all of society could perform better to make young people’s lives easier?